Presidents' Children: James Rudolph Garfield
James Rudolph Garfield was the third of seven children born to President James Garfield and First Lady Lucretia Garfield. Besides being the son of a president himself, he went on to serve as a member of the cabinet in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, serving as Secretary of the Interior, an important portfolio to the great conservationist president. (James R. Garfield as a young man is shown below as the boy standing, first from the left in the picture).
James R. Garfield was born October 17, 1865 in Hiram, Ohio. At the time his father was serving as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 19th district. On July 2, 1881, at the age of 15, he witnessed the shooting of his father by disgruntled office-seeker Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac railroad station in Washington. The President and his son were waiting for a train en route to Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where young James had been recently accepted, when the shooting took place.
Following his father's death on September 19, 1881, he studied at Williams College, graduating in 1885, before moving on to Columbia Law School where he studied law and earned his J.D. in 1888. That same year, he was admitted to the Ohio bar and established the Cleveland, Ohio-based law firm of Garfield and Garfield, with his brother Harry Augustus Garfield.
In 1890 James A. Garfield married Helen Newell. They were together for forty years until her death in 1930. They had four sons: John N., James A., Rudolph, and Newell. Their grandson, also named Newell Garfield, later married Jane Harrison Walker, a granddaughter of President Benjamin Harrison and Harrison's second wife Mary Dimmick Harrison, as well as the great-grandniece of James G. Blaine.
From 1896 to 1899, he served in the Ohio State Senate. It was the only office he was ever elected to. He caught the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt, who appointed Garfield to serve as a Member of the United States Civil Service Commission from 1902 to 1903. From 1903 to 1907, he served as Commissioner of Corporations at the Department of Commerce and Labor, where he conducted investigations of the meat-packing, petroleum, steel, and railroad industries. From 1907 to 1909, he served in Roosevelt's Cabinet as Secretary of the Interior, where he advocated for the conservation of natural resources. At the end of his term, when fellow Ohioan William Howard Taft became President, Garfield left this post on March 4, 1909, and returned to his law practice in Cleveland.
During the 1912 presidential election, Garfield was a key supporter of Roosevelt's bid for a third term. He was a supporter of the progressive wing of the Republican Party that had broken away in 1912 to join Roosevelt's "Bull Moose" Party. In 1914, Garfield made an unsuccessful bid for Governor of Ohio on the Progressive Party ticket. After his defeat he resumed his Cleveland law practice, where he became prominent in local Republican politics, and was a member of several civic organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce, the Western Reserve Historical Society, the Cleveland Association for the Hard of Hearing, and the Cleveland Foundation
When the United States entered the first World War in 1917, Theodore Roosevelt tried to raise a division of volunteers to fight in the conflict, much as he had done during the Spanish American War twenty-one years earlier He selected Garfield as one of eighteen officers to raise a volunteer infantry division, called "Roosevelt's World War I volunteers", for service in France in 1917. The U.S. Congress gave Roosevelt the authority to raise up to four divisions similar to the Rough Riders of 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment and to the British Army 25th (Frontiersmen) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. But when the Commander-in-chief, President Woodrow Wilson refused to make use of the volunteers, the unit disbanded.
After the war, President Calvin Coolidge appointed Garfield to the emergency board investigating railroad labor disputes, and President Herbert Hoover appointed him chairman of the Federal Commission of the Conservation of the Public Domain.
As counsel for the Cleveland Foundation, Garfield handled the foundation’s legal affairs until 1946, when he was 81.) He was responsible for the transfer of the first $10 million in endowment monies to the foundation. In 1921 he was involved in a heated public debate about the findings of the Cleveland Foundation’s criminal justice survey. In a critical report about the performance of municipal and county courts, attorney-investigator Reginald Hebert Smith listed a number of abuses within the system. Of every 100 felony cases originating with city prosecutors, Smith had discovered that only 29 on average proceeded through to sentencing. Among the causes identified by Smith were the defense of certain criminals by a attorneys with powerful political ties, underpaid prosecutors with inexperienced assistants, and the shirking of jury duty by well-educated citizens. Members of the judiciary mounted a fierce public counterattack, labeling Smith’s investigation “unjust” and a “criminal waste of money.” Cuyahoga County Court Judge Homer G. Powell went so far as to threaten to jail the foundation’s board for contempt. Garfield was renowned for his courage in refusing to back down from the foundation's report. He advised his clients to tell “Judge Powell that he could send the sheriff anytime he wanted to receive us.”
