Finding aid for the James A. Garfield Family Photographs

Biography of the James A. Garfield Family

Members of the James A. Garfield family lived for several generations at the family homestead known as Lawnfield, located in Mentor, Ohio. Garfield's presidential campaign in 1880 was often conducted from the front porch of his home at Lawnfield, a name given the property by members of the press covering the presidential campaign. Over the span of 50 years (1876-1936), family members left private and public papers and family memorabilia that documented events in their lives.

James A. Garfield

James Abram Garfield, twentieth president of the United States, was born in Orange Township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, on November 19, 1831, the youngest son of Abram and Elizabeth Ballou Garfield. The death of Abram Garfield when James was four years old resulted in a life of hardship for the Garfield family. Despite their reduced circumstances, young James was able to attend Geauga Seminary in Chester, Ohio, and Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, now Hiram College, from 1851-1854, before attending Williams College in Williams, Massachusetts. After graduating from Williams College in 1856, Garfield returned to the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute as an instructor in Greek and Latin. He went on to serve as president of the Institute from 1857-1861. Garfield was also a lay minister in the Disciples of Christ Church, a practicing attorney after he was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1859, and a member of the Ohio Senate from 1859-1861.

At the start of the Civil War Garfield volunteered for duty in the Union Army and was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Forty-Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He served with distinction in the Western campaigns, particularly during the battles at Shiloh and Chickamaugua. When Garfield was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1863, he resigned his commission as major general. As a Republican he represented Ohio for seventeen years, sitting as a member on the Military Affairs, Ways and Means, Appropriations, and Banking and Finance Committees.

Although he was elected to the United States Senate in 1880, Garfield never took his seat. Instead, at the Republican National Convention, held in Chicago, Illinois, in June of 1880, Garfield became a compromise candidate for the presidency, with Chester A. Arthur of New York as the vice-presidential nominee. The Garfield-Arthur slate was elected by a narrow margin. Garfield's new administration was besieged by patronage disputes, despite his pledge to reform the Civil Service. On July 2, 1881, while waiting to board a train at Washington's Baltimore and Potomac Station, Garfield was shot by Charles Julius Guiteau. He lay gravely wounded for more than two months. At his request he was moved to the seaside town of Elberon, New Jersey, where he died of his wounds on September 19, 1881. Garfield was buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 26, 1881. His remains were later interred in the Garfield monument erected on the grounds of Lake View, dedicated in May 1890. James A. Garfield was married to Lucretia Rudolph in 1858. They had seven children; Eliza Arabella, 1860-1863; Harry Augustus, 1863-1942; Mary (Mollie), 1867-1947; Irwin McDowell, 1870-1951; Abram, 1871-1958; James Rudolph, 1865-1950; and Edward (Ned), 1874-1876.

Lucretia Rudolph Garfield

Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, wife of James A. Garfield and daughter of Zebulon Rudolph and Arabella Green Mason, was born April 19, 1832, in Hiram, Ohio, or possibly Garrettsville, Ohio. She attended Geauga Academy in Chester, Ohio, at the same time as her future husband, and pursued her education at Western Reserve Eclectic Institute where Garfield was an instructor in Latin and Greek. Her father was a trustee of the Institute and a leading elder in the Disciples of Christ Church in Hiram.

Lucretia Rudolph and James A. Garfield were married on November 11, 1858, in a ceremony at her father's home in Hiram. The family home remained in Hiram until Garfield was elected to Congress. He then built a home in Washington, D. C., for his family. After Garfield's death in 1881, Mrs. Garfield remained at Lawnfield, but spent her winters in warmer climates, finally building a home in Pasadena, California, in 1903. Lucretia Rudolph Garfield died in Pasadena, California, March 13, 1918. She was buried next to her husband in Lake View Cemetery.

Lawnfield

Originally know as the Dickey farm in Mentor, Ohio, the property which the Garfield family purchased in 1876 became know as Lawnfield during James A. Garfield's presidential campaign in 1880. By that time renovations and improvements had been made to the original property, including a story and a half addition to the main house. After Garfield's death in 1881, the main house was again enlarged with the addition of a memorial library and vault in 1885-1886. Lawnfield hosted many family affairs, including the double marriage ceremony of Mollie Garfield to Joseph Stanley-Brown, her father's personal secretary, and of Harry Augustus Garfield to Belle Hartford Mason on June 18, 1888. The property remained in the Garfield family until 1936 when portions of it were deeded to the Western Reserve Historical Society and it became a museum under the stewardship of Ivan and Veda Sutliff. Additional acreage was deeded to the society in 1944. In 1964 Lawnfield was dedicated as a National Historic Landmark, and in 1966 went on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1975 the remainder of the property held by the Garfield family was sold to the Lake County Historical Society. In December 1980 the United States Congress authorized the Lawnfield property as the James A. Garfield National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park System. The act included a cooperative agreement between the Park Service and the Western Reserve Historical Society that gave the Society authority for the day-to-day operations, interpretation, and site maintenance. Between 1984 and 1988 the National Park Service acquired the portion of land still owned by the Lake County Historical Society, and the remainder of land held by the Western Reserve Historical Society was donated to the Park Service. After an extensive restoration of the property by the National Park Service, Lawnfield was reopened to the public in June 1998.

