JAMES RUDOLPH GARFIELD
GARFIELD, JAMES RUDOLPH, Lawyer, United States commissioner of corporations for the Department of Commerce and Labor, son of James Abram Garfield, twentieth president of the United States, and of Lucretia (Rudolph) Garfield, was born in Hiram, Ohio, October 17, 1865. He is one of seven children. On his father's side he is a descendant of Edward Gairfield, who emigrated from Chester, England, and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1636. On his mother's side he is of German descent. Several members of the Garfield family took an active part in the Revolutionary war, fighting on the side of the patriots. Later the family moved to New York, and still later, in 1817, to Ohio from which state President Garfield was elected to congress.
Commissioner Garfield received his preparatory education at St. Paul's school. Concord. Much of his early life was passed in Washington, District of Columbia, while his father was in congress and in the White House. He entered Williams college, just before his father's death and was graduated in the class of 1885. Later he studied law at the Columbia law school in New York city; and in 1888 he was admitted to the bar, in Ohio. He then moved to Cleveland, where, with his brother, Harry Augustus Garfield, he began the practice of law.
In 1890 he married Helen Newell of Chicago, daughter of John New^ell, then president of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad. He was successful in his profession and soon became recognized as one of the strong lawyers of Ohio. He has always taken an interest in public affairs, although he cannot be called a politician in the narrower sense of the word. Like his father, he has ever been a staunch believer in the broader doctrines of the Republican party. He served two terms as a member of the Ohio state senate, 1895-99. He first came into national prominence as an enthusiastic member of the United States Civil Service Commission.
When, in February, 1903, the new Department of Commerce and Labor was created, and charged with the work of promoting the
