FREE ESSAY ON LUCRETIA RUDOLPH GARFIELD

LUCRETIA RUDOLPH GARFIELD

Lucretia Rudolph Garfield
1832-1918
In the fond eyes of her husband, President James A. Garfield, Lucretia grows up to every
new emergency with fine tact and faultless taste. She proved this in the eyes of the
nation, though she was always a reserved, self-contained woman. She flatly refused to
pose for a campaign photograph, and much preferred a literary circle or informal party to
a state reception. 
Her love of learning she acquired from her father, Zeb Rudolph, a leading citizen of
Hiram, Ohio, and devout member of the Disciples of Christ. She first met Jim Garfield
when both attended a nearby school, and they renewed their friendship in 1851 as students
at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, founded by the Disciples. 
But Crete did not attract his special attention until December 1853, when he began a
rather cautious courtship, and they did not marry until November 1858, when he was well
launched on his career as a teacher. His service in the Union Army from 1861 to 1863 kept
them apart; their first child, a daughter, died in 1863. But after his first lonely
winter in Washington as a freshman Representative, the family remained together. With a
home in the capital as well as one in Ohio they enjoyed a happy domestic life. A
two-year-old son died in 1876, but five children grew up healthy and promising; with the
passage of time, Lucretia became more and more her husband's companion. 
In Washington they shared intellectual interests with congenial friends; she went with
him to meetings of a locally celebrated literary society. They read together, made social
calls together, dined with each other and traveled in company until by 1880 they were as
nearly inseparable as his career permitted. 
Garfield's election to the Presidency brought a cheerful family to the White House in
1881. Though Mrs. Garfield was not particularly interested in a First Lady's social
duties, she was deeply conscientious and her genuine hospitality made her dinners and
twice-weekly receptions enjoyable. At the age of 49 she was still a slender, graceful
little woman with clear dark eyes, her brown hair beginning to show traces of silver. 
In May she fell gravely ill, apparently from malaria and nervous exhaustion, to her
husband's profound distress. When you are sick, he had written her seven years earlier, I
am like the inhabitants of countries visited by earthquakes. She was still a
convalescent, at a seaside resort in New Jersey, when he was shot by a demented assassin
on July 2. She returned to Washington by special train--frail, fatigued, desperate,
reported an eyewitness at the White House, but firm and quiet and full of purpose to
save. 
During the three months her husband fought for his life, her grief, devotion, and
fortitude won the respect and sympathy of the country. In September, after his death, the
bereaved family went home to their farm in Ohio. For another 36 years she led a strictly
private but busy and comfortable life, active in preserving the records of her husband's
career. She died on March 14, 1918. 
Bibliography
Whitehouse.gov/wh/glimpse.firstladies/html/firstladies.html