Serving as First Lady for only six months before her husband was assassinated, Lucretia Garfield is often forgotten in history. Her sickly health and retiring personality also makes her easy to skip over when you’re talking about First Ladies who made an impact. However, as I learned more about her and read her letters, I found much to admire in this woman who faced incredible adversity with fortitude and faith.
Each month, I’ll detail the life of the first lady and their legacy. Then I’ll share what I learned while studying them, along with ways you can travel in their footsteps through historical sites and museums. I’ll also share books, podcasts, TV shows, and websites where you can learn even more about that first lady. Read all of the way through the blog post or click on the links below to go straight to those sections.
Life
Childhood and Courtship
Lucretia “Crete” Randolph was born on April 19, 1832 in Garrettsville, Ohio to a farmer and carpenter, Zeb and Arabella Rudolph. The oldest of four children, she was a shy, retiring girl with chestnut hair. Her parents were kind but not emotional, lacking in physical affection. They were proponents of education for girls, so she attended the local school, and at fifteen, she was sent to Geauga Seminary (about 20 miles away) to further her education in the classics.
It was at Geauga that she met James Garfield when she was eighteen and he was nineteen. Even though he came from a poor family, he was extremely smart and at the top of their class. That fall, Lucretia moved to the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute in Hiram, Ohio where her father was a founding trustee at this new school established by their church, the Disciples of Christ. Crete thrived in this rich educational environment, editing the school magazine and starting a literary society while learning several languages. She lived in her parents’ home which was often full of boarders and professors from the school.
In 1851, James Garfield came to the institute to continue his education. Crete was surprised to see that he had changed from a “big, shy lad with a shock of unruly hair,” transformed by “mental development and culture.” They were just friends as Crete had a beau, Albert, with whom she eventually broke up because of a difference in religious beliefs, while James courted another.
James became a classics teacher at the institute in 1853, serving as Crete’s teacher. They must have made a connection because in November, he began writing to her while on a trip to Niagara Falls. It was a chaste correspondence with him calling her “sister” and Crete calling him “brother.” Their letters are full of descriptions of day-to-day life but are not personal or romantic.
Crete was now living in a nearby town as a teacher and enjoyed their correspondence. Her cool and timid nature and his gregarious and cheerful personality come through in the letters. He seemed to be interested in courting her but was unsure as he didn’t “detect that warmth of feeling which I need to make me happy.” However he continued his pursuit, taking her on a New Year’s Eve sleigh ride and sharing a kiss in February of 1854. He declared his love but she described the kiss from him as “coldly received and not returned.”
He left for Williams College in Massachusetts in June of 1854 while she remained in Ohio, teaching the classics, mathematics, and art at several different schools. She and James continued their courtship through letters which allowed her to express feelings that she couldn’t tell him in person. He had no trouble in telling her of his love, saying he loved her with “my heart’s warmest affections.” She talked about making a home with him, and an engagement seemed on track.
However, when James returned to Hiram in the summer of 1855, they couldn’t find that romantic spark that had blossomed through their letters. He left soon after coming back, bemoaning her lack of affection by writing in his diary that “my wild passionate heart demands so much.” She let him read her diary which contained all of her feelings. When he returned to college, they found their footing again through letter writing where she addressed him as “my heart’s sweetest love.”
In 1856, however, James met Rebecca Selleck, a young woman from New York who would become a wedge in his potential courtship of Crete. James thought she and Lucretia would be good friends and encouraged them to visit and correspond. Crete seemed bewildered by his relationship with another woman but was open to a friendship. She even attended James’ college graduation along with Rebecca. Over the next two years as James moved back to Hiram to serve as the president of the institute, Crete and James became betrothed but doubts still lingered. Crete worried about his “friendship” with Rebecca and even grew to suspect that he had potentially had an affair, or as she called it “a great wrong” that had occurred. She told him to marry Rebecca if he loved her as she had no desire to be an “unloved wife.”
In April of 1858, James decided that Crete was his future so he took her on a buggy ride and proposed. She knew he was doing the honorable, generous thing and worried he was marrying her out of duty. He, too, had doubts, saying that he loved to be with her but “there is a restless and unsatisfied feeling about a good deal of the time.” They went ahead with the wedding, marrying in her family’s home on November 11, 1858. She made a joke by sending him an invitation to their wedding as she was worried he wouldn’t show up.
