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Mrs. Rappaport |
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James Garfield was born on November
19, 1831 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio; a few miles south of Cleveland.
Before James turned two, his father died. His mother was left
with four children to raise and barely had any money. Three of
the four children were able to help the Widow Garfield farm her
land in Orange Township, Ohio, but James was too young to work.When he was older, he was not
too helpful on the farm because he was often in his own little
dream world; sometimes he would absentmindedly slash himself
with an axe while out cutting wood, James loved to read. He was
often sick and this gave him many chances to read, and read again
his favorite books. Books about the ocean were among his favorites.During one period of time, James
began to keep a private journal, He was excited to continue with
his life, however, by age sixteen, he had become useful enough
to work and earn a good wage. Usually, though, they were jobs
that took him away from the farm,In the summer of 1848, Garfield
left home to go to sea. He headed straight for the busy port
of Cleveland. A half-drunk captain refused to take Garfield on
his ship so Garfield instead went to the Ohio and Pennsylvania
Canal. There he got a job prodding the horses that pull the barges.
He fell into the canal fourteen times! He had never learned to
swim so he had to be pulled out every time.Garfield was promoted to better
jobs on the canal but he got sick and was forced to return back
to his home. He was in bed with a fever from October, 1848 until
January, 1849. His mom took care of him and convinced him to
quit his job at the canal and get an education.Taking his Mother's advice, James
enrolled in a Baptist school named the Geauga Academy in the
nearby town, Chester. Most of the students at the Academy had
a limited education. After eight months he was given a certificate
to teach school, even though he was still a student.He took jobs as a carpenter and
a teacher to support himself while, he attended Geauga. He was
paid very low wages and for one full spring term he ate only
milk, bread and pudding.In 1859 James married Lucretia
Rudolph. At the age of 28 years old, Garfield was the youngest
member of the Ohio legislature. He had much to learn about the
running of the legislative business. Luckily, he shared a room
with another man who was in the legislature and it helped him
greatly. The members of Congress were the
first to be elected in wartime and they found themselves in an
extremely difficult position. The Civil War was overshadowing
all other issues and there were many empty chairs on the Democratic
side of the house. Most people who belonged to the Congress could not manage to bring their families to Washington so Garfield found a small place to live in a boarding house. He was lonely, so setting aside his general's uniform, he took a congressional seat which he occupied for the next seventeen years Later on in his life, Garfield
and his family moved to a farm in Mentor, Ohio. Here Garfield
managed his presidential campaign. By a margin of only 10,000
popular votes, but by gaining the state of New York, he had a
comfortable majority of the electoral votes. His election to
presidency was a clear victory.During his first four months in
office, he unexpectedly faced a few big problems. One of them
was a post office scam. The Star Route Frauds involved enormous
amounts of money for delivering mail to thinly populated regions
of the West. Garfield gave the postmaster permission to investigate.While that was happening, Lucretia,
his wife fell ill with malaria. Garfield was never far from her
side. By July, she was okay and out of danger.On July 2nd, after breakfast with
James S. Blaine, the two men went to the Baltimore & Potomac
train station for Garfield to catch a train. They were heading
to a big convention. Suddenly, someone fired a gun. James A.
Garfield had been shot. The shot killed him. The assassin was
Charles J. Guiteau who was a crazed lawyer (are there any other
kind?). James A Garfield died September 19, 1881. This was only
6 months after he took office. |
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Emily: Emily: Emily: Emily: Emily: |
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Dee Lillegard. Encyclopedia of Presidents, James A. Garfield
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