THE LIFE, Speeches, and Public Services OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD CHAPTER I. GENEALOGY OF THE GARFIELD FAMILY. — EARLIEST MENTION OF THEM IN ENGLAND. ASSOCIATED WITH ROBERT DUDLEY, EARL OF LEICESTER, FAVORITE OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. -THE FAMILY IN WALES. -THE HOME OF EDWARD GARFIELD IN CHESTER, ENGLAND. THE FIRST OF THE FAMILY IN AMERICA. — THE COAT OF ARMS. — HISTORY OF CAPTAIN BENJAMIN GARFIELD. — ABRAHAM GARFIELD AT THE CONCORD FIGHT, IN 1775. — EMIGRATION OF SOLOMON TO NEW YORK STATE. -DEATH OF THOMAS AT WORCESTER, N. Y.- BIRTH OF ABRAM GARFIELD. HIS REMOVAL TO OHIO.HIS MARRIAGE WITH ELIZA BALLOU. BROTHERS MARRY SISTERS. THEIR REMARKABLE CHARACTERISTICS. EARLY MARRIED LIFE ALONG THE NEW CANAL. BIRTH OF THE FIRST CHILDREN.SELECTION OF A HOME IN THE WOODS. SHOULD the time ever come when it shall be proven by scientific investigators that man, as a being, is but "the aggregation of minute developments and of varied experiences," the genealogical history of his ancestors will be shown to be of the first importance in forming an estimate of his ability and character. If it be true, as now claimed by scientific leaders of modern thought, that the child is born with all the experiences and mental accumulations of his progenitors, paternal and maternal, latent in his brain and system; then, to gain a knowledge of his physical mould and of his mental peculiarities, the student of biography would need to secure impossible information about the lives of the generations past in order to measure the physical power and mental capabilities of the man whose life he studies. Whether the writers and scholars who devote so much of their time to genealogical studies take this scientific view of the matter or not, it is certain that, for some reason, the study of genealogy is taking a prominent place in the pursuits of scholarly men. Having, however, no faith in the theory that the men of to-day are but the aggregations of experiences and developments in the past, and giving but little credit to the aristocratic claim that ancestry makes the nobleman, we give the line of the Garfield family for the benefit of such as may deem it important. The tendency of this record is to show that all the individuals of the different races are born into the world with very similar characteristics and with much greater equality in mental endowments than aristocracy is willing to admit. It shows, too, that it is not what our fathers were so much as what we make of ourselves, that determines our right to nobility or praise. Ancestry and health wield a perceptible and sometimes a strong influence; but the capital we are born with may be increased a hundred |