Garfield and Garfield Attorneys Three of James A. Garfield's sons became lawyers. In 1888 James Rudolph and his brother Harry Augustus established the firm of Garfield and Garfield in Cleveland. Harry Augustus eventually left the practice, but James Rudolph remained a senior partner in the succeeding firm, Garfield, Baldwin, Jameson, Hope and Ulrich for more than sixty years. The law firm specialized in corporate law, and property and investment management.

Click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for James A. Garfield

Scope and Content

The James A. Garfield Family Photographs, 1840-1990 and undated, consist of individual and group portraits of James A. Garfield; his wife, Lucretia Rudolph Garfield; his children and grandchildren; other Garfield and Rudolph family members; and portraits of nineteenth century statesmen that hung at Lawnfield and include Otto von Bismarck, Leon Michel Gambetta, William T. Sherman, and Edwin Stanton. Other portraits include James Smithson, Louis Agassiz, Benjamin Peirce, Edward Everett Hale and Carlisle P. Patterson. Views include Lawnfield, in particular a gathering of an unidentified group of African American Civil War veterans at Lawnfield; a lock on the Ohio and Erie Canal; voter turnout at the Mentor, Ohio Township Hall; the Civil War battle of Chickamauga; the James A. Garfield Monument in Lake View Cemetery; the James A. Garfield Memorial Window in The Williams College Chapel; and the James A. Garfield Memorial Statue in Washington, D. C. Also included are images of Lucretia Rudolph Garfield's inaugural ball gown displayed at the Smithsonian and the gown she wore at a White House reception. A presentation album from the Melbourne International Exhibition is also part of the collection. The collection includes approximately 100 black and white and color photographs of varying sizes.

This collection is of value to researchers seeking illustrative materials on James A. Garfield; the Garfield family; Lawnfield, the Garfield family home; the Ohio and Erie Canal; Victorian funeral and mourning practices; nineteenth century political figures; the American Civil War; the 1880 International Exposition in Melbourne, Australia; and Pasadena, California, in the early twentieth century. James A. Garfield is represented over his lifetime, including his service in the military during the American Civil War as a member of General Rosecrans' staff, and as president of the United States. Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, Garfield's wife, appears in individual and group portraits from the 1850s to the 1910s. Members of the Rudolph family are also present. With the exception of Edward "Ned" Garfield, who died before his second birthday, all of the Garfield children and many Garfield grandchildren are represented. Nineteenth century statesmen whose portraits hung at Lawnfield include German Chancellor Otto Furst von Bismarck; French lawyer and politician Leon Michel Gambetta; United States Army General and Secretary of War William Tecumseh Sherman; and United States Attorney General, Secretary of War, and Supreme Court Justice Edwin Stanton. Staunch support of the Republican Party is reflected in a portrait of J. Josephs, described as "Captain of the Lincoln Rail Splitters, also Capt of Rail Splitters and Garfield Woodchoppers." James Abram Garfield's keen interest in science shows in images of both James Smithson and the institution named for him and in a group portrait including Louis Agassiz, Benjamin Peirce, and Carlisle P. Patterson. Author and Unitarian clergyman Edward Everett Hale is also among famous individuals portrayed in this picture group.

Lawnfield, the Garfield family home in Mentor, Ohio, is represented in several photographs. Garfield's Civil War service is exhibited in a copy photograph of an image entitled "Turning the Tide at Chickamauga." Ohio participation in the presidential election of 1880 is demonstrated in a photo of voter turnout at the Mentor Township Hall in Mentor. Scholars of women's formal costume will find photographs of Lucretia Rudolph Garfield's inaugural ball gown as displayed at the Smithsonian and the gown she wore at a White House reception. Garfield's assassination is depicted through images of his assassin, Charles Guiteau, and Garfield's funeral. Also included is a 1990s commemoration ceremony at the James A. Garfield Monument in Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio, with Congressman Dennis Eckart and the Cleveland Grays militia group present. Other memorials represented are the James A. Garfield Memorial Window in the Williams College Chapel at Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the James A. Garfield Memorial Statue in Washington, D. C.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

None.

The researcher should also consult MS 4575 James A. Garfield Family Papers; MS 4579 James A. Garfield Family Papers, Series II; and MS 4790 James A. Garfield Family Papers, Series III. Those studying James A. Garfield should also refer to MS 3049 James A. Garfield Collection and MS 3263 James A. Garfield Collection of Letters. Garfield family members are also represented in MS 3160 Henry B. Boynton Papers; MS 3254 James Mason Family Papers; MS 3314 James R. Garfield Family Papers; MS 3353 Adelaide Rudolph Papers; MS 3695 Abram Garfield Papers; MS 4571 Mary (Mollie) Garfield Stanley-Brown Papers; MS 4572 Helen Newell Garfield Papers; MS 4573 James Rudolph Garfield Papers; and MS 4580 James A. Garfield II Family Papers. Researchers interested in Lawnfield should consult MS 3049 James A. Garfield Collection and MS 4574 Lawnfield Farm Papers.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] PG 497 James A. Garfield Family Photographs, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Gift of Lawnfield, James A. Garfield National Historic Site, in 1998.

Processing Information

Processed by Patricia J. Stahley and Christopher P. Grasso in 2001.

Detailed Description of The Collection