PBA Galleries

356 pp. (8vo) 4¾x7¼", cloth covers stamped in gilt.  

Garfield inscribed in pencil on ruled lines on front free endpaper: "Presented to J. A. Garfield by Spencer J. Fowler - as a premium for his scholarship in the Latin class of Geauga Seminary Oct. 1850". From a letter James A. Garfield wrote to the Board of Trustees, Geauga Seminary, " In accordance with your request, I make a brief statement of my connection with Geauga Seminary...I attended there in the fall of 1849, and during the following winter I taught my first school. Returned to the Seminary in the spring of 1850.  Spencer J. Fowler was then principal, and John B. Beech was his chief assistant.  I commenced the study of Latin, and finished Algebra and Botany.  At the close of the spring term I made my first public speech. It was a six minutes' oration at the annual exhibition..."