II.

Early Life

James Abram Garfield was born on November 19, 1831. He was the son of Abram Garfield and Eliza Ballou Garfield, New Englanders who had settled in the Western Reserve region of northern Ohio. Abram Garfield, a farmer and canal construction worker, died when James was two years old, leaving his widow and four children to face the rigors of frontier life. James's childhood was one of hardship and work. The last president to be born in a log cabin, Garfield had little leisure time in his youth. He did farm work until he was 16 years old, then found employment on a canal boat.