The Ghost of James A. Garfield
Photo taken from library.thinkquest.org
James A. Garfield was the 20th president of the United States and on July 2nd, 1881 he was assassinated just six months after being elected into office. He was shot in Washington by an office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. Garfield fought to stay alive for the next few months but eventually gave in and passed away in September. The spirit of the former president is believed to be in the old house of his in Hiram, Ohio. It was a boarding-house on the campus of the Western Eclectic Institute in Hiram, because Garfield had served as the school president.
Overall, he lived in the house for six years and left when he went to go fight in the Civil War. He had told his friends while living in that house that he had conversed with the spirit of his dead father. By 1961, the house didn’t serve any needs for the school anymore and was to be torn down. This didn’t happen, and it was sold and moved off campus towards the edge of town. Once this took place, mysterious things started to happen, such as cold spots, lights switching on and off, the smell of cigar smoke, and objects being moved around.
People all over the area started to take notice of what was going on and wanted answers. People of the town were so intrigued that they even hired psychics to try to get in touch with any spirits. Several seyances were conducted and during this, psychics apparently were in touch with Garfield, his wife, and a former student who once lived there. The psychics reported Garfield saying to them:
“I am James Garfield, I am unhappy because so-called friends had me murdered.”
There has been no evidence of a conspiracy with the assassination of Garfield, but the doctors were the ones who killed him because the bullet was lodged within the muscle tissue that was harmless until the doctors tried to get it out. I’d say this could be the very reason why Garfield’s restless spirit still roams his old house to this day.
(Source: Cohen, Daniel. Hauntings and Horrors. 2002.)