Marriage
After this inauspicious beginning, Crete and James began their life together. They moved into a boarding house in Hiram and James basically ignored Crete, spending much of his time at the institute and traveling, while she continued to teach. He told her the marriage was a mistake, and while she tried not to let him know how unhappy she was, her letters pleading with him to come home are heart-breaking.
His political career began in 1860 which meant that he was often in the state capital of Columbus. She was pregnant with their first child, Eliza Arabella, who was born on July 3, 1860. The baby was nicknamed Trot after a favorite character in Dickens’ David Copperfield, and while the baby brought them together as a family, James left the day after her birth on his travels. Their letters are filled with cute endearments over the baby and everyday life but not about their own feelings.
With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the anti-slavery Garfields were quick to get involved with James signing up while Crete moved back in with her parents. He was sent to eastern Kentucky where he led a successful campaign against the Confederate forces. Over the next four years, he and Crete would exchange hundreds of letters which contain details about army life (lots of disease and illness) and Trot’s sweet antics (along with complaints about how spare the other’s letters were). James was fully in support of the war to end slavery but said that “No blaze of glory that flashes around the magnificent triumphs of war can ever atone for the unwritten and unutterable horrors of the scene of carnage.”
He became so ill that he was sent back to Ohio in 1862, and Crete and Trot went to help him recover. She discovered she was pregnant after he went back to the army but soon suffered a miscarriage. She went back to Hiram and was able to purchase their own home which she expanded as he fought in campaigns in Tennessee and Alabama. They had a spat in December of 1862 over delayed letters where she told James that “I should not blame my heart if it lost all faith in you, but I hope it may not.” She regretted sending it but it signified the trust that still was missing from their marriage.
In 1863, James went to Washington, DC to await further military orders and serve as a congressman. He stayed with President Lincoln’s secretary of state, Salmon Chase, whose beautiful daughter, Kate, introduced James to Washington society. While his relationship with the charming Kate seems to have been platonic, he soon conducted an affair with a young widow and reporter from New York City, Lucia Calhoun. Meanwhile Crete sent him despondent letters saying “you do not know how earnestly I long to be with you again.” James coldly told her that he thought it best for them to have a “business correspondence.” Crete was worried about making him unhappy and had to refrain from sharing her true sadness.
Before he was sent back to serve in the battle of Chickamauga, James asked Crete to visit him in Nashville, but she declined as she was pregnant with their second child, Harry Augustus, who was born on October 11, 1863. Just two months later, Trot died of diptheria which destroyed both Crete and James. He barely stayed long enough to attend the funeral and then left for Washington while Crete worried, believing him to be so grief-filled that he wouldn’t come home.
Trot’s death had a profound influence on both James and Crete and seemed to break the dam of emotions that both had held back from their marriage during what they would later call their “years of darkness.” Crete soon visited James in Washington and took in the congressional debates. She may have heard rumors about his affair with Lucia, and in June 1864, James traveled to Ohio to confess it to her and to swear that it was over. She forgave him and their marriage seemed to be on a better footing. Their love got stronger, and soon they were writing “the tyranny of our love is sweet. We waited long for his coming but he has come to stay.”
When Crete gave him a slip of paper that said they had only lived together for twenty weeks out of their five years of marriage, James was chagrined. He then resolved that he would not serve in Washington ever again without Crete and his family by his side. However even when he was at home in Ohio, he was often off visiting fellow professors and people he admired including another woman.
Their son, James, was born in October of 1865, and Lucretia, little James, and Garfield’s mother soon joined him in Washington. They went back and forth between Washington and Ohio for the next several years. In 1867, their daughter, Mollie, was born amidst money woes related to taking care of two households. Crete was also worried about James’ temptation to see his former mistress when he decided to go to New York City and obtain his love letters from her. He reassured Crete that she was his sole love, but it had to be hard to see him go.
In the summer of 1867, James was told to rest by his doctors so he took Crete on a four month tour of Europe, leaving the children behind with family. They toured England and France’s grand sites and political buildings with no distractions or separations. This would be the longest period of their lives spent together. When Lucretia came home, she was pregnant but soon had another miscarriage.
