My Genealogy Hound

FRED H. GARFIELD, the popular and energetic division passenger agent of the Erie railway, whose headquarters are at Jamestown, was born in the town of Busti, this county, November 10, 1853, and is a son of Benjamin and Sarah (Botsford) Garfield.

The Garfield family for more than two centuries were residents of the American colonies, and our martyred president was a descendant of the same family from which our subject came. For more than a century they were residents of Worcester county, Massachusetts, and the first to come to Chautauqua county was Samuel Garfield, familiarly known as Deacon Garfield, on account of his upright religious character. Deacon Samuel Garfield was born in the “Bay State,” at the place above mentioned, and in 1803 removed with his father, Eliakim Garfield, to Windham county, Vermont. The father was a Revolutionary soldier and served with more than ordinary distinction. Samuel Garfield married in the “Green Mountain State,” and in 1814 came to Chautauqua county; he purchased a farm in the town of Busti and secured a livelihood by farming and doing carpenter work. He possessed considerable inventive genius, his first invention being grain measures, nested from a half bushel down; following this he manufactured scythe-snaths and grain cradle handles, besides making a large number of rakes. Immense quantities of these “crooked sticks,” as they were called, were manufactured by him and sold to the farmers in his neighborhood; several boat-loads were sent down the river to the southern markets. He had several brothers, among them Joseph Garfield, Sr., who reared a considerable family. Both Samuel Garfield and his wife died a number of years ago; they were the parents of a large family, all of whom are now dead excepting Lydia, wife of Amos Palmer, and the father of our subject. Benjamin Garfield was born in the town of Busti and became opulent from the products of his farm. In 1880 he moved to Salamanca, New York, where he now resides, the proprietor of the railroad eating-house. He married Sarah Botsford and reared a family of two children. Benjamin Garfield is a democrat and has filled some of the town offices in Busti; he was a man of integrity and upright character. Mrs. Garfield was a native of the town of Kiantone, and is now in her fifty-sixth year.

Fred H. Garfield was born on his father’s farm, where he passed his early life and received his education in the district school and at the public schools of Jamestown. In 1876 he was offered the position of passenger agent of the old Atlantic and Great Western railroad, and he remained with that company through its various changes until 1885, when he was appointed division passenger agent of the Erie railway, by whom the N. Y., P. and O. R. R., the successor of the Atlantic and Great Western has been absorbed. He has immediate charge of the passenger traffic of over two hundred miles of the Erie R. R., and in the discharge of his duty is giving satisfaction to his superior officers.

On the 7th day of June, 1882, he married Mary Smith, a daughter of George Smith, who lived at Wilson, Niagara county; she bore him a son, Robert Marvin, and died in May, 1890. Fred H. Garfield is a democrat and takes an active part in politics. He is genial and accommodating, and the popularity of the passenger carrying business of the Erie railway is due largely to his personal supervision.