The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-10-11
JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD.
EARLY Life and Youthful Training.

His biographer tells us that James A. Gar
field is Of New England ancestry. He is the
ninth IN direct descent from Edwa'd Garfield
who emigrated from near Chester, on the
border of Wales, in 1886, and settled in Wa
sertown, Massachusetts,; and there, In the
ancient bu%fia1:gronnd or rnxt beaurtfuf sut:
urb of Boston, five of his ancestors now lie
buriedl .Tbsy wste pIttillfr; Of Vie spll-.
sturdy. independent, God:fearing race OF
mei,, but in no way distinguished for intel
lectusi or other achievements: They have
left scarcely any record Of their lives except
the brief histories that may still be decipher-
ed on their uioottl hering he.,l-stones ;butthey
have brrqtbulesaathed ttstheir Jescerdems7sG better
hertl age Han fa,ne She priceless 'hiF,hrisht
Of which Cnwpet bi,a|aed. .''t h'' '""'H"
The father OF the dead President settled at
an early DAY iii Orange township Cuyahocs
county, f. northwestern Oifi",, where he
erected in the wilderness an humble cabin.
In this humhle dwelling, ~, tile l94h OF No
yamber, 1881; was born james Abram Gar.
teln. the future President Of the United
States, who is thelsubjsct OF this history. a."
He was the youngest Of four children, one
of whom was then q boy Of nine years, and
the o her girls, aged respectively seven, and
eleven years. These children, with the ia
Their and mother, comprised the little family,
aud it was a happy household though poor,
they were content, and the distance that dl7
vjded them from the rest OF the world bound
them more closely together, like different
spires in a sheaf of wheat, with separate lndl-
vidualities, but with only one life. w
But an autumn wind blew. and thew heat
sheaf was thrown to the ground and rent
asunder. Before the younger Garfield was
two wears old. the strong, broad breasted man
who bound these lives together was bon e out
of the low doorway and laid in a corner of
The little wheat Held forever. Nothing now
remained 10 bind up these broken lives but
heweai puny arms Of tie mother but shs
threw them about the little household, and
ret tr-f face bravely to meet the wintry storms
that were coming: and it was q cold, hard
winter. and they We're alone in the wilder
less.
The 5 ury OF this struggling faulty in storms
and narlships of frontier life is but a varla-
tio,. Of many another, but is instructive and
often pathetic. His biographer thus gives US
a glimpse Of it, .,:.,.r -t. r,.
"~tI.prpa., he older b"y, wh" nov Mas '"''
hired a horse, and piowed and "eu t"r
small plat OF cleared land. aud the mother
split tIe rails and fenced in the little house
l,t. The maui was 80 heavy that she could
on v lust lit it to her shoulder, and with
sbo,rL every blow she herself came down TO
the ground; but she struggled on with the
work. and soon the lot was fenced, and the
little farm in tolerable order. ,..1 - %,
But the corn was running low in the bin,
aud it was a long time till harvest. SO the
mother measured out the corn, reckonrd how
mach her children would eat, and went to.
bed without lei supper.a F4r weeks She did
this. But the children were young and
growing; their little mouths were larger than
she had measured, and After q while she
omitted 10 cal her diuner also One meal q
day, aud she a weak and fragile womau! Is
it to be wondered at that she is loved and re
vered by her children ...,,. ..
sBus the little harvest came at last, and
then want was driven away, aud it never
again looked in with gaunt jaws upon the
lonely widow. Neighbours, too, soon gath
cred round the little log cabin in the wilder
ness. The nearest was = mile away; but a
mile in q new country is not near so far
as d mile in an old one, and they came often
to visit the lonely household. They had sew
ing 10 do. and the widow did it; ploughing to
TO. and Thomas did that; and after Il time
one of them hired the boy to work on his
farm, paying him $l2 a month for fourteen
hours daily labor. Thomas worked away
like a man. and-while | do not state it as a
historical fact--l verify believe no man felt
himself so much of a man as he did when lie
came llome and counted out into his moth
er's lap his first fortnight's wages-aIi in sill
yer half dollars.
".Now mother he sad, the shoemaker
call come aud make James suiue new shoes.
James was our future President; and though
the ealth had made four revolutions since he
first set foot upon it. he had never yet know
the warn, n brace of shoe leather.
A school bad been started III a laighbGr
hood district, and Thomas " antrH The othe'
children to attend it ; so he worked away
with d viii 10 earn money enougd to keel
the family through tn" winter. The shoe
maker came At last and made the shoes
boarding out a part Of bis pay aut thet
Neltetahei. the older girl, TOOK james upoi
her back, and they all trudSed off to sclioo
together-all but Thomas. He sta'd at hon
to finish the barn, thFesh the wheat, shell th'
corn aud help his mother force = scslity liv
ing for them all from the little farm at thirty
acres. And here my pen pailses with 4 hal