Meeker County, Minnesota - Biographical sketches, 1888 (part 3 of 3)

In 1876 he was nominated for the Presidency. His letter of acceptance excited the admiration of the whole country. He resigned the office of Governor and retired to his home in Fremont to await the result of the canvass. After a hard, long contest he was inaugurated March 5, 1877. His Presidency was characterized by compromises with all parties, in order to please as many as possible. The close of his Presidential term in 188 1 was the close of his public life, and since then he has remained at his home in Fremont, Ohio, in Jeffersonian retirement from public notice, in striking contrast with most others of the world's notables.

^ '^^AMES A. GARFIELD, twentieth President of the United States, 1881, was born November 19, 1 83 1, in tlie wild woods of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. His parents were Abram and EHza (Ballou) Garfield, who were of New - England ancestry. The senior Garfield was an in- "" dustrious farmer, as the rapid improvements which appeared on his place attested. The residence was the familiar pioneer log cabin, and the household comprised the parents and their children - Mehetable, Thomas, Mary and James A. In May, 1833, the father died, and the care of the household consequently devolved upon young Thomas, to whom James was greatly indebted for the educational and other advantages he enjoyed. He now lives in Michigan, and the two sisters live in Solon, Ohio, near their birthplace.

As the subject of our sketch grew up, he, too, was industrious, both in mental and physical labor. He worked upon the farm, or at carpentering, or chopped wood, or at any other odd job that would aid in support of the family, and in the meantime made the most of his books. Ever afterward he was never ashamed of his humble origin, nor forgot the friends of his youth. The poorest laborer was sure of his sympathy, and he always exhibited the character of a modest gentleman.

Until he was about sixteen years of age, James's highest ambition was to be a lake captain. To this his mother was strongly opposed, but she finally consented to his going to Cleveland to carry out his longcherished design, with the understanding, however, that he should try to obtain some other kind of employment. He walked all the way to Cleveland, and this was his first visit to the city. After making man}' applications for work, including labor on board a lake vessel, but all in vain; he finally engaged as a driver for his cousin, Amos Letcher, on the Ohio & Pennsylvania Canal. In a short time, however, he quit this and returned home. He then attended the seminary at Chester for about three years, and next he entered Hiram Institute, a school started in 1850 by the Disciples of Christ, of which church he was a member. In order to pa}' his way he assumed the duties of janitor, and at tmies taught school. He soon completed the curriculum there, and then entered Williams College, at which he graduated in 1856, taking one of the highest honors of his class.

Presidexts Of The United States

Afterward he returned to Hiram as President. In hisyouthful and therefore zealous piety, he exercised his talents occasionally as a preacher of the Gospel. He was a man of strong moral and religious convictions, and as soon as he began to look into politics, he saw innumerable points that could be improved. He also studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. November 11, 1858, Mr. Garfield married Miss Lucretia Rudolph, who ever afterward proved a worthy consort in all the stages of her husband's career. They had seven children, five of whom are still liviii<r.

It was in 1859 '^''''^ Garfield made his first political speeches, in Hiram and the neighboring villages, and three years later he began to speak at county mass-meetings, being received everywhere with popular favor. He was elected to the State Senate this year, taking his seat in Januar}-, i860.

On the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion in 1861, Mr. Garfield resolved to fight as he had talked, and accordingly he enlisted to defend the old flag, receiving his commission as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Forty-second Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry, August 14, that year. He was immediately thrown into active service, and before he had ever seen a gun fired in action he was placed in command of four regiments of infantry and eight companies of cavalry, charged with the work of driving the Confederates, headed by Humphrey Marshall, from his native State, Kentucky. This task was speedily accomplished, although against great odds. On account of his success. President Lincoln commissioned him Brigadier-General, January 11, 1862; and, as he had been the youngest man in the Ohio Senate two years before, so now he was the youngest General in the army. He was with General Buell's army at Shiloh, also in its operations around Corinth and its march through Alabama. Next, he was detailed as a member of the general court-martial for the trial of General Fitz- John Porter, and then ordered to report to General Rosectans, when he was assigned to the position of Chief of Staff. His military history closed with his brilliant services at Chickamauga, where he won the stars of Major-General.

