I guess you could say my family was sort of engrossed with President James Garfield last week – so much so that we decided that since his museum and tomb were so close, we could actually make a trip out of it and make a visit.
And so we did. We traveled about 45 minutes or so to Mentor, Ohio to visit the home of our 20th president, turned historic museum.
All three of these markers are just outside the visitors center at the Garfield Museum.
The museum itself is chock full of information, artifacts and re-enactments of Garfield’s public and private life.
Garfield being sworn in by Chief Justice, Morrison R. Waite. The bible was opened to Proverbs 21:1.
Garfield’s inaugural address can be read here.
On his death bed, with his devoted wife Lucretia at his side.
Garfield was a general in the Civil War. He literally knew nothing about military strategy, but he studied the battles of Napolean Bonapart and discovered that he was indeed a very good strategist.
This part of the museum was motion activated. My 2-year-old granddaughter ventured over there alone and was surprised when the battle noises commenced and the soldiers started talking! But as soon as we got to her and showed her it wasn’t real, she was fine.
Five of the seven Garfield children grew to adulthood. The oldest and youngest died in childhood.
“Trot” Garfield died at age three from diphtheria.
The Garfield Museum and Lawnfield Home contain approximately 85% of the items that were originally there. This was one of the stained glass piece is one of the beautiful gifts given to the family after the President’s death.
Lucretia took an art class, but she did not consider herself to be an artist. Nonetheless, pieces of her art are all over the home. These pretty tiles were made by Lucretia and the children and I thought they were simply charming!
The beautiful woodwork and stained glass of the dining room at Lawnfield.
A lovely silver piece that caught my fancy. It is on the dining room table in the dining room.
This wreath was sent by Queen Victoria for President Garfield’s funeral. You can even see it in this old newspaper drawing. It meant so much to Lucretia that she had it preserved. It still looks lovely.
Queen Victoria is pictured a few times in the home. This is in the library.
The library of the Lawnfield home is gorgeous! Any bibliophile would envy the beautiful book cases and the hundreds of books. This room was site of a double wedding for two of the Garfield children.
Garfield’s office in the home as a representative and president.
My family standing on the famous front porch at Lawnfield, where Garfield gave many of his campaign speeches.
A fond look back at the Garfield home, Lawnfield. Our guide told us that the colors are authentic to the original look of the house.
We then made the 30 minute drive to Cleveland’s scenic and historic Lakeview Cemetery to visit Garfield’s tomb. We got there at 20 minutes before closing, so it was a rush trip, but the guide was very informative and courteous to us!
There are three levels of the tomb. On the first level is this impressive statue of Garfield, the President.
That gallery is surrounded by stained glass windows representing each stat in the union at the time of Garfield’s presidency.
However, Ohio is represented in tile!
In the lower level are the remains of President Garfield and his wive. The cremains of his daughter and her husband are behind them. This was a very solemn moment for us and we prayed for their souls at that time.
On the upper level we were able to watch our tour guide turn into a musician as he played taps at the lowering of the flag!
Scene from the upper level of the grave of Cleveland and Lake Erie in the background.
Some shots of the monument as we left for the day.
All in all a very informative field trip that gave us many memories for the years to come and gave us a renewed appreciation for our American history and 20th president.
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