James A. Garfield (1831-1881) was born in Moreland Hills, Ohio, and died in Elberon, New Jersey. He was a lawyer, general, politician, and the 20th president of the United States. Garfield became an attorney after graduating from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He was elected as a Republican member of the Ohio State Senate from 1859 to 1861 and served as a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Garfield was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1862 to represent Ohio's 19th district and was elected president of the United States in 1881. On July 2, 1881, Charles J. Guiteau shot Garfield at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. The wound was not immediately fatal, but he died on September 19, 1881, from infections caused by his doctors.

See more letters.