“Her heart was gentle as her face was fair,With grace and love and pity dwelling there.”
“Her heart was gentle as her face was fair,With grace and love and pity dwelling there.”
“Her heart was gentle as her face was fair,With grace and love and pity dwelling there.”
“Her heart was gentle as her face was fair,
With grace and love and pity dwelling there.”
In the fall of 1849 this young lady was earnestly pursuing her studies at Geauga Seminary, and, during the hours of recitation, there often sat near her the awkward and bashful youth, Garfield. There these two became acquainted; and, although the boy made but few advances at first, they soon became good friends. Her sweet, attractive ways and sensible demeanor drew his heart out toward her; and, as for James, though he may have been very rough in appearance, yet his countenance was always a good one, and his regularly brilliant leadership of the class in all discussions was well adapted to challenge such a maiden’s admiration. A backwoods idyl, ending in an early marriage, would not be a surprising result in such a case as this. But these two souls were too earnestly bent on high aims in life to trouble their hearts, or bother their heads, with making love. They were merely acquaintances, although tradition hath it, that from the day when, leaving Chester, their paths diverged awhile, a correspondence was regularly kept up. However that may be, the fact we know is, that at this time and place, James A. Garfield first met Lucretia Rudolph, the woman who was one day to become his wife. In 1852 the Rudolphs moved to Hiram, where the young lady studied at the “Eclectic,” and recited to Garfield in some of her classes. The old friendship here ripened into affection; they pursued many studies together, and, about the time he left Hiram for college, they were engaged to marry. Long after they were married, a poet of Hiram referred to her thus:
“Againa Mary? Nay,Lucretia,The noble, classic nameThat well befits our fair ladie,Our sweet and gentle dame,With heart as leal and lovingAs e’er was sung in laysOf high-born Roman matron,In old, heroic days;Worthy her lord illustrious, whomHonor and fame attend;Worthy her soldier’s name to wear,Worthy the civic wreath to shareThat binds her Viking’s tawny hair;Right proud are we the world should knowAs hers, him we long agoFound truest helper, friend.”
“Againa Mary? Nay,Lucretia,The noble, classic nameThat well befits our fair ladie,Our sweet and gentle dame,With heart as leal and lovingAs e’er was sung in laysOf high-born Roman matron,In old, heroic days;Worthy her lord illustrious, whomHonor and fame attend;Worthy her soldier’s name to wear,Worthy the civic wreath to shareThat binds her Viking’s tawny hair;Right proud are we the world should knowAs hers, him we long agoFound truest helper, friend.”
“Againa Mary? Nay,Lucretia,The noble, classic nameThat well befits our fair ladie,Our sweet and gentle dame,With heart as leal and lovingAs e’er was sung in laysOf high-born Roman matron,In old, heroic days;Worthy her lord illustrious, whomHonor and fame attend;Worthy her soldier’s name to wear,Worthy the civic wreath to shareThat binds her Viking’s tawny hair;Right proud are we the world should knowAs hers, him we long agoFound truest helper, friend.”
“Againa Mary? Nay,Lucretia,
The noble, classic name
That well befits our fair ladie,
Our sweet and gentle dame,
With heart as leal and loving
As e’er was sung in lays
Of high-born Roman matron,
In old, heroic days;
Worthy her lord illustrious, whom
Honor and fame attend;
Worthy her soldier’s name to wear,
Worthy the civic wreath to share
That binds her Viking’s tawny hair;
Right proud are we the world should know
As hers, him we long ago
Found truest helper, friend.”
Another woman, however, one of the members of the awe-inspiring geometry class named above, had, in the Hiram days, more influence on Garfield’s intellectual life than any other person. Miss Almeda A. Booth was a woman of wonderful force of mind and character. She was the daughter of New England parents, who had come to Ohio, where her father traveled over an immense circuit of country as an itinerant Methodist preacher. Almeda very early discovered intellectual tastes, and, at twelve, read such works as Rollin’sAncient Historyand Gibbon’sDecline and Fall of the Roman Empire. She taught her first school at seventeen. An engagement of marriage was broken by the death of her intended husband, and her life was ever afterward devoted to the business of teaching. Thus the quiet current of life was not wrecked, but went smoothly on, clear and beautiful. She was poor in what people call riches; the office of teacher gave support. She was sad because death had darkened her life; study was a never-failing solace. Her mind gloried in strength, and the opportunity for a career of useful exercise of its powers helped to make her happy. Henceforth she loved knowledge more than ever; and could freely say:
“My mind to me a kingdom is.Such perfect joy therein I find,As far exceeds all earthly blissThat God or Nature hath assigned.”
