III.

Education

In 1849 Garfield's mother persuaded him to enter Geauga Academy in Chester, Ohio. “No greener boy ever started out to school,” he recorded. Also about this time he was baptized into the Disciples of Christ, the church of his parents. Garfield's early journals are filled with allusions to his religious faith.

In 1851 he entered Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (later Hiram College), a Disciples of Christ school at Hiram, Ohio. There he began teaching and lay preaching. He was a persuasive speaker and debater but had no patience with politics. “I am exceedingly disgusted with the wire-pulling of politicians and the total disregard of truth in all their operations,” Garfield wrote.

By 1854, through the strictest economy, Garfield had saved enough money to enroll at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. After two years at Williams, he graduated with honors and returned to teach ancient languages and literature at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute. However, his religious beliefs had changed. In September 1856 he wrote a friend, “My stay here will certainly be very short. ... Had I known all I know now I would not have come here at all.” Nevertheless, Garfield became the principal of the institute and continued to preach in the Disciples of Christ Church.