# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/james-a-garfield
# Generated: 2026-08-31T13:51:07.327Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/james-a-garfield"
name: "James A. Garfield"
slug: "james-a-garfield"
description: "Shot four months into his presidency by a man who wanted a government job, Garfield spent eleven weeks dying while doctors probed his wound with unsterilized hands. He's remembered less for what he did than for how infection—not the bullet—killed him."
tagline: "President of the United States in 1881"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/James_Abram_Garfield%2C_photo_portrait_seated.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Politicians"
  slug: "politicians"
profileType:
  name: "Politician"
  slug: "politician"
birthDate: "1831-11-19"
deathDate: "1881-09-19"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           77.72
  momentum:             1.222880952200906
  historical:           34.6857
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: 179
tags:
  - name: "Politicians"
    slug: "politicians"
  - name: "Politician"
    slug: "politician"
  - name: "Politics"
    slug: "politics"
  - name: "Law"
    slug: "law"
  - name: "Founders"
    slug: "founders"
  - name: "Literature"
    slug: "literature"
  - name: "United States"
    slug: "united-states"
  - name: "Americas"
    slug: "americas"
sources:
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    title: "Wikipedia"
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    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
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    title: "James A. Garfield"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James A. Garfield"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "چيمس جارفيلد"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James A. Garfield"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Ceyms Qarfild"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James A. Garfield"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bcl.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Garfield"
    title: "James A. Garfield"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Джэймз Эйбрам Гарфілд"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James A. Garfield"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James Abram Garfield"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James A. Garfield"
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    title: "James Abram Garfield"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James A. Garfield"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James A. Garfield"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "جەیمس ئەی گارفیلد"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://co.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Garfield"
    title: "James A. Garfield"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James A. Garfield"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
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  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_A._Garfield"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born in an Ohio log cabin in 1831, Garfield worked his way from poverty through Williams College, became a preacher and lawyer, then a Union major general who fought at Shiloh and Chickamauga. Elected to Congress in 1862, he served nine terms—the only sitting House member ever chosen for the presidency—and published his own proof of the Pythagorean theorem in 1876. At the 1880 Republican convention, deadlocked delegates picked him as compromise nominee on the 36th ballot; he won the general election and took office in March 1881. He spent his brief tenure battling New York's Senator Roscoe Conkling over patronage appointments and purging Post Office corruption. On July 2, Charles Guiteau, a deranged office seeker, shot him in a Washington train station. Garfield lingered through the summer as physicians' unsanitary probing turned the wound septic, dying September 19 from infection.