Wisconsin School for the Deaf - Tattler Yearbook (Delavan, WI)

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JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD By Mux Lewi Jimu's Abram Garfield, the twentieth president of the United States, was born in a poor log hut in Orange, Ohio, November 19th, 1831. The Garfield family lived on an eighty acre farm which his father hud purchased at two dollars per acre. The Garfield home was not far from the railroad. When James was eighteen months old, u spark from u pussing locomotive set fire to their wheat field and his father became ill from fighting the flumes and died. His body was put in a plain box and buried in a corner of the wheat-field. Mrs. Garfield was then left alone to support her four smnll children and had to work hard. She helped her nine year old son, Thomas, split rails and fence in the wheat field. She got wool from her sheep und made clothes for her little ones. Mehetohel, Thomas and she ploughed and planted the field and gathered in the harvest. Mrs. Garfield wanted her children to receive a good education so with the help of neighbors she erected a log school house. The scholars sat on logs for benches und learned how to read, write and spell as best they could. James was then nearly three years old and went and sat all day on the hard benches with his brothers and sister. Mrs. Garfield was a Christian woman and taught her children her simple faith. Garfield began to earn money working for neighbors when he was ten years old. One job brought him nine dollars a month and board. He was fond of reading and studied arithmetic and read books about the sea every night. Robinson Crusoe was one of his favorites. Once he got a job cutting wood for his uncle in New-burg and cut one hundred cords of wood at twenty-five cents a cord. When this work was over, he went proudly home with twenty-fiive dollars. He urged his mother to let him be a sailor and at lost she gave him permission. Putting his clothes in a bundle, he started off for Cleveland. Ohio, seventeen miles from his home. As soon as he hnd reached there, he went down to the wharves and on board a schooner and asked for work, but the drunken captain told him to get off the boat. James did not know what the reason was und he was somewhat disheartened. At lost he met a cousin who gave him a job driving mules along n canal. The salary was ten dollars and board per month. During the three months he worked on the canal he fell into the water fourteen times. He caught a fever and went home where his mother took care of him until he was well. In 1849 he decided to enter Georgia Seminary at Chester, Ohio. He, an eighteen year old boy, went on foot to Chester carrying plates, knives, forks, a kettle and other utensils as he must board himself. There were four boys in the room he secured. At the start James had seventeen dollars but they soon melted away. He then found work in a carpenter shop where he worked nights and mornings while out of school. In the school library there were one-hundred fifty volumes. James eagerly seized the opportunity to reud specializing on biography and history. He joined the College debating team and made good. In the winter he was appointed an assistant teacher. After he hnd graduated from the seminary, a friend of his urged him to attend college. He told James that his chances for success would be much better if he went through college. When Garfield was twenty years old, he entered Hiram College, Ohio. Every morning he rang the bell for the students and the teachers to start for school. He was always cheerful and became

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SALUTATORY By Howard Fisk Slat Board of Control, Superintendent, Teachers, Classmate and Friends: In behalf of the clan of 1928 I deem it n privilege a well a a pleasure to extend to you a hearty welcome to these fifty-eighth commencement exercises of the Wisconsin School for the Deaf, which mark the greatest event of our lives thus far, one thut will he fondly cherished in our memories, although I feel sure the very utmos-phere of the place has already bespoken our welcome far better than I can do so in words. All through our school career we have been looking forward to this day of days; but now, that it is here, as we look hack over the path we have been trending und catch the fragrance of the flowers strewn along the way, we long to repose again beneath the shade of the sturdy oaks, that so generously offered protection. We are Mlruck with admiration at the golden sunoeums that have Illumined the way. True, now ana then n storm cloud hovered over our young heads, but It was soon dispelled. We now realize more fully than ever before that here we have been building Arm foundations for life's temples of learning, and we are grateful, indeed, to those who have so kindly aided us in this great task. Not only have we gained u working knowledge of the three R's, but we nave had the golden opportunity of getting well acquainted with various trades, therefore, we should with this adequate equipment prove thut we can go on with these temples for we have learned that the material for the erection of ench is double the amount of that which was gathered for King Solomon's. “Unto him who sees aright This life is opportunity. Our class is smull consisting of only five members, one girl und four boys, the former having entered the full of 1926. Previous to this she had attended the Iowa School for the Deaf since early childhood. It is not often there is such n scarcity of girls in a class but this particular one has been thus ever fated, for, from the Primary department up to our Junior year the class has been entirely composed of boys. We regret that they are not ull sitting here on the platform tonight, sharing with us the joy of this occasion; but ere their foundations were completed, they »onsed such an earnest desire to start in on the construction of their temples that they left us. Our motto Ever Higher was chosen tie-cause it is our honest intention not to stop here and allow these foundations to be hidden in ruins beneath the tull waving grass and creeping mosses of indolence, apathy and discouragement, but to work on laying one stone upon the other, daily endeavoring to faithfully perform the tasks set before us. The pansy, our class flower, was chosen for its modesty and humility, two precious stones we very much need in this character building if we would have it express beauty and sublimity. Royal blue and silver gray, us you doubtless have already observed, are our class colors. The royal blue urging loyalty to the high ideals implanted in us by our dear old Alma Mater and the gray symbolizing the gray dawn of tne new day now rising before us. And if we live as (Jod has given us power; No blind fatality can shut the living soul From its high power Of building up a glorious destiny. So my friends, one and all, we ask you to join with us with gladsome hearts in the celebration of this hour and to hold in thought as we are doing, the optimism that the best materials possible for these individual temples we are going to build are ever obtainable and that, we, the workmen under divine control are fit. Again I welcome you, however, not I but the class of 1928. for whom I am speuking.

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one of the most popular men in the institution. After two years in Hiram College he went to Williams College, Massachusetts. When twenty-five years old he graduated from Williams College and returned to Hiram as a professor, and the next year became its president. A year later he married Lucretia Rudolph, one of his pupils. In 1858 Mr. Garfield was elected State Senator. Later, in 1861, he was chosen Colonel of the -12nd Ohio regiment and left the Senate to lake part in the Great Civil War. Nearly one hundred Hiram College students went with him. In January 1862. he with his men. fought the battle of Middle Creek driving General Marshall with five thousand men out of Kentucky. The battle lasted five hours. As a reward ho was made a Major General. In the summer of 1880 Mr. Garfield was elected United States Senator and in 1881 was elect- ed president of the United States. Four months after his inauguration while going with Mr. Blaine, Secretary of State, to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station in Washington he was shot by Charles Guiteau. a disappointed office seeker. For this crime Guiteau was hanged. Garfield lingered till September 19th when he passed away, the whole country mourned his death and when Queen Victoria of England heard of it she sent Mr . Garfield her sympathy. Two days Inter his body was taken to the capitol to lie in state. Thousands of people went there to sec him for the last time. After that his body was brought to Cleveland for burial. Rev. I. Errett, I). D. of Cincinnati, Ohio, preached the funeral service. Mr. Garfield was greatly revered by all and especially by the deaf us during his short term in office he greatly aided Gallaudet College, the only college for the deaf in the world.