The next several years of their marriage passed in a blur of travel between Washington and Ohio along with additional children, including sons Irvin, Abram, and Edward (Neddie). James became caught up in a political scandal and leaned on Crete’s “unstampedable” strength. She was in the throes of parenting six little children, writing to James that “I sometimes get to feel that they are the worst children ever born” and that they “torment the life out of me sometimes.” She was also taking care of ailing parents and keeping the household together, writing that “it is horrible to be a man but grinding misery [to be] a woman.” She did get a break from caregiving when she attended the Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia in 1876. She thoroughly enjoyed her time there with James and loved learning more about the scientific and technological innovations.
In the fall of 1876, James bought a farm in Mentor, Ohio which became their family home and escape from the political world. They both loved it there with a house full of books and time to play croquet and read to the children by lantern light. Tragedy soon struck, however, as little Neddie died of whooping cough on the eve of the 1876 presidential election. Never one to grieve long, James was soon in Washington helping to broker the deal that put Rutherford B. Hayes in the White House. Crete was busy with family as her mother died in 1879 and her father came to live with her family in Mentor.
When the 1880 presidential election came around, James supported another Ohio candidate, but Crete saw what was going to happen, telling him that she was “half afraid the convention would give him the nomination…I want you to have it when the whole country calls for you. My ambition does not stop short of that.” Upon receiving the nomination, he immediately sent her a telegram saying “Dear wife. If the result meets your approval, I shall be content.”
As the campaign began, the press flocked to their home and called it “Lawnfield.” In this first “front porch campaign,” Crete served cookies and lemonade, keeping the chairs hidden so people would not stay long. Her image was used on campaign literature, and they entertained many guests, including the gospel choir from an African American university.
White House
When James was victorious in a close election, Crete took a secret trip to New York City to get fitted for an inaugural gown and to gather information on the New York wing of the Republican Party for James. They took a train to Washington, and he was made the 20th president on March 4, 1881. They attended the inaugural ball held in the new National Museum building on the Mall (now the Smithsonian Castle), which was the first inaugural ball to be held under electric lights. Crete wore a beautiful lavender satin ball gown, and while she didn’t dance, she received hundreds of guests until near midnight.
The White House was in shambles with worn carpets, rats running between the walls, and aging wooden plumbing that made unpleasant noises. Crete secured $30,000 from Congress to renovate the home and used books on White House history from the Library of Congress to make decisions.
It was a full house with James, Crete, his mother, and the five children occupying the private spaces. The children loved living there, zipping down corridors in bicycles which gouged holes in woodwork.
Crete had a hard time adjusting to the entertaining expectations of a First Lady but continued the tradition of twice-weekly receptions. James always applauded her taste and believed she could do no wrong. They did end the Hayes policy of not serving alcohol which was a relief to Washington society.
The hundreds of job seekers that filled the White House hallways also got to her with one so bold as to give her his card as he sought a plum assignment in Europe. His name was Charles Guiteau.
On May 3, 1881, Crete woke up very sick with chills from malaria which was rampant in Washington’s swamp. James kept a vigil at her bedside, worried she would die. It took her weeks to recover and even longer for her to be able to travel to the Jersey shore where the air was much better for her health. James escorted her there via train in mid-June but returned to the White House on July 1.
On the morning of July 2, he wished a hearty goodbye to his aide, Joseph Stanley-Brown, as he took the two oldest boys to the train station to go back to Crete, who was going to accompany him to his 25th college reunion. As he walked through the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station (where the National Gallery of Art is now located), he was shot by the officer seeker who had reached out to Crete, Guiteau. He immediately dictated a telegram to Crete to tell her of his injury.
As James was tended to by doctors and taken back to the White House, Crete received the telegram and a visitor who was also at the Jersey shore – former President Ulysses S. Grant. He stayed with Crete and reassured her of the survivability of the wound before seeing her to a special train that would take her and Mollie to Washington. She had to be grateful that her two youngest sons were on a train to her parents already, and the people on that train along with the stations they passed through ensured the boys didn’t hear the news until arriving at their grandparents’ home.
Crete and Mollie’s train wrecked outside of Washington, causing a delay in their return and could have resulted in another tragedy. Crete finally arrived at the White House at 6:40 pm, fatigued but desperate to see James. She was only allowed to see him for five minutes, and when he tried telling her about what to do if he died, she shushed him, saying that she was there to “nurse him back to life. Please do not speak again of death.”
