James Garfield Biography

Dromo's Den

GARFIELD, James Abram, twentieth president of the United States, born in Orange, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, Nov. 19, 183; died Sept. 19, 1881. His father, Abram Garfield came from Massachusetts ancestors, having descended from English Puritans who founded Watertown in 1630. In 1830 his parents moved to Ohio, settling in what is now known as the Western Reserve, where his mother was left a widow with four small children, of whom James was the youngest. His early schooling was obtained during the winter terms in the rural districts, but he made rapid progress by assistance from his mother, and enlarged his knowledge by studious and constant reading. In 1848 he worked as a tow-boy on the Ohio Canal, entered Hiram College in 1851, and graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts, in 1856. Soon after he returned to Hiram College as a teacher of Greek and Latin, and became president of that institution in 1857. In 1859 he was elected state senator as a republican, and in 1861 organized a regiment of his students and was given charge of a brigade in Kentucky. For marked bravery and superior skill he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. Among the battles in which he served with distinction are Shiloh, Corinth, and Chickamauga. While serving in Alabama he was appointed chief-of-staff of the army of the Cumberland, and later made major-general of volunteers.

At the request of President Lincoln he resigned his commission in the army on Dec. 5, 1863, and hastened to Washington to take his seat is congress, to which he had been chosen fifteen months before. His career as a legislator was equally as brilliant as his military record. He was a member of the committee on military affairs; and was chairman of the appropriation committee and of the committee on banking and currency. In 1877 he served as a member of the electoral commission and in the same year was elected senator from Ohio. The convention at Chicago, held in June, 1880, nominated him for president of the United States, and, after a hard fought contest, he secured the election, defeating W. S. Hancock. He served in the presidency only four months, being shot by an assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, on July 2, 1881, while in the Baltimore and Potomac depot at Washington. After lingering in a weakened condition he died at Elberon, New Jersey, where he had been conveyed for medical treatment. The remains were taken. to Cleveland, Ohio, at which place an elegant monument was erected to his memory. President Garfield was successful in every line of life and always showed a willingness to struggle for merit. However, his political career was marked by severe party opposition and charges of being connected with the famous Credit Mobilier. His mind was cultured, and he always stood for the observance of the law and the advancement of learning. His early success as a teacher led him to be popularly designated "the schoolmaster president."

The Teachers' and Pupils' Cyclopædia, Vol. II. (Kansas City: Bufton Book Co., 1909) 696-697.