MENTOR, Ohio — As we celebrate America 250, I'm exploring an effort to recognize a group of people whose commitment to the country often goes unseen compared to that of their more prominent counterparts.
I am talking about America’s first ladies, and I talked with a man from Northeast Ohio who is part of a nationwide movement to change that.
I met him at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, which is open daily for tours, but it’s not every day you get to speak with a descendant there.
“I’m James A. Garfield III,” said Garfield III. “I am named after the 20th president of the United States who was my great-great-great-grandfather.”
Garfield III said he feels at home and connected to the historic site. He told me he and his brother grew up helping maintain the grounds.
President Garfield and his family called the farm home from 1876 until his assassination in 1881.
“A lot of people don’t know what a great president he would’ve been,” he said.
While President Garfield’s time in the White House was cut short, his legacy lives on thanks in large part to his widow, First Lady Lucretia Garfield, who preserved the past for future generations.
She built a beautiful library in his honor after his death, which, as history records, served as the basis for the presidential libraries we know today.
“It’s just incredible,” said Garfield III. “And she built a vault in this library to house and protect his writings and his papers.”
He said the couple were avid readers and all the books in the library belonged to them.
“They wrote in some of these books,” he said. “They wrote notes and quips and to know that that legacy is here, too, is just astounding. That they did that, and she put that together.”
Garfield III is now part of a commission of presidential descendants, historians, and advocates looking to write a new chapter in honor of our nation’s first ladies.
“We have Presidents Day,” he said. “We do not have a First Ladies Day. We don’t have anything to honor these amazing women.”
The National First Ladies Day Commission is working to establish an official national holiday in recognition of America’s first ladies on the last Saturday of April to align with the start of the first lady’s role with Martha Washington in 1789.
“We need to have this day,” said Garfield III. “We need to have a day that represents first ladies and their commitment to the country.”
Ohio is among the first states to officially recognize the day by issuing a declaration.
“It’s signed by Governor DeWine,” said Michelle Gullion, senior director of collections and research at The National First Ladies Library & Museum in Canton. “It was just signed last year.”
The declaration from Gov. Mike DeWine is on display at the library and museum in Canton, which is where I met Gullion.
“What stands out to you about our first ladies?” I said.
“All these women and the sacrifices that they make,” said Gullion.
She said the museum and library house the largest single-site collection of first lady history and memorabilia, including a letter from Lucretia Garfield.
“It’s probably one of our most important documents that we have here in our collection,” said Gullion.
In the letter, Lucretia writes to the chair of the congressional committee tasked with settling the medical bill after President Garfield's death.
She is fighting for equal pay, as the lone woman doctor was set to receive half the amount the men received.
“And she says, ‘This is discrimination,’” said Gullion. “And that not only was she just as capable as all the other doctors, but she says how she gave more real care.”
“Did she get it changed?” I said.
“Yes, she did,” said Gullion.
The National First Ladies Day Commission, Gullion, and other supporters are hoping for a yes from Congress or the President of the United States.
Garfield III said their hope is that it would be a day of public service.
“For the most part, we would just love people to get out and do something for their community and then remember the first ladies,” said Garfield III.
“And the importance of what this woman brings to the presidency,” said Gullion. “He wouldn’t be who he was without her.”
