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James A. Garfield: Northeast Ohio
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James A. Garfield, a Northern Ohio native, was a learned man -- one of five children. He was a Civil War hero and a member of Congress before running for President. He and his wife Lucretia lived at "Lawnfield" in Mentor with their seven children.
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A primary source of information on Garfield is Theodore Clarke Smith, The Life and Letters of James Garfield (2 vols., 1925). An excellent biography is Robert Granville Caldwell, James A. Garfield: Party Chieftain (1931). Earlier works on Garfield tend to be absurdly laudatory, virtually ignoring problems connected with Garfield's military career and financial dealings. Garfield is discussed in Kenneth W. Wheeler, ed., For the Union: Ohio Leaders in the Civil War (1968). The best political survey of the age is H. Wayne Morgan, From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877-1896 (1969). For the election of 1880 see Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., ed., History of American Presidential Elections (4 vols., 1971).
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James Abram Garfield was born on November 19, 1831. He was the son of Abram Garfield and Eliza Ballou Garfield, New Englanders who had settled in the Western Reserve region of northern Ohio. Abram Garfield, a farmer and canal construction worker, died when James was two years old, leaving his widow and four children to face the rigors of frontier life. James's childhood was one of hardship and work. The last president to be born in a log cabin, Garfield had little leisure time in his youth. He did farm work until he was 16 years old, then found employment on a canal boat.
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Born in a log cabin to poor, uneducated parents, James Garfield went on to be a scholar, Civil War hero, U.S. congressman and, eventually, president of the United States. First elected to congress in 1862, he spent nearly 18 years there until winning a Senate seat in 1880. He got involved in the 1880 presidential race as a supporter of Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman, a fellow Ohio Republican. But Garfield himself ended up as a dark horse candidate and narrowly defeated Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock for the presidency. Unfortunately, Garfield's rags-to-riches story came to an abrupt end when a disgruntled Republican supporter, Charles Guiteau, shot Garfield twice on 2 July 1881, just four months after the president had been sworn in. Garfield lingered on through the summer and died in Elberon, New Jersey on 19 September 1881. His vice president, Chester A. Arthur, was sworn in as president on 20 September 1881.
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James Abram Garfield was born on November 19, 1831. His parents were Abram Garfield and Eliza Ballou Garfield; they were New Englanders who had settled in the Western Reserve region of northern Ohio. Abram was farmer and a canal construction worker; he died when James was only two years old. Abram left his widow and four children, to the rigors of frontier life. James was the man of the house; he grew up into hardship and work to support his family. Garfield had little leisure in his youth life.
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James Abram Garfield was the twentieth President of the United States. He was born on November 19, 1831, in Orange, Ohio. Garfield's father died in 1833, and James spent most of his youth working on a farm to care for his widowed mother. At the age of seventeen, Garfield took a job steering boats on the Ohio and Erie Canal.
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