James Abram Garfield was born on November 19, 1831 in Orange, Ohio. His father was Abram Garfield and his mother was Eliza Ballou Garfield. He was the last President to be born in a log cabin. He graduated from Williams College and served as our 20th President from March 4, 1881 to September 19, 1881.

     Mr. Garfield was a schoolteacher. He went on to serve as a public official. He was a State Senator in Ohio and was later elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1880, he was elected to the United States Senate – the same day he was elected President… and, he was a sitting U.S. Congressman at the time! A brilliant scholar, President James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other. He was the first President to campaign in two languages – English and German.

     James Garfield married Lucretia Rudolph in 1858. They had seven children: Eliza, Harry, James, Mary, Irvin, Abram and Edward. On July 2, 1881, Mr. Garfield went to the train station in Washington, D.C. to meet some important guests who were arriving in town. It was there that Charles Guiteau, a lawyer who had sought an appointment in the Garfield administration but had been turned down, shot him. The gunshot, itself, was not fatal but doctors made many unsuccessful attempts to remove the bullet.

     President James Garfield died on September 19, 1881 in Elberon, New Jersey. The cause of death was blood poisoning.

            

Biographical Sketch © 2002 Damon Leigh (ASCAP)

Presidential Portrait © 2002 Chas Fagan