Garfield was born in Hiram , Ohio , the third of seven children born to James Abram and Lucretia Rudolph Garfield . For a year prior to his father 's presidency , he studied at St. Paul 's School in Concord , New Hampshire . On July 2 , 1881 , at the age of 15 , he and his 17 year old brother Harry Augustus Garfield witnessed the shooting of their father by disgruntled office-seeker Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac railroad station in Washington . The President and his sons were waiting for a train en route to Williams College in Williamstown , Massachusetts , where young James had been recently accepted , when the shooting took place
shooting of their father
Assassination of James A. Garfield
James Rudolph Garfield