In the fall of 1862, without any effort on his part, he was elected as a Representative to Congress, from that section of Ohio which had been represented for sixty years mainly by two men - Elisha Whittlesey and Joshua R. Giddings. Again, he was the youngest member of that body, and continued there by successive re-elections, as Representative or Senator, until he was elected President in 1880. During his life in Congress he compiled and published by his speeches, there and elsewhere, more information on the issues of the day, especially on one side, than any other member.

June 8, 1880, at the National Republican Convention held in Chicago, General Garfield was nominated for the Presidency, in preference to the old war-horses, Blaine and Grant ; and although many of the Republican party felt sore over the failure of their respective heroes to obtain the nomination. General Garfield was elected by a fair popular majority. He was duly inaugurated, but on July 2 following, before he had fairly got started in his administration, he was fatally shot by a half-dcmcnted assassin. After ver}- painful and protracted suffering, he died September 19, 1881, lamented by all the American people. Never before in the history of this country had anything occurred which so nearly froze the blood of the Nation, for the moment, as the awful act of Guiteau, the murderer. He was duly tried, convicted and put to death on the gallows.

The lamented Garfield was succeeded by the Vice-President, General Arthur, who seemed to endeavor to carry out the policy inaugurated by his predecessor.

Chester A. Arthur Hester Allen

HESTER ALLEN ARTHUR, the twenty-first Chief Executive of this growing republic, i88i-'5, was born in FrankHn C o u n t y , Vermont, October 5, 1830, the eldest of a family of two sons and five daughters. His father, Rev. Dr. William Arthur, a Baptist clergyman, immigrated to this country from County Antrim, Ireland, in his eighteenth year, and died in 1875, in Newtonville, near Albany, New York, after serving manv years as a successful minister. Chester A. was educated at that old, conservative institution. Union College, at Schenectady, New York, where he excelled in all his studies. He graduated there, with honor, and then struck out in life for himself by teaching school for about two years in his native State.

At the expiration of that time young Arthur, with $500 in his purse, went to the city of New York and entered the law office of ex-Judge E. D. Culver as a student. In due time he was admitted to the bar, when he formed a partnership with his intimate friend and old room-mate, Henry D. Gardiner, with the intention of practicing law at some point in the West ; but after spending about three months in the Westen. States, in search of an eligible place, they returned to New York City, leased a room, exhibited a sign of their business and almost immediately enjoyed a paying patronage.

At this stage of his career Mr. Arthur's business prospects were so encouraging that he concluded to take a wife, and accordingl}' he married the daughter of Lieutenant Herndon, of the United States Navy, who had been lost at sea. To the widow of the latter Congress voted a gold medal> in recognition of the Lieutenant's bravery during the occasion in which he lost his life. Mrs. Artaur died shortly before her husband's nomination to the Vice-Presidency, leaving two children.

Mr. Arthur obtained considerable celebrity as an attorney in the famous Lemmon suit, which was brought to recover possession of eight slaves, who had been declared free by the Superior Court of New York City. The noted Charles O'Conor, who was nominated by the " Straight Democrats" in 1872 for the United States Presidency, was retained by Jonathan G. Lem- mon, of Virginia, to recover the negroes, but he lost the suit. In this case, however, Mr. Arthur was assisted by William M. Evarts, now United States Senator. Soon afterward, in 1856, a respectable colored woman was ejected from a street car in New York City. Mr. Arthur sued the car company in her behalf and recovered $500 damages. Immediately afterward all the car companies in the city issued orders to their employes to admit colored persons upon their cars.

Mr. Arthur's political doctrines, as well as his practice as a lawyer, raised him to prominence in the party of freedom ; and accordingly he was sent as a delegate to the first National Republican Convention. Soon afterward he was appointed Judge Advocate for the Second Brigade of the State of New York, and then Engineer-in- Chief on Governor Morgan's staff. In 1861, the first year of the war, he was made Inspector-General, and ne.Kt, Quartermaster- General, in both which offices he rendered great service to the Government. Alter the close of Governor Morgan's term he resumed the practice of law, forming first a partnership with Mr. Ransom, and subsequently adding Mr. Phelps to the firm. Each of these gentlemen were able lawyers.