Garfield was active in drafting the Republican platform for the 1932 election. He died in Washington, D.C. on March 24, 1950 at the age of 84. He was last surviving member of Theodore Roosevelt's administration. He had survived his father by almost 69 years. He was interred in Mentor Municipal Cemetery in Mentor, Ohio beside his wife Helen.
James R. Garfield was born October 17, 1865 in Hiram, Ohio. At the time his father was serving as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 19th district. On July 2, 1881, at the age of 15, he witnessed the shooting of his father by disgruntled office-seeker Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac railroad station in Washington. The President and his son were waiting for a train en route to Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where young James had been recently accepted, when the shooting took place.
Following his father's death on September 19, 1881, he studied at Williams College, graduating in 1885, before moving on to Columbia Law School where he studied law and earned his J.D. in 1888. That same year, he was admitted to the Ohio bar and established the Cleveland, Ohio-based law firm of Garfield and Garfield, with his brother Harry Augustus Garfield.
In 1890 James A. Garfield married Helen Newell. They were together for forty years until her death in 1930. They had four sons: John N., James A., Rudolph, and Newell. Their grandson, also named Newell Garfield, later married Jane Harrison Walker, a granddaughter of President Benjamin Harrison and Harrison's second wife Mary Dimmick Harrison, as well as the great-grandniece of James G. Blaine.
From 1896 to 1899, he served in the Ohio State Senate. It was the only office he was ever elected to. He caught the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt, who appointed Garfield to serve as a Member of the United States Civil Service Commission from 1902 to 1903. From 1903 to 1907, he served as Commissioner of Corporations at the Department of Commerce and Labor, where he conducted investigations of the meat-packing, petroleum, steel, and railroad industries. From 1907 to 1909, he served in Roosevelt's Cabinet as Secretary of the Interior, where he advocated for the conservation of natural resources. At the end of his term, when fellow Ohioan William Howard Taft became President, Garfield left this post on March 4, 1909, and returned to his law practice in Cleveland.
During the 1912 presidential election, Garfield was a key supporter of Roosevelt's bid for a third term. He was a supporter of the progressive wing of the Republican Party that had broken away in 1912 to join Roosevelt's "Bull Moose" Party. In 1914, Garfield made an unsuccessful bid for Governor of Ohio on the Progressive Party ticket. After his defeat he resumed his Cleveland law practice, where he became prominent in local Republican politics, and was a member of several civic organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce, the Western Reserve Historical Society, the Cleveland Association for the Hard of Hearing, and the Cleveland Foundation
When the United States entered the first World War in 1917, Theodore Roosevelt tried to raise a division of volunteers to fight in the conflict, much as he had done during the Spanish American War twenty-one years earlier He selected Garfield as one of eighteen officers to raise a volunteer infantry division, called "Roosevelt's World War I volunteers", for service in France in 1917. The U.S. Congress gave Roosevelt the authority to raise up to four divisions similar to the Rough Riders of 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment and to the British Army 25th (Frontiersmen) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. But when the Commander-in-chief, President Woodrow Wilson refused to make use of the volunteers, the unit disbanded.
After the war, President Calvin Coolidge appointed Garfield to the emergency board investigating railroad labor disputes, and President Herbert Hoover appointed him chairman of the Federal Commission of the Conservation of the Public Domain.
As counsel for the Cleveland Foundation, Garfield handled the foundation’s legal affairs until 1946, when he was 81.) He was responsible for the transfer of the first $10 million in endowment monies to the foundation. In 1921 he was involved in a heated public debate about the findings of the Cleveland Foundation’s criminal justice survey. In a critical report about the performance of municipal and county courts, attorney-investigator Reginald Hebert Smith listed a number of abuses within the system. Of every 100 felony cases originating with city prosecutors, Smith had discovered that only 29 on average proceeded through to sentencing. Among the causes identified by Smith were the defense of certain criminals by a attorneys with powerful political ties, underpaid prosecutors with inexperienced assistants, and the shirking of jury duty by well-educated citizens. Members of the judiciary mounted a fierce public counterattack, labeling Smith’s investigation “unjust” and a “criminal waste of money.” Cuyahoga County Court Judge Homer G. Powell went so far as to threaten to jail the foundation’s board for contempt. Garfield was renowned for his courage in refusing to back down from the foundation's report. He advised his clients to tell “Judge Powell that he could send the sheriff anytime he wanted to receive us.”
Garfield was active in drafting the Republican platform for the 1932 election. He died in Washington, D.C. on March 24, 1950 at the age of 84. He was last surviving member of Theodore Roosevelt's administration. He had survived his father by almost 69 years. He was interred in Mentor Municipal Cemetery in Mentor, Ohio beside his wife Helen.