Over the next 2 ½ months, Crete hardly left James’ side and insisted on a new (female) doctor to assist. Unfortunately for the Garfields and the entire country, an incompetent Dr. Bliss, who was called to the train station by Robert Todd Lincoln, probed James’ wounds with his dirty hands, creating a tunnel for bacteria.
James seemed to rally, and Crete made sure that all public statements went through her and were positive. He remained his cheerful self even amidst agonizing pain. A rudimentary air conditioner was created to keep his room cooler, and Alexander Graham Bell even invented the first metal detector to try to find the bullet.
The country was reeling after the second assassination in less than twenty years and prayed that James would pull through. They looked for news on the new bulletin boards, and some even blamed the vice president, Chester Arthur, who was part of the New York wing of the Republican Party that the assassin had claimed to represent. Arthur was horrified by this violence and paid his condolences to Crete on July 3, only to be sent back to his home in New York. He would never speak with the president again.
Crete was held up as the stoic, vigilant wife and gained much admiration during the summer. She seemed frail and pale but was constructed of a steely determination to pull her husband through this calamity. And for a while, it looked like she had succeeded.
However, by mid-August, the infection began to wear down James’ body, even resulting in an infected gland on his face and painful boils on his back. He knew he was going to die, saying “I wonder if all this fight against death is worth the little pinch of life I will get anyway.” Crete was so upset that her hair was falling out, and she had to cover her head with a scarf.
On September 5, James and Crete were taken by a slow train to the Jersey shore where tracks had been built to the steps of his seaside cottage. There James spent the last days of his life in extreme pain as infection ravaged his body. Crete refused to leave his side, saying that she got rest by being close to him, and read him newspapers daily. On September 18, James cried out in pain and died at 10:35 pm with Crete kissing his brow. His body was taken back to Washington and then on to Ohio for burial with Crete attending the funeral and mourning, the first time a First Lady appeared at her husband’s funeral.
Later Years
After moving back to Ohio, Crete retired from public life for the next 37 years to raise her children who at James’ death ranged in age from 8 to 18. She received condolence letters from across the world, including a wreath from Queen Victoria, and also was sent funds from the American public along with a Congressional pension. The assassin’s sister pleaded with Crete to save his life but she refused to get involved or even to see the woman when she visited.
Her first concern was James’ papers, so she used some of the funds to build an addition which housed the nation’s first presidential memorial library in a fire-proof vault. She made sure that their personal correspondence was saved including letters about James’ affair (unlike many other first ladies who burned their personal letters). Crete chose to spend her winters in Pasadena, California where Mollie, who had married her father’s aide Joseph, lived with her family. Crete continued to spend the summers at Lawnfield. She enjoyed being a grandmother of sixteen grandchildren and traveled to their homes across the country.
She attended the dedication of James’ grand tomb in 1890 and joined him there when she passed away from pneumonia on March 13, 1918. She was one month shy of her 86th birthday.
Legacy
Crete’s legacy is not as prominent due to her short stay in the White House. If she had served as First Lady for longer than six months, I have no doubt that she would have found a way to make an impact through her quiet strength.
She is one of the first First Ladies to deal with a marriage scandal and her fortitude is one to admire. By the end of his life, James called her the “earthly source of all my joys,” a far cry from his earlier emotional neglect. Their marriage is a great example of how love can grow and mature over the years.
While Crete wasn’t progressive in women’s suffrage, she stood up for the rights of women in education, deriding the president of the Eclectic Institute who didn’t enjoy giving diplomas to women. She also wrote a letter to ensure the female doctor at James’ bedside got paid as much as the male doctors.
She was what we would call a member of the “sandwich generation,” raising young children while also taking care of aging parents. She seems to have endured understandable frustration from these duties, particularly with James traveling so much.
Crete was against slavery and read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which had a profound influence on her. She prayed for the oppressed and rejoiced at their liberation.
As First Lady, Crete didn’t have time to enact the planned White House renovations, but she was the first First Lady to get government payment for her husband’s service. Thanks to her, all first ladies, including Mary Lincoln and Julia Tyler, received a government pension for the rest of their lives. That is a large legacy in itself!
My Time with Lucretia
I was worried there wouldn’t be enough written about Lucretia for me to study, but I was pleasantly surprised. While not many books have been written about her, I enjoyed getting to know her through her own pen as the 1200 letters exchanged with James are preserved. What an amazing treasure trove of historical detail and personal history.