“My mind to me a kingdom is.Such perfect joy therein I find,As far exceeds all earthly blissThat God or Nature hath assigned.”
“My mind to me a kingdom is.Such perfect joy therein I find,As far exceeds all earthly blissThat God or Nature hath assigned.”
“My mind to me a kingdom is.
Such perfect joy therein I find,
As far exceeds all earthly bliss
That God or Nature hath assigned.”
About the same time with Garfield, Miss Booth came to Hiram, and soon found her time, like his, divided between teaching insome classes and reciting in others. Each at once recognized in the other an intellectual peer, and they soon were pursuing many studies together. Our best idea of her comes from an address made by Garfield, on a memorial occasion, in 1876, the year after Miss Booth died. He compared her to Margaret Fuller, the only American woman whom he thought her equal in ability, in variety of accomplishments, or in influence over other minds. “It is quite possible,” says Garfield, “that John Stuart Mill has exaggerated the extent to which his own mind and works were influenced by Harriet Mills. I should reject his opinion on that subject as a delusion, did I not know from my own experience, as well as that of hundreds of Hiram students, how great a power Miss Booth exercised over the culture and opinions of her friends.”
Again: “In mathematics and the physical sciences I was far behind her; but we were nearly at the same place in Greek and Latin. She had made her home at President Hayden’s almost from the first, and I became a member of his family at the beginning of the Winter Term of 1852–’3. Thereafter, for nearly two years, she and I studied together in the same classes (frequently without other associates) till we had nearly completed the classical course.” In the summer vacation of 1853, with several others, they hired a professor and studied the classics.
“Miss Booth read thoroughly, and for the first time, thePastoralsof Virgil—that is, the Georgics and Bucolics entire—and the first six books of Homer’sIliad, accompanied by a thorough drill in the Latin or Greek Grammar at each recitation. I am sure that none of those who recited with her would say she was behind the foremost in the thoroughness of her work, or the elegance of her translation.
“During the Fall Term of 1853, she read one hundred pages of Herodotus, and about the same amount of Livy. During that term also, Profs. Dunshee and Hull and Miss Booth and I met, at her room, two evenings of each week, to make a joint translation of the Book of Romans. Prof. Dunshee contributed his studies of the German commentators, De Wette and Tholuck; and each of the translators made some special study for each meeting. How nearly we completed the translation, I do not remember; but I do remember that the contributionsand criticisms of Miss Booth were remarkable for suggestiveness and sound judgment. Our work was more thorough than rapid, for I find this entry in my diary for December 15, 1853: ‘Translation Society sat three hours at Miss Booth’s room, and agreed upon the translation of nine verses.’
“During the Winter Term of 1853–’4, she continued to read Livy, and also read the whole ofDemosthenes on the Crown. The members of the class in Demosthenes were Miss Booth, A. Hull, C. C. Foot and myself.
“During the Spring Term of 1854, she read theGermania and Agricolaof Tacitus, and a portion of Hesiod.”
These were the occupations, these the friends of James A. Garfield at Hiram, when, in the fall of 1854, he found himself ready for college. He was so far advanced that he would easily be able to graduate in two years. The best institution of advanced learning, in the “Disciples’” church, was that of which Alexander Campbell was president, at Bethany, Virginia. But Garfield, much to the surprise of his Hiram friends, made up his mind that he would not go there. The reasons he gave are summed up in a letter written by him at that time, and quoted by Whitelaw Reid in hisOhio in the War. This letter shows not only why he did not go to Bethany, but why he did go to Williams. He wrote:
“There are three reasons why I have decided not to go to Bethany: 1st. The course of study is not so extensive or thorough as in Eastern colleges. 2d. Bethany leans too heavily toward slavery. 3d. I am the son of Disciple parents, am one myself, and have had but little acquaintance with people of other views; and, having always lived in the West, I think it will make me more liberal, both in my religious and general views and sentiments, to go into a new circle, where I shall be under new influences. These considerations led me to conclude to go to some New England college. I therefore wrote to the presidents of Brown University, Yale and Williams, setting forth the amount of study I had done, and asking how long it would take me to finish their course.
“Their answers are now before me. All tell me I can graduate in two years. They are all brief, business notes, but President Hopkinsconcludes with this sentence: ‘If you come here, we shall be glad to do what we can for you.’ Other things being so near equal, this sentence, which seems to be a kind of friendly grasp of the hand, has settled the question for me. I shall start for Williams next week.”.
The next week he did go to Williams. Boyhood, with its struggles, had vanished. Garfield was now a man of twenty-three years, with much development yet before him, for his possibilities of growth were very large, and the process never stopped while he lived. What he did at Williams let the following pages reveal.