James A. Garfield, Our 20th President
 
            Born in Cuyahogo County, Ohio, in 1831, James Abram Garfield was the last President to be born in a log cabin. He learned to read by age 3 and later attended Williams College in Massachusetts where he graduated with honors in 1856. He studied law and was admitted to the bar.
            He joined the Union army in 1861, rising to the rank of Major General. He was elected from Ohio to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican and resigned his commission to serve. For 18 years he won re-election, becoming the Republican floor leader of the House.
            In 1858 he married Lucretia Rudolph. They had seven children, five sons and two daughters. In the mid-1860s, Garfield had an affair with Lucia Calhoun. When he admitted this to his wife, she forgave him.
            In the 1880 Republican Convention, on the 36th ballot, he became the "dark horse" nominee, going on to defeat the Democratic nominee by a margin of only 10,000 votes. He was still serving in the House when elected, so became the only man to be elected to the Presidency straight from the House of Representatives. Garfield was the first left-handed President and the first one whose mother attended his inauguration.
            Garfield was a minister and elder in the Disciples of Christ church, making him the only member of the clergy to serve as President. When he handed in his resignation as elder, he said, "I resign the highest office in the land to become President of the United States."
            He served as President less than four months. He was shot on July 2, 1881, by Charles J. Guiteau, a lawyer who was unhappy because of his failed efforts to be appointed as U.S. consul in Paris. Garfield was walking through a Washington railroad station when Guiteau shot him. One bullet grazed Garfield's arm. The second lodged in his spine and could not be found. Alexander Graham Bell devised a metal detector specifically for the purpose of finding the bullet, but the metal bed frame Garfield was lying on made the instrument malfunction.
            Garfield developed an infection and remained bedridden in the White House with fever and extreme pain. In early September he was moved to the Jersey shore, hoping that the sea air and quiet might help his recovery. He died from infection and an internal hemorrhage on September 19, 1881. The incompetent medical care he received likely led to his death.

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