American politician, inaugurated as U.S. President in March 1881after former occupations of carpenter, lawyer, soldier, politician and educator, the last of the “log cabin” presidents. He served as president for a total of seven months.
Born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Garfield graduated from Williams and taught school for a while until entering politics. During the Civil War, he rose in rank to Major General of Volunteers. He resigned in 1863, having been elected to the House of Representatives where he served until 1880. He became the leading Republican in the House, however, his record was marred by an unorthodox acceptance of a fee in the DeGolyer paving contract case and by suspicions of his complicity in the Credit Mobilier scandal. Garfield was elected to the Senate in 1880, but instead became the presidential candidate as a result of a deadlock in the Republican convention. He defeated Democratic candidate Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock.
Garfield married Lucretia Rudolph in 1858; they had four sons and one daughter.
Garfield had served only four months when he was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker, in the waiting room of the railroad station, Washington DC on 07/02/1881. Every effort was made to keep Garfield comfortable and he was moved to Elberton, NJ where he died of his wounds 09/19/1881, 10:30 PM. Guiteau’s long-winded outbursts during his trial prolonged the proceedings to two months. The jury took under one hour to reach a verdict on 1/25/1882 and Guiteau was sentenced to hang on June 30, 1882.
Link to Wikipedia biography