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Part of the American
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Lucretia Rudolph Garfield 1832 ~ 1918
Lucretia Randolph Garfield
Lucretia Rudolph Garfield was the daughter of Zebulon Rudolph, a
farmer who resided near Garrettsville, Ohio. He was one of the
founders of Hiram College. Her mother was the daughter of Elijah
Mason of Lebanon, Connecticut, a descendant of General Nathaniel
Greene. She first met her future husband, James A. Garfield, at
the Geauga Seminary. They attended this school together until
young Garfield entered Hiram College, of which institution he
was a graduate. Not long after he entered the college he was
called upon to take the place of one of the teachers because of
illness. Into his classroom came his school-girl friend,
Lucretia Rudolph, whom he considered one of his brightest
pupils. She was especially apt in Latin and was so well
instructed by Mr. Garfield that twenty years after she prepared
her boy in Latin to enter college. After she graduated from
Hiram College, she also became a teacher. When Mr. Garfield went
to Williams College to finish his education she went to
Cleveland to teach in one of the public schools. By that time
they were lovers and both studied very hard, believing that
there was a great future before James A. Garfield.
Their marriage took place at the house of the bride's parents,
November 11, 1858, Mr. Garfield then being President of Hiram
College. Their resources were not very great, so they boarded
for several years, each year finding them much advanced in
worldly goods and reputation.
Young Mr. and Mrs. Garfield resided in Cleveland until 1860,
when he was elected to the State Senate and went to Columbus. In
1861, he left the State Senate to become colonel of the 42nd
Ohio Regiment. He went into the army a poor man and it was with
the money he saved as an officer of the Union Army that his wife
bought a house and lot in Hiram, which cost eight hundred
dollars. This sum suggests the style of house which was their
home until 1870, when, as a member of Congress from the state of
Ohio, he came to Washington. Here his salary of $5,000 a year,
with the simplicity of living in those days, enabled him to save
enough money to give his family a comfortable home in the
Capital of the Nation. Through the helpfulness and economy of
his unusually intellectual and economical wife they were able to
purchase a farm at Mentor, Ohio, which they named Lawnfield, and
where was erected the historic house that was so much advertised
during the campaign of 1880. This house was designed by Mrs.
Garfield and is a fine specimen of architecture. During the war,
Mrs. Garfield lived in her home in Hiram and directed the
education of her boys, having only the companionship of Mother
Garfield. After the battle of Corinth, Brigadier-General
Garfield was at home for six months, suffering from malarial
fever. On his return to the front he was assigned chief of staff
to General Rosecrans and at the battle of Chickamauga won his
major-general's star. Before his return home his baby girl died,
which caused him very great distress. In 1863, the people of his
district elected him to Congress, where he served for eight
terms, and was elected to the Senate, and from the Senate, to
the Presidency.
During all these years Mrs. Garfield was known as the most
devoted wife and mother. Her unusual intelligence and education
fitted her pre-eminently for the high positions to which her
husband was from time to time promoted. She was never in any
sense considered a fashionable woman or a devotee of society.
Her ambitions were on a higher plane, but no woman ever received
more flattering compliments from her husband and those who knew
her best, than Mrs. Garfield. The control she had over her
emotional nature was manifested during the ordeal through which
she passed at the time of President Garfield's assassination and
the eighty days of anxiety and suspense before his death. After
the President's death she repaired to Mentor and no woman could
have conducted herself with greater propriety, dignity and
appreciation of her position than did Mrs. Garfield. The fact
that her sons have attained prominent positions is as much due
to their mother's care and training as to the inheritance of an
illustrious name.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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