08/08/2026
President James A. Garfield presentation to be held Weds., Aug. 12 in Tallmadge
Our friends at the Tallmadge Historical Society would like to invite you to attend a special presentation regarding President James Garfield. The presentation will be held Weds., Aug. 12 at 6 p.m. at the historic church on the Tallmadge Circle.
The presenter will be a historical re-enactor who will portray President Garfield speaking about being an American and Living the American dream. This is part of the City of Tallmadge’s America 250 celebrations.
I don’t think the presenter will be talking about the following subject, but President Garfield had ties to a highly respected Cuyahoga Falls educator named Almeda Booth. In fact, he was so impressed by her intellect, character and teaching skills that he travelled to Cuyahoga Falls for her funeral, and wrote a eulogy praising her accomplishments.
Almeda was born in 1823, to early Western Reserve settlers Ezra and Dorcas Booth.
For the first 12 years of her life, she lived in Nelson, Ohio, where she soon impressed teachers and faculty with her keen mind and scholarship. In fact, historical accounts indicate that she quickly became known for posing challenging questions to her teachers and diplomatically noting their mistakes. One early teacher, irked by her corrections, was told by the superintendent to appreciate and encourage Almeda’s innate knowledge and curiosity. Later, that teacher found Almeda to be a tremendous help in his own research and scholarship.
In 1835, Almeda and her family moved to Mantua, Ohio, where she quickly became known as an amazing scholar and the best speller in the school district.
To give you an idea of how serious a scholar she was, as a 12-year-old, while her other schoolmates were playing games, she amused herself by reading Rollin’s “Ancient History” and “Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”
Following completion of her education, she taught English, Classics and Mathematics and served as principal of the Ladies Department at Western Reserve Eclectic College (later known as Hiram College) from 1851 to 1866.
It was while she was at Hiram that she met future U.S. President James A. Garfield, who was a fellow teacher and Hiram principal (the equivalent of today’s college president).
Around 1865, she moved to Cuyahoga Falls from Hiram to care for her elderly parents, who had health issues.
The following year, she became assistant principal of the old Union School (also known as East Side School) in Cuyahoga Falls. She also taught there for four years, then became superintendent for the then village of Cuyahoga Falls school district. She served in that role for three years, then later withdrew from those duties to provide private lessons in French, German and advanced studies.
Garfield thought so highly of her teaching skills that he asked her to consider schooling his own children.
Unfortunately, in 1874, she was diagnosed with a painful, but unspecified disease and eventually travelled to Cleveland, Ohio, for treatment.
She died in Cleveland on Dec. 15, 1875 at the age of 52, and was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Cuyahoga Falls.
According to her obituary, in total she spent nearly three decades in the teaching profession, including 42 terms at (now) Hiram College, 21 terms in the Cuyahoga Falls school system and 2 years in private instruction.
In June of 1876, James A. Garfield – who at that time was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives – traveled to Hiram to deliver (and later published) a eulogy, chronicling Almeda Booth’s character and accomplishments.
He wrote, “I venture to asset that in native powers of mind, in thoroughness and breadth of scholarship, in sweetness of spirit, and in the quality and quantity of effective, unselfish work done, she has not been excelled.”
Likewise, newspapers lauded Booth as being “one of the foremost teachers of her time.”
