Garfield Telegraph September 2023

James A. Garfield was president from March 4, 1881 until September 19, 1881.

Library of Congress

A September day when life departed James A. Garfield

President James A. Garfield, assassinated in Washington on July 2, 1881, struggled to survive over the next two and a half months. It was a losing battle. After two months in the White House, on September 6, Garfield was taken by train to Long Branch, New Jersey, an ocean resort. He once said, “I have always thought of the ocean as my friend.”

Garfield rallied briefly while at Long Branch. The salt air, the ocean breeze, the sound of the waves improved his spirit. But the damage done by infection to his body was irreparable. With the president were Mrs. Garfield and their daughter Mollie. Also in attendance were several long-time friends, among them Colonel Almon F. Rockwell.

On September 18, James Garfield asked his friend, whom he called “Jasper,” “Old boy, do you think my name will have a place in history?” According to Garfield’s official biographer, T.C. Smith, the colonel replied, “Yes, a grand one, but a grander one in human hearts. Old fellow, you mustn’t talk in that way. You have a great work yet to perform.” The President replied sadly, “No, my work is done.”

Garfield died the next day at 10:35 p.m.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers around 1880.

Fisk University

Jubilee Singers performed for Garfield in 1880

From presidential candidate James A. Garfield's diary, September 30, 1880:

"At half-past nine the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University came from Painesville. We gave them a cup of coffee and some fruit. They sang some of their finest pieces. At the conclusion I made a few remarks to them on the relation of their work to the education of their race..."

The Fisk Jubilee Singers were a renowned singing group from Fisk University, an African American college in Nashville, Tennessee. On September 30, 1880, they sang for Republican presidential candidate James A. Garfield for the second time during his presidential campaign. They had also done so in early August in upstate New York as Garfield traveled home to Ohio after a Republican meeting in New York City.

After their performance here at the candidate's home, Garfield and his wife, Lucretia, invited the Singers into their parlor for light refreshments. As Garfield's personal secretary Joseph Stanley-Brown recalled, Garfield closed his remarks by telling the group, "I tell you now, in the closing days of this campaign, that I would rather be with you and defeated than against you and victorious." These were powerful words from Garfield, a pre-Civil War opponent of slavery, a Union officer during the war, and a longtime congressman and advocate for the civil and political rights of African Americans.

The Garfields visited the Strasbourg Cathedral in 1887 and visitors are still enjoying it today.

Kathryn Kroll

Garfields toured Europe in 1867

James and Lucretia Garfield took a “grand tour” of Europe between July and November 1867.

Among the cities they visited in the early months of their adventure were: London, England (where they discovered shrimp!), Edinburgh, Scotland and Rotterdam, Netherlands. In early September they toured Strasbourg, France. Their “chief purpose in stopping at Strasbourg was to see the cathedral and its wonderful clock.”

The tower of the Strasbourg Cathedral was then “the highest in Europe and of wonderfully light and delicate architecture.”

The Garfields ascended the 360 steps and noticed the “long tapering spires shot 160 feet higher.” The Garfields were especially taken with “the remarkable clock of Mr. Schwigue’”

It featured a figure of time whose scythe struck the hours, while another figure held an hourglass that was inverted again and again.

The twelve apostles bowed to a figure of Christ and a life-sized rooster crowed the hours. The Garfields were delighted with the cathedral and its clock.

FREE monthly events

September 13 at noon at Mentor Public Library: Leaders & Legacies of the Civil War Era: “Connecting the Dots Between Buffalo Soldiers in Arizona Territory in 1885 and President James A. Garfield”: Learn about a memorial to James A. Garfield in Arizona by three troops of African American Buffalo Soldiers Call the library at [phone] for reservations.

September 15 at 10 a.m.:

Naturalization Ceremony: In honor of Constitution Day (Sept. 17), visit the site to witness dozens of individuals from nations across the globe take the oath as America’s newest citizens. The Garfield home provides an appropriate and idyllic setting for this uniquely American ceremony. This event planned in partnership with the League of Women Voters, Citizenship & Immigration Services (U.S. Department of Homeland Security), and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

September 23 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.:

National Public Lands Day: Come celebrate national parks, fish and wildlife refuges, national forests and other areas set aside for the benefit and enjoyment of all Americans. Tour the Garfield home, enjoy the museum exhibits and film, walk the grounds, and learn more than you ever thought possible about Mentor’s own President Garfield! No entrance fees charged at any National Park Service sites on Public Lands Day.

The closed shutters on the west side of the Garfield house are merely decorative.

NPS

Did you know?

The closed shutters on the west side of the Garfield house are merely decorative. There is no window behind them. The Mr. and Mrs. Garfield had them put on the house to create symmetry and appeal to the design of their home.