james garfield

Fun Facts about James Garfield:

1) He juggled Indian clubs to build his muscles.

2) Garfield was a minister and an elder for the Church of Christ (Christian Church), making him the first—and to date, only—member of the clergy to serve as President. He is also, to date, the only Representative to be directly elected to the Presidency, and was the last President to have been born in a log cabin.

3) The 2nd U.S. President to be assassinated, Garfield was shot in July 1881 and died that September, having been in office for only six months and fifteen days.

4) Alexander Graham Bell tried unsuccessfully to find the bullet with an induction-balance electrical device which he had designed--it wouldn't work due to interference from the iron frame that Garfield's bed was on (this reason wasn't discovered until later, as iron frame beds were quite uncommon at the time).

5) Garfield would wail like a little girl and immediately run to the highest nearby ground whenever anyone said the word 'Chickamagua'. Afterwords he would claim no memory of such incident.