The nine-room home was a tight fit for the Garfield family. The family at that point consisted of James A. Garfield, his wife Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, their five children, Harry, James, Mary (Mollie), Irving and Abram, Garfield’s mother Eliza Ballou Garfield, and Lucretia’s father Zeb Rudolph. By 1880, Garfield had expanded the nine room farm home to a twenty-room home. Not long before the construction was completed on the home, the Garfield family made it back to Mentor on May 11, 1880. Garfield’s friend in Congress, Burke Hinsdale, reflects on this time in the Mentor home, “These were the grand years in Garfield’s life… They were years of reading, study, think and communion with friends and family. He was happy in his family, his friends and in his work.” | Date: ca. Fall 1880 | Source: National Park ServiceDownload Original File
