George Selwyn Garfield was the son of Marietta Clement and Benjamin Franklin Garfield. He was born in Illinois in 1856 but at the age of six months went with his parents back to Vermont. He received his education in the common schools of Vermont, supplemented by the Vermont State Normal School. {1}

 

George Garfield and his brother, James, were orphaned when he was fifteen years of age, and they earned their own way in the world thereafter. He taught in Vermont and in 1976 he came to Iowa, teaching in Winneshiek County followed by teaching for one year in Pennsylvania. He read law for one year at the office of M. P. Hathaway in Winneshiek County, then entered law school at the University of Iowa. He graduated in 1880 and lived in Humboldt, Iowa with his classmate Charles A. Edwards. They formed the partnership of Garfield and Edwards. Mr. Edwards died of tuberculosis in 1883. [2] This firm was later known as the Baker, Miller, Johnsen, and Sandblom firm, now Lemmenes and Dodgen. [3]

 

From 1883 until 1914 when his son Clement W. Garfield joined him, George S. Garfield carried on alone. His office, for a while, was located on the second floor of the Lorbeer stone building, above what is now the Knotty Pine Tavern, but what was then the post office and Harness general store. [4]

 

For many years George S. Garfield was president of the school board and held that office in 1893 when the full two story stone school building was built.

 

He was one of the first directors of the First National Bank of HUmboldt and a member of the Unitarian Church. Mr. Garfield was instrumental in obtaining the Humboldt Public Library which was built in 1908.[5] He fought tirelessly for the library and it was largely through his efforts that the financial aid from the Carnegie fund was obtained. He gave his last few hundred dollars that enabled the committee to let the contract for the building. [6]

 

George S. Garfield remained in Humboldt throughout his life. In 1884 he married Mary F. White, daughter of G. B. White, a leading merchant. Their youngest son, Theodore G. Garfield, was a district judge for 14 years and served until 1989 on the Iowa Supreme Court of which he was the longest-serving Chief Justice. [7] [8]

 

The elder Mr. Garfield was a quiet-spoken man. He did trial work until about 1910 when he gradually retired from it, preferring the quiet of a busy office to the head of the courtroom. He built up a large probate practice as that is what he preferred to do. His death occurred in 1922 while he was attending a Bar Association Meeting in Sioux City. [9] A short, simple but elegant cremation service was held at the Unitarian Church in Des Moines and a memorial service was held July 25, 1922, at Unity Church in Humboldt, led by the Rev. Eleanor Gordon. In his will he left a memorial fund of $2,000 to the Unity Church, $1,000 to the Free Public Library of Humboldt, and $2,000 ti Taft’s Park for improving the grounds. [10]

• Martha Schmidt

 

[1] The Garfield Law Firm by Pat Baker; The Humboldt Independent Thursday June 24, 1999, p.A1.

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] Obituary The Humboldt Independent July 1, 1922

[7] The Garfield Law Firm by Pat Baker; The Humboldt Independent Thursday, June 24, 1999, p. A1

[8] Obituary, The Daily Tribune, Monday, November 6, 1989, p.A9

[9] Obituary, The Humboldt Republican, July 1, 1922

[10] News item; The Humboldt Republican, July 15, 1922