Charles Burleigh Purvis Charles Burleigh Purvis Charles Burleigh Purvis (April 14, 1842 – December 14, 1929) was a physician in Washington, D.C. He was among the founders of the medical school at Howard University. He was the first black physician to attend a sitting president when he attended President James Garfield after he was shot by an assassin in 1881, he was the first black physician to head a hospital under civilian authority when he was made surgeon-in-charge of the Freedmen's Hospital that same year. He was first black person to serve on the D. C. Board of Medical Examiners and the second
Charles J. Guiteau months later from infections related to the wounds. In January 1882, Guiteau was sentenced to death for the crime, and was hanged five months later. Guiteau was born in Freeport, Illinois, the fourth of six children of Jane August (née Howe) and Luther Wilson Guiteau, whose family was of French Huguenot ancestry. He moved with his family to Ulao, Wisconsin (near current-day Grafton), in 1850 and lived there until 1855, when his mother died. Soon after, Guiteau and his father moved back to Freeport. He inherited $1,000 ($ today) from his grandfather as a young man and went to Ann