I actually didn't know much about James Garfield prior to coming here and his life was quite interesting. The main thing was that during the Republican National Convention in January 1880, he ended up becoming the presidential nominee. He didn't ask for it - he just got it. People liked him. He won the presidential election in November 1880 and inaugurated in March 1881. However, on July 2nd, 1881, he was shot by Charles Guiteau, a political fanatic and eventually died on September 19th the same year. He was only 49 years old. By the time of his death Garfield had been a teacher, college principal, minister, state legislator, lawyer, Civil War general, congressman, US senator-elect and President of the United States! Not bad for 49 years old!
James Garfield was born in Orange Township, Ohio in 1831, the youngest of four children. His father died when he was two years old leaving the family destitute. By 16 years, he took a job towing Ohio canals but after six weeks he contracted malaria and returned home. In 1858, he married Lucretia Rudolph. When the Civil War broke out, Garfield was a Lt. Colonel in the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry and won battles. This promoted him to general and because of his Civil War service, people knew of him which won him the presidency. In 1876, he purchased the Dickey Farm where he wanted to teach his boys how to work and "where I can touch the earth and get some strength from it." They named the farm, Lawnfield. Since the farm was in disrepair, by 1880, he cleaned it up, and transformed the 1.5 story home to a magnificent 20-room 2.5 story home! It's stunning inside!
Painting of Garfield during Civil War in the upstairs hallway alcove. |
James Garfield with his mother, wife and one son on the porch. |
The layout of the farm |
The carriage house |
The windmill that brought in electricity to the house |
How Lucretia brought water into the house - she wanted everything convenient. |
Outbuilding |
HUGE trees on the farm |
The trees were massive! |
As we walked through the front door, we entered a large hallway where there was a iron stove under the stairs. Most interesting. As I mentioned before nearly every piece is original to the home as it was donated as is to the genealogical society and then the national park service...a rare event, indeed!
From the coat rack (last photo above, we entered into the main greeting room with only a table and chair...but the photos of the stairway was magnificent!
This is the main greeting room. Through the hallway on the far left led to the kitchen. The left door entrance is to the dining room. The right door entrance was to Garfield's mother's bedroom. |
The stairs to the left went up to the upper bedrooms. |
Wedding invitations of Garfield's children. |
The next rooms are Garfield's mother's (Eliza Ballou Garfield) room. James Garfield adored his mother and cared for her after the death of his father to his dying day. Eliza Garfield had multiple photos of her son among her things. She loved James. For this area, you enter into a large space prior to the bedroom but the park didn't know what it was used for. I thought it might be a dressing room. But, here are the bedroom photos.
Here is the parlor adjacent to the mother's bedroom and across from the greeting room.
A view from the stair looking into the Parlor. Eliza's bedroom is through this room to the left. |
From here, we'll go into Garfield's study. It was a HUGE room! Check out the ceiling! Simply AMAZING!
James Garfield's Funeral program and casket wreath. |
Room 2
Room 3
One of the most unique things about Garfield was that in his personal office, he loved to sit and read. This chair he had designed because he LOVED to hang his leg over the arm of the chair when he read. He would have fit in well in our time!
This is the front stairs heading down to the front door. We didn't use these stairs...only the back stairs. |
Garfield's Campaign Poster |
Garfield's Family Mother, Wife, Father - Top Row 5 Children - Bottom Row |
The wallpaper was tediously duplicated as it would have looked during his time period. |
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