Every time we so much as disturb a toe out of country , I ’ve put burial site on our travel path . From garden - comparable expanses to overgrown boot hills , whether they ’re the final resting places of the well - known but not that important or the important but not that well - known , I love them all . After realizing that there are a draw of taphophiles out there , I ’m in conclusion putting my archive of interesting tombstones to respectable role .
If you ’ve ever taken one of those “ Can you name all of the President of the United States ? ” quizzes , there ’s a good luck you forget about James Garfield . Though he spent nine terms in the House of Representatives , he was president for less than a year , shot by assassin Charles Guiteau just four calendar month into office . He died 79 Clarence Day later . Only one president spent less time in the character than Garfield — William Henry Harrison , who pass away just 32 days into office ( but we ’ll save him for another " Grave Sightings " ) .
Had Garfield been shoot today , he would have likely survived his injuries . Guiteau fired at the president as he entered the Sixth Street train post in Washington , D.C. , headed for a summertime vacation . Two bullets struck the president : One in the branch and one in the back . No vital organs were hit , but the bullet in Garfield ’s back remained lodged just behind his pancreas . If the bullet had been leave alone , Garfield probably would have been just fine . Instead , 12 dissimilar doctorsproddedat the open wounds — while Garfield was still sprawled on the pestiferous train place storey — with their ungloved finger’s breadth and unsterilized instrumental role .
Though no one thought he would survive the night , the president loiter all summertime . His doctor continued to judge to find the bullet , evenenlistingAlexander Graham Bell and his new invention , the metal demodulator . regrettably , Bell had two major factors run against him . First of all , Garfield ’s MD insist that the bullet was on the ripe side of the body . It was n’t . Secondly , unbeknown to Bell , the President of the United States was resting on a bed made of metal springs , which , you hump , may haveslightlyaffected the accuracy of the metallic element detector .
To make matters worse , Garfield ’s doctor starved him . Steak dinners were replaced with orchis , Milk River , whisky , and opium . The president dropped 100 pounds in a matter of hebdomad , leaving him with just130 poundson his six - metrical foot frame when he finally died on September 19 , 1881 . The expiry had nothing to do with the bullet in his torso — it wasblood poisoningand other complications from subroutine that finally did him in .
Even Guiteau knew how mischievously Garfield ’s doctors had screwed up . “ The Dr. killed Garfield , ” he latersaidin homage . “ I just shot him . ”
Devastated by the personnel casualty of another president , Americans responded by erecting a 180 - foot - tall memorial in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland , Ohio . It remains one of the mostelaboratepresidential monuments to this solar day , with aureate mosaic , stained glass window , marble statues , and granite column . So far , it ’s the only memorial that puts a presidential casket , next to that of his wife , on full display . The ash of the Garfields ' girl , Mollie , and her husband , Joseph Stanley Brown , are in the two urns in front of the caskets .
Peruse all the entries in our Grave Sightings serieshere .
