JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD, twentieth President of the United States, was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Nov. 19, 1831. His parents lived on a small farm in what was then a wilderness. Before he was two years old his father died, and his early years were spent amid the trials and struggles of backwoods farm life. His early opportunities for securing an education were extremely limited, yet were sufficient to develop in him an intense desire to learn. He could read at three years of age, and each winter he had the advantage of the district school. He read all the books to be found within the circle of his acquaintance; some of them he knew by heart. At the age of eighteen he was able to teach school, and thenceforward his ambition was to obtain a college education. To this end he bent all his efforts, working in the harvest field, at the carpenter's bench, and, in the winter season, teaching the common schools of the neighborhood. He had already attended the Geauga Seminary at Chester, Ohio, and later entered Hiram College. At twenty-two years of age he entered the junior class at Williams College, where he graduated with distinguished honor in 1856."
From his graduation onward, to the hour of his tragic death, Garfield's career was eminent and exceptional. Slowly working through his educational period, receiving his diploma when twenty-four years of age, he seemed at one bound to spring into conspicuous and brilliant success. Within six years he was successively president of Hiram College, State Senator of Ohio, Major-General of the Army, and Representative-elect to the National Congress. A combination of honors so varied, so elevated, within a period so brief, and to a man so young was without precedent or parallel in the history of the country.
Garfield's first military experience was at Middle Creek, Ky., where as colonel in command of a brigade he defeated Humphrey Marshall and forced him to retreat from the State. He was commissioned Brigadier-General and under General Buel took part in the second day's fight at Shiloh. Early in 1863 he was appointed Chief of Staff to General Rosecrans, then in command of the Army of the Cumberland. His military duties closed on the memorable field of Chickamauga, a field which, however disastrous to the Union arms, gave to him the occasion of winning imperishable laurels. The very rare distinction was accorded him of a great promotion for his bravery on a field that was lost. President Lincoln appointed him a Major-General for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Chickamauga. Having been elected a representative in Congress, Garfield resigned his commission Dec. 3, 1863, and took his seat in the House of Representatives. It is upon his service here that his reputation in history will largely rest, a service which continued consecutively for seventeen years. With possibly a single exception, he was the youngest member in the House when he entered, and was but seven years from his graduation. But he had not been in his seat sixty days before his ability was recognized and his place conceded. He stepped to the front with the confidence of one who belonged there. The house was crowded with strong men of both parties, but among them all none grew so rapidly, none so firmly as Garfield. His speeches, from December, 1863, to June 1880, would give a well-connected and complete defense of the important legislation of the seventeen eventful years that constitute his parliamentary life. In 1879 Garfield was elected to the United States Senate, but before taking his seat he was nominated and elected to the presidency. He took the executive chair March 4, 1881, with strong promise of a prosperous administration. The President was widely popular. His long congressional career during a period of great turbulence and excitement, had been marked by a uniform and conspicuous fairness, which had won for him the profoundest respect, even of his political opponents. He was pre-eminently fitted to adorn the high office to which he had been called. In point of great abilities, broad and cultured statesmanship and varied accomplishments, he had been equalled by perhaps not more than one or two of his predecessors. But the bright morning of his new career, was suddenly, swiftly shrouded in darkness. Almost at the threshold of his executive life, he was struck down by the bullet of an assassin.
On the morning of the end of July 1881, the President had prepared to leave Washington on a trip to New England, to attend the Commencement exercises of his Alma Mater, Williams College. Accompanied by Secretary Blaine, he left the White House and was driven to the depot of the Baltimore and Potomac Railway, where he was to take the train for New York. Entering the depot arm-in-arm with the Secretary, he had advanced but a few steps, when a man named Charles Jules Guiteau, stepped quickly behind him and fired two pistol shots in rapid succession. The President sank to the floor, and the assassin turned and fled. Secretary Blaine sprang after Guiteau, but seeing that he was already caught by an officer, he quickly turned to the prostrate President, around whom a horror-stricken crowd quickly gathered. Faint and bleeding he was placed in an ambulance and slowly borne to the White House. The highest surgical skill was summoned, and now began a remarkable and heroic struggle for life. For eleven long weeks, with calm patience and a courage which never faltered, the strong man battled against an impending cruel fate. But all was of no avail, and on the 19th of September, President Garfield passed away. His remains were taken to the Capitol at Washington, where funeral services were held September 23rd, and thence were conveyed to Cleveland, Ohio, for burial.