James Abram Garfield, the country's 20th President, was born in
Orange (a part of
Cuyahoga County southeast of
Cleveland) in 1831. He was graduated from
Williams College in Massachusetts in 1856 and, after a brief stint as a teacher and academy administrator in
Hiram, joined the Republican Party. He was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1859 at the age of 28.
In 1880, Garfield was elected by the Ohio general assembly to the U.S. Senate. His term was to begin in 1881. Instead, the Republicans nominated Garfield as their candidate for President at their convention in the summer of 1880.
He won a close race for the Presidency, was inaugurated and four months later was shot in a Washington D.C. railroad station by Charles J. Guiteau. Guiteau was apparently disappointed that he did not receive a political appointment from Garfield. He was later convicted and hanged for his act.
