How Lake Garfield got its name—and why. 

You may have heard that the lake was named for President James A. Garfield after he was assassinated in 1881. But do you know why? 

The Garfield name has been in Monterey since its founding as Township Number 1. Lieutenant Isaac Gearfield (as the name was then spelled) was one of the first European settlers, trekking from Weston, MA. According to family lore, he “crossed the mountains into the wilderness of Western Massachusetts in about 1739, and slept the first night under his cart.” He married Mary Brewer here in 1742. She was also born in Weston, daughter of Captain John Brewer, for whom the lake was named Brewer Pond. They had twelve children here at his homestead along the Boston-Albany Post Road (now Mt. Hunger Road). Their descendants lived here for many generations and their house still stands. 

President Garfield was a cousin several times removed from Lt. Isaac Gearfield, and he was very interested in his Garfield family history. 

President James Abram Garfield was born in Ohio in 1831. He attended Williams College from 1854-56, and while there, visited his relatives in Monterey/ Tyringham to walk in the footsteps of his ancestors. Here is what he later wrote about his family roots: 

“My father moved into the wild woods of Ohio before he was twenty years of age, and died when he was thirty-three, and of course when his children were all small, and I, the youngest, but an infant.” His mother raised their five children. Although James grew up in poverty, he was an excellent student and became a skilled orator and loved history.” 

James continued that, “While I was in college [in Williamstown] … I went down to old Tyringham (Monterey) … and there found a large number of Garfields, some twenty families, old residents of that neighborhood … In an old graveyard in Tyringham (now Monterey), I found the tombstone of Lieutenant Isaac Gearfield, and on the stone was recorded 1755 [sic, actually 1792], as the date of his death.” 

President Garfield continued, quoting from the 1829 History of Berkshire County: “In 1735 the Legislature authorized the laying out of four new towns, each six miles square, the first of which towns was Tyringham. It was divided by lot, four of the proprietors being clergymen, and they drew the following lots…‘Rev. William Williams of Weston drew Lot No. 38, now (in 1829) occupied by Daniel Garfield [emphasis added] …The settlement commenced in 1739. In April of that year, Lieutenant Isaac Gearfield and Thomas Slaton moved into (Township) No. 1 and John Chadwick joined them about the same time… About 1750, John Jackson moved into the townfrom Weston, and persons by the name of Thomas and Orton…moved into it about the same time… The first log house in [the North Tyringham or Hop Brook] section of the town…was erected by Deacon Thomas Orton, about 1762, on the ground since owned and occupied by his son-in-law, Isaac Garfield (Lt. Isaac’s son).” 

The young James A. Garfield attended Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (later named Hiram College) in Hiram, Ohio from 1851-54, and met his future wife Lucretia Rudolph there. In 1854, he transferred to Williams College. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa, he returned to Hiram College, becoming its president. He had become enlightened by the abolitionist atmosphere at Williams College and decided to pursue a career in politics. He practiced law in Cleveland and was elected to the Ohio State Senate. Statue of James A. Garfield at Hiram College in Ohio. 

James A. Garfield served with distinction in the Union Army in the Civil War and was promoted to major general. He later resumed his political career, serving in the US Congress beginning in 1863. He was a firm supporter of black suffrage. 

In 1880, as a newly elected senator, he became a compromise candidate for president and ran against Winfred Hancock, another Civil War general. James A. Garfield was elected president by a small margin in the popular vote but a large margin of electoral votes. He was inaugurated in March 1881. 

Only three months later, on July 2, 1881, he left Washington, DC for a vacation in New England which was planned to include a visit to his alma mater in Williamstown and to his relatives in Tyringham and Monterey. As he was leaving, he was shot by a deranged and frustrated office seeker who wanted to be appointed as ambassador to Paris. In those days before antiseptics and modern medicine, the president developed infections, lingering for two months before dying on September 18, 1881. 

As noted in the clipping (above) from the Berkshire County Eagle, on July 4, 1881, two days after the shooting, the citizens of Monterey honored the long history of the Garfield family in Monterey and expressed their affection for President James A. Garfield by renaming Brewer’s Pond to be Lake Garfield. 

At that point, it was hoped and expected that President Garfield would recover and be able to complete his visit to his family’s ancestral home and to the newly named Lake Garfield. Unfortunately this wish was not fulfilled. But his name and legacy continue to the present. — Rob Hoogs