James Abram Garfield was the twentieth president of the United States. He grew up in Orange, Ohio, graduated from Williams College in 1856, became president of Hiram College in Portage County, Ohio, and was a lay minister of the Disciples of Christ Church. He was elected to the Ohio Senate, and in 1858, married Lucretia Rudolph. Garfield served in the Civil War, as a lieutenant-colonel of the 42nd Ohio regiment. He was a major general when he resigned in 1863 to take a seat in the United States House of Representatives, where he served for 17 years. Nominated in 1880 as a compromise Republican presidential candidate, his campaign was conducted from Lawnfield, his Mentor, Ohio, home. Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881, and died September 19. He was survived by his widow, Lucretia Garfield, and by his children; Mary, who married his former secretary, Joseph Stanley-Brown, Irvin McDowell, Harry Augustus, who became president of Williams College, James Rudolph, a Cleveland attorney, Republican politician and member of Theodore Roosevelt's cabinet, and Abram, a Cleveland architect. The collection consists of correspondence, a quit claim deed, memoirs, certificates of appointments, stock certificates, and genealogical charts. The collection is of interest to students of the Garfield, Rudolph, and Newell families. Certificates of appointment of James Rudolph Garfield signed by Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover are included. Helen Newell Garfield, daughter of John and Julia Poore Hills Newell and wife of James Rudolph Garfield, compiled her family's genealogy. Her mother's recollections of the Chicago Fire of 1871 are also included. An unsigned copy of a 1937 quit claim deed transferring Lawnfield to the Western Reserve Historical Society is included. Of interest is a tally sheet made at the telephone of "Uncle Joe" Davidson's general store, Burlington, Ohio, during the 1880 Republican National Convention. Other correspondents include Phillip Holland and W.H. Clapp. A letter of recommendation for Joseph Rudolph, brother-in-law of President Garfield, for service in the Spanish-American War is included, as is a letter signed in 1880 by President Garfield regarding a life insurance policy.