As I read her pleading letters to her husband, first as a young woman who was uncertain of his fidelity and then as his wife who just wanted him by her side, I felt sorry for Crete – and mad at James! He seemed to be friendly and outgoing with everyone but Crete; it’s almost like the differences in their personalities didn’t allow him to love her fully. I was especially mad at his relationships with other women, leaving Crete to never fully trust him. It is heart-breaking that it took the death of their child to bring them together, finally, as a true partnership.
I also felt a kinship with her feelings about the hardships of motherhood. In the throes of dealing with toddlers and young children, it can seem that you are surrounded by “little barbarians” as she called them!
I love when women surprise the world, and Crete seems to have done this with her strength and resilience during James’ assassination. Just a month earlier, she was near death, but she somehow found the fortitude necessary to not only bear her grief but the whole country’s mourning. She didn’t collapse like Mary Lincoln or waste away like Jane Pierce in the face of horrific suffering; she showed the world what true strength is and should be commended for it!
Travels with Lucretia
Crete spent almost her whole life in Ohio, but in her later years, she ventured as far west as California!
Ohio
Many of the Garfield historical sites listed below are part of the Garfield Trail which would be a fun road trip!
Hiram College, Hiram
See several sites important to Crete at the institute where she and James fell in love, married, and spent much of their lives. Sites include the Garfield-Robbins-Zimmerman House where they lived while James was in Congress. The college library also has some of their papers and memorabilia.
James A. Garfield National Historic Site, Mentor
See the Lawnfield where Crete lived with her children before and after the assassination and where the “front porch campaign” was conducted. It’s probably the best site to learn about the Garfields, and you can even view the vault room and memorial library! You can do a virtual tour here. If you live near Mentor, check out the upcoming event on Saturday, December 7 at 6 p.m. – A Winter Evening at Lawnfield with Mrs. Lucretia Garfield.
Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland
Visit the impressive tomb of Crete who is buried beside James.
California
1901 Buena Vista Street, South Pasadena
This home is where Lucretia lived during the winters of her widowhood and where she died in 1918.
New Jersey
Cottage marker, Church of Presidents, and Seven Presidents Park, Long Branch
Visit the site of Crete’s recuperation and the place where James died by the ocean which was popular with many presidential families. The home burned down but a historical marker denotes its location.
Washington, DC
Currently closed for renovations, this building is where the Garfields’ inaugural ball was held.
James Garfield assassination site (markers 1 and 2)
Located on the National Mall outside of the National Gallery of Art, you can learn about the fateful trip to the train station that resulted in his assassination.
Located just outside the west front of the Capitol, James’ statue is one of the most recognized statues in Washington.
See a picture of Garfield’s inauguration parade on this historical marker.
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Visit this history museum to learn more about Crete in the American Presidents exhibit focusing on the assassination. See this article for the items in its collection.
To Learn More
Books to Read
Links are Amazon affiliate links. Be sure to see my Bookshop.org list for all of the books related to my Booking It Through History: First Ladies project.
Lucretia (Volume in the Presidential Wives Series) by John Shaw
I couldn’t obtain a copy of this book but did read Shaw’s other book (see below).
Crete and James: Personal Letters of Lucretia and James Garfield, edited by John Shaw
Since Crete and James exchanged about 1200 letters during their courtship and marriage, their letters provide great insights into their personalities and relationship. It is truly heart-breaking to read about Crete’s longing for her husband and James’ worry about Crete’s health.
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
This narrative nonfiction reads like a thriller as you race through James’ assassination and ultimate death at the hands of his incompetent doctors. I loved the inclusion of Crete in the story. Be sure to listen to an interview with the author on the Presidential podcast linked below.
President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier by CW Goodyear
I enjoyed this new biography about Garfield which was heavy on the political machinations.
Podcasts
The First Ladies podcast – episodes 8 & 12
TV Shows/Movies
C-SPAN First Ladies Influence & Image
Websites
James A. Garfield National Historic Site
White House Historical Association
- Ornament: The Garfield Christmas ornament features the south facade of the White House decorated with collections from Lawnfield. His initials are replicated from the inaugural ball decor. Since they didn’t spend a Christmas in the White House, there were no Garfield Christmas decorations or traditions to honor.
Lucretia Garfield may have only been First Lady for six months, but she still deserves to be remembered for her quiet strength and determination.
