James Garfield

Continuing my May 2005 Midwest jaunt looking for dead presidents:

James Garfield’s monument is in the Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. He gets points for having one of the more ostentatious monuments (right up there with Lincoln, but not quite on par with Grant).

Another not so famous president, Garfield was in office for only a few months before he was shot by Charles Guiteau at a Washington train station on July 2nd, 1881. He held on for three months later and died on September 19, 1881, from infection as a result of his wounds. Basically, he is famous for being assassinated.

Like the Lincoln and Grant tombs, Garfield and his wife are in side by side caskets deep inside. There’s a huge statue of him in the rotunda as well as beautiful mosaics of events from his life.

Lately on my dead presidents quest I’ve been traveling with a companion. Bud (I call him Buddy) accompanied the drivers for the first ever US cross continental drive by car . I got the stuffed dog (on sale) at the Smithsonian after an exhibit about the drive closed – my original intention was to give him to my niece, but I kept him instead and he comes on all my road trips. When there is no on else around, and I feel it isn’t disrespectful, Bud gets to pose with the dead presidents. To the left he's posing on the top terrace of James Garfield's monument (I actually hung around a while up there until I was alone up there and could take the picture of Buddy without embarrassment - including being helpful to another group by taking their picture with the Cleveland skyline as a backdrop).