November 21, 1872, General Arthur was appointed Collector of the Port of New York by President Grant, and he held the office until July 20, 1878.

The next event of prominence in General Arthur's career was his nomination to the Vice-Presidency of the United States, under the influence of Roscoe Conkling, at the National Republican Convention held at Chicago in June, 1880, when James A. Garfield was placed at the head of the ticket. Both the convention and the campaign that followed were noisy and exciting. The friends of Grant, constituting nearly half the convention, were exceedingly persistent, and were sorely disappointed over their defeat. At the head of the Democratic ticket was placed a very strong and popular man ; yet Garfield and Arthur were elected by a respectable plurality of the popular vote. The 4th of March following, these gentlemen were accordingly inaugurated ; but within four months the assassin's bullet made a fatal wound in the person of General Garfield, whose life terminated September 19, 1881, when General Arthur, ex officio, was obliged to take the chief reins of government. Some misgivings were entertained by many in this event, as Mr. Arthur was thought to represent espe cially the Grant and Conkling wing of the Republican party ; but President Arthur had both the ability and the good sense to allay all fears, and he gave the restless, critical American people as good an administration as they had ever been blessed with. Neither selfishness nor low partisanism ever characterized any feature of his public service. He ever maintained a high sense of every individual right as well as of the Nation's honor. Indeed, he stood so high that his successor. President Cleveland, though of opposing politics, expressed a wish in his inaugural address that he could only satisfy the people with as good an administration.

But the day of civil service reform had come in so far, and the corresponding reaction against " third-termism" had encroached so far even upon "second-term" service, that the Republican party saw fit in 1884 to nominate another man for President. Only by this means was General Arthur's tenure of office closed at Washington. On his retirement from the Presidency, March, 1885, he engaged in the practice of law at New York City, where be died Koveinher 18, 1886.

G Rover Cleveland

1837. The house in which he was born, a small two-story wooden building, is still standing. It was the parsonage of the Presbyterian church, of which his father, Richard Cleveland, at the time was pastor. The family is of New England origin, and for two centuries has contributed to the professions and to business, men who have reflected honor on the name. Aaron Cleveland, Grover Cleveland's great-great-grandfather, was born in Massachusetts, but subsequently moved to Philadelphia, where he became an intimate friend of Benjamin Franklin, at whose house he died. He left a large family of children, who in time married and settled in different parts of New England. A grandson was one of the small American force that fought the British at Bunker Hill. He served with gallantry throughout the Revolution and was honorably discharged at its close as a Lieutenant in the Continental army. Another grandson, William Cleveland (a son of a second Aaron

Cleveland, who was distinguished writer and member of the Connecticut Legislature) was Grover Cleveland's grandfather. William Cleveland became a silversmith in Norwich, Connecticut. He acquired by industry some property and sent his son, Richard Cleveland, the father of Grover Cleveland, to Yale College, where he graduated in 1 824. During a year spent in teaching at Baltimore, Maryland, after graduation, he met and fell in love with a Miss Annie Neale, daughter of a wealthy Baltimore book publisher, of Irish birth. He was earning his own way in the world at the time and was unable to marry; but in three years he completed a course of preparation for the ministry, secured a church in Windham, Connecticut, and married Annie Neale. Subsequently he moved to Portsmouth, Virginia, where he preached for nearly two years, when he was summoned to Caldwell, New Jersey, where was born Grover Cleveland.

When he was three years old the family moved to Fayetteville, Onondaga County, New York. Here Grover Cleveland lived until he was fourteen years old, the rugged, healthful life of a country boy. His frank, generous manner made him a favorite among his companions, and their respect was won by the good qualities in the germ which his manhood developed. He attended the district school of the village and was for a short time at the academy. His lather, however, believed that bo3's should be taught to labor at an early age, and before he had completed the course of study at the academy he began to work in the village store at $50 for the first year, and the promise of $100 for the second year. His work was well done and the promised increase of pay was granted the second year. Meanwhile his father and family had moved to Clinton, the seat of Hamilton College, where his father acted as agent to the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, preaching in the churches of the vicinity. Hither Grover came at his father's request shortly after the beginning of his second year at the Fayetteville store, and.resumed his studies at the Clinton Academy. After three years spent in this town, the Rev. Richard Cleveland was called to the village church of Holland Patent. He had preached here only a month when he was suddenly stricken down and died without an hour's warning. The death of the father left the family in straitened circumstances, as Richard Cleveland had spent all his salary of $1,000 per year, which was not required for the necessary expenses of living, upon the education of his children, of whom there were nine, Grover being the fifth. Grover was hoping to enter Hamilton College, but the death of his father made it necessary for him to earn his own livelihood. For the first year (1853-4) lie acted as assistant teacher and bookkeeper in the Institution for the Blind in New York City, of which the late Augustus Schell was for many years the patron. In the winter of 1854 he returned to Holland Patent where the generous people of that place,' Fayetteville and Clinton, had purchased a home for his mother, and in the following spring, borrowing $25, he set out for the West to earn his living.

