THEODORE G. GARFIELD is not only one of the representative younger
members of the bar of his native State of Iowa but also has the distinction of
presiding on the bench of the Eleventh Judicial District of the state, an office
to which he was elected in November, 1926, and the duties to which he assumed
January 1, 1927, his administration having fully demonstrated the consistency of
his selection for this important judicial position. Judge Garfield maintains
his residence at Ames, Story County, which fine little city is the seat of Iowa
State College.
Judge Garfield, who is representative of a profession that was signally
dignified and honored by the character and ability of his father, was born at
Humboldt, Humboldt County, Iowa, November 12, 1894, and is a son of George S.
and Mary (White) Garfield, both of whom were born in the State of Illinois and
the latter of whom was young when she accompanied her parents to Iowa, where her
father, Greenleaf B. White, was a pioneer in the hardware and farm implement
business at Humboldt.
George S. Garfield was born in Illinois, as previously noted, but he was
reared and educated in Vermont. He came to Iowa in 1876, and with funds that he
accumulated by teaching school in Winneshiek County he largely defrayed the
expenses of his higher academic and his professional education. In 1880 he was
graduated in the law department of the University of Iowa, and thereafter he was
engaged in the successful practice of his profession at Humboldt until the close
of his life. He was an honored member of the Iowa State Bar Association and was
attending its annual convention in 1922, at Sioux City, when he was found dead
in his room at the Martin Hotel, on the 22d of June of that year, he having
passed away at the age of sixty-six years and having been one of the leading
members of the bar of Humboldt County, even as he was one of the honored and
influential citizens of the City of Humboldt. His widow, who celebrated in 1928
her seventy-fourth birthday anniversary, is now a loved member of the home
circle of her son, Clement W. Garfield, an attorney in Humboldt.
Judge Garfield was graduated in the high school at Humboldt in 1911, and the
year 1915 marked his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the
University of Iowa. In the law department of the university he was graduated as
a member of the class of 1917, and almost immediately after thus receiving his
degree of Bachelor of Laws he volunteered for service in the World war. His
enlistment took place at Ames, and he received preliminary instruction and
discipline at the Second Officers Training Camp at Fort Snelling, Minnesota,
where he received commission as first lieutenant August 25, 1917. Thereafter he
was assigned to duty as instructor in field artillery work at the School of Fire
maintained at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and he was stationed at that place when the
armistice brought the war to a close, he having received his honorable discharge
on the 16th of December, 1918.
After completing his World war service Judge Garfield returned to Ames and
engaged actively, in the practice of his profession, as junior member of the law
firm of Lee & Garfield, the senior member of the firm having been Judge C. G.
Lee. This representative professional alliance continued until Judge Garfield
was elected to the bench of the District Court, in the fall of 1926, as
previously stated in this context, and on this bench he has made an admirable
record, even as had he previously in the active general practice of law.
The political allegiance of Judge Garfield is given to the Republican party,
he has membership in the Story County Bar Association and the Iowa State Bar
Association, he is a past commander of the local post of the American Legion in
his home city, he is affiliated with the Phi Delta Phi law college fraternity,
and he is a popular member of the Ames Golf and Country Club. In his native
City of Humboldt he had membership in the Unitarian Church, but he and his wife
now attend and support the Congregational Church at Ames.
April 1, 1918, marked the marriage of Judge Garfield, to Miss Louise Keith,
and she died March 24, 1921, leaving no children. On the 30th of June, 1924,
was solemnized the marriage of Judge Garfield to Miss Carolyn Crosby, of Ames,
and they have three children: Theodore G., Jr., was born June 18, 1925; David
C. was born June 28, 1927; and John C. was born August 13, 1930.
Judge Garfield still maintains his law office at 323 1/2 Main Street and he
and his family have their attractive home at 1109 Ridgewood Avenue.
|
