Presidential Resources Online
James Garfield 1881
James Garfield was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio,
in 1831 and as a young man worked as a canal driver to earn money for college.
He was graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1856, and became
a professor at Hiram College in Ohio, where he became President of that
institution shortly thereafter. He was elected to the Ohio State
Senate in 1859, and During the Civil War (1861-65) Garfield led Union troops
in Kentucky. He rose quickly within the military ranks, ultimately
becoming a Major General by 1862. In that year he was elected to
the U.S. House of Representatives where he served for 18 years. In
1880 he was elected President. Garfield served for less than a year.
On July 2, 1881 Garfield was shot at a Washington railroad station by an attorney
for whom the President had refused a political appointment.
Garfield died from his wounds two months later.
Online Garfield Resources:
Garfield's Inaugural
Address - Published online from Bartleby.com
How
Alexander Graham Bell Helped Kill the President - This is an article which
claims that Garfield died as a result of the medial attempts to remove the
bullet from his body, and not from the actual gunshot wound.
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