stock farmer, living at Black Rock, a tew miles distant. He communicated his plans to Mr. Allen, who discouraged the idea of the West, and finall}- induced the enthusiastic boy of seventeen to remain with him and help him prepare a catalogue of blooded short-horn cattle, known as " Allen's American Herd Book," a publication familiar to all breeders of cattle. In August, 1855, he entered the law office of Rogers, Bowen tS: Rogers, at Buffalo, and after serving a few months without pay, was paid $4 a week - an amount barely sufficient to meet the necessary expenses of his board in the family of a fellow-student in Buffalo, with whom he took lodgings. Life at this time with Grover Cleveland was a stern battle with the world. He took his breakfast by candle-light with the drovers, and went at once to the office where the whole day was spent in work and stud}-. Usually he returned again at night to resume reading which had been interrupted by the duties of the day. Gradually his employers came to recognize the ability, trust worthinesb and capacity for hard work in their young employe, and by the time he was admitted to the bar (1859) he stood high in their confidence. A year later he was made confidential and managing clerk, and in the course of three 3ears more his salary had been raised to $1,000. In 1863 he was appointed assistant district attorney of Erie County by the district attorney, the Hon. C. C. Torrance.

Since his first vote had been cast in 1858 he had been a staunch Democrat, and until he was chosen Governor he always made it his duty, rain or shine, to stand at the polls and give out ballots to Democratic voters. During the first year of his term as assistant district attorney, the Democrats desired especiall}' to carry the Board of Supervisors. The old Second Ward in which he lived was Republican- ordinarily by 250 majority, but at the urgent request of the party Grover Cleveland consented to be the Democratic candidate for Supervisor, dnd came within thirteen votes of an election. The three years spent in the district attorney's office were devoted to assiduous labor and the extension of his professional attainments. He then formed a law partnership with the late Isaac V. Vanderpoel, ex-State Treasurer, under the firm name of Vanderpoel & Cleveland. Here the bulk of the work devolved on Cleveland's shoulders, and he soon won a good standing at the bar of Erie County. In 1869 Mr. Cleveland formed a partnership with e.x- Senator A. P. Laning and ex-Assistant United States District Attorney Oscar Folsom, under the firm name of Laning, Cleveland & Folsom. During these years he began to earn a moderate professional income; but the larger portion of it was sent to his mother and sisters at Holland Patent to whose support he had contributed ever since i860. He served as sheriff of Erie County, i870-'4, and then resumed the practice of law, associating himself with the Hon. Lyman K. Bass and Wilson S. Bissell.

The firm was strong and popular, and soon commanded a large and lucrative practice. Ill health forced the retirement of Mr. Bass in 1879, ^"d the firm became Cleveland & Bissell. In 1881 Mr. George J. Sicard was added to the firm.

In the autumn election of 1881 he was elected mayor of Buffalo by a majority of over 3,500 - the largest majority ever given a candidate for mayor - and the Democratic city ticket was successful, although the Republicans carried Buffalo by over 1,000 majority for their State ticket. Grover Cleveland's administration as mayor fully justified the confidence reposed in him by the people of Buffalo, evidenced by the great vote he received.

The Democratic State Convention met at Syracuse, September 22, 1882, and nominated Grover Cleveland for Governor on the third ballot and Cleveland was elected by 192,000 majoritv. ' In the fall of 1 884 he was elected President of the United States by about 1,000 popular majority, in New York State, and he was accordingly inaugurated the 4th of March following.