Educator, Soldier, Congressman, President

Educator, Soldier, Congressman, President. James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States. James Abram Garfield was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, November 10th, 1831. An 1856 graduate of Williams College, he taught classics and became President of Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (later Hiram College), Ohio. In 1859 he was elected to the Ohio Senate. , Garfield organized the 42nd Ohio Infantry in August 1861. He became nationally known in 1862 when, appointed 18th Brigade Commander by General Don Carlos Buell, he led his vastly outnumbered troops to victory at Middle Creek, defeating Confederate forces under General Humphrey Marshall. Headquartered in Pikeville for several weeks, he led Union forces to victory at Pound Gap and was sworn in as Brigadier General by Squire John Charles at Ratliff Tavern (the present location of Pikeville City Park). Later, as the youngest Major General in the Union army, he fought at Shiloh and Chickamauga. , Resigning his commission in December 1863, Garfield ran for Congress as an Ohio Republican and served in that position for 18 years. He returned to the Big Sandy Valley in 1871 to revisit his victories. Elected President in 1880, defeating Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock, Garfield did much to re-establish that office’s prestige, which had been lost during the Civil War reconstruction years. , On July 21, 1881, Garfield was shot at the Washington railroad station by an embittered office seeker. Suffering many weeks, he died on September 19, 1881, from blood poisoning and was buried at Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.