New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-07-07
A BRAVE AND INDUSTRIOUS RACE.

A BRAVE AND INDUSTRIOUS RACE.
GENERAL GARFIRLD's PURE NEw-ENGLAND BLOOD
SOLOMON AND HIS DISCRIMINATION NEW
ENGLAND TO THE WESTWARD STRUGGLES IN A
NKw COUNTRY-THE DEATH OF THE GENERALS
FATHER.
IFnoM STAFF CORRESPONDENT or THE TRIBUNr.l
MENTOR, Ono. July 4.-Probably it was the
rather G,rman-ookng face Of General Garfield that
led a German paper in st. Louis TO trace FOR him
Teutonic ancestry by an ingenious chronological
study of hisname What his forefather3 were in
remote times nobody knows, for the household
traditions. like those of most New-Engand fami-
lies. do not 60 beyond the Atlantic. The name
seems to be broadly English enough, in spite Of the
possibility of its being a corruption Of Garfelder
or Gerbefelder to be followed back TO an Anglo
Saxon source, and we shall doubtless hear before
long of an abundance of remote English cousins
ready to claim kinshp with the Republican candl-
date There is nothing like a nomination for the
Presidency to broaden mans family tics. But
whether the original stock DO AngloSaxon or leu
tonic, the American oifshoot is as free from any
foreign gratis as the purest Puritan blood of New
England.
On both his fathers and his mothers side General
Garfield comes of a line Of w-Eng'and ancestry.
The first of the American Gartelds was Edward,
who came from Chester. England, TO Massachusetts
Bay as early as 1880 and settled at Watertown.
The Generals great-grandiather, Solomon Garfield
beyond whom the family records do not go, was
married in 1866 to Sarah Simpson. widew, with
children by her first husband and went to live in
the town of Weston, Massachusetts, Abraham Car
field, a brother of Solomon, was in the fight at
Concord Bridge, and was one of the signers OF the
atiidayits sent to the Continental Congress at
Philadelphia to prove that the British were The
aggressors in that affair ard fired twice before the
lid 10 ,af LirfaT ! nc
regarded somewhat as if it had been case of
assault and battery, and the patriots DESTROYS
of iustfying themselves by showing that the other
fellows began the fight. After the Revolutionary
War closed there a large emigration from
Massachusetts into the wilderness OF Central New
York solomon Garfield packed bis household
goods upon a wagon. joined the movers" and went
10 Otsego County. He bought wild land in the
township of Worcester and reared a family of f~e
children-Thomas, Solomon. Hannah Rebecoa and
Lucy.
One of Solomon Garfeld's sons. Thomas, was the
grandfather of General Garfield. He grew up in
Worcester married Asenath Hill, worked hard on q
stony farm. had four children. Polly. Betsey,
Abram and Thomas, and died at thirty when his
youngest SOD, Abram, was two years old of small
pox. which he contracted during journey he made
70 Albany with load of produce. His SOD, Abram.
born in 1899, was bound out TO James Stone. rel
atiye on his mothers side. At the age of fifteen he
left his guardian and went 10 Madrid st. Lawrence
County New York, where he worked by the month
on a farm for three years. few years later, when
eighteen years old. he made his way TO Newburg.
Ohio where he got employment choppng and clear
ing land His guardians wife was an aunt of Eliza
Ballou, the girl whom he was afterward TO marry.
The mother of Eliza moved from Richmond, New
Hampshire. with her family, after the death Of her
husband and.her children and the Garfield children
got their education in tie same district school
house In Worcester Township.
Eliza Bailou's father n cousin of Hosea Bal
lou, the founder of Univossalism In tins country.
Eliza was born In 1901. The Ballous of HUI
guenot origin, and directly descended from
Naturin Ballou, who fed from France the re-
vocation of the Edict of Nantes, and with other
French Protestauts Joined Roger Willamss colony
IN Rhode Island, the only American colony founded
on the basis OF full religious liberty. The gift Of
eloouepce is undoubtedly derived by General Gar
field from the Ballous, who were race OF preach
ers. When EliEas oldest brother. James. was
eighteen he got what called in New-York at
that time the "Ohio fever" and persuaded his
mother to sell the scanty possessions Of the family
in Otsevo County and move to the new State with
the three younger children. They left Worcester
IN 1914, followed the Susquehanna Valley down to
Harrisburg. then turned westward across the
mountains, aad crossing the Ohio River ct Wheel
ing reached Perry Township. about ten miles from
GAINESVILLE Muskingum County. ct the end OF the
sixth week.
10 1920 Abram Garfield. then lacking q few
months of his majority. left Newbure. Ohio, to
ioln his old Otsego neighbors near GAINESVILLE. He
was . tall robust young fellow, OF very much the