Susan Ann Edson attention. Edson became a familiar presence in the White House, as she cared for the First Lady during a bout of malaria in May 1881. Just months later, in July 1881, President Garfield was shot by assassin Charles J. Guiteau. A team of physicians was called to help the president, led by Doctor Willard Bliss. Lucretia insisted that Dr. Edson should assist in Garfield's care. Bliss allowed Edson to participate in a nursing capacity only, not as a consulting physician. Edson was said to have been at Garfield's side more than any other attending physician. Congress voted to pay Edson
James Rudolph 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. Following his father's death on September 19, 1881, he studied at Williams College. He received his A.B. degree in 1885, and then attended Columbia Law School. In 1888, he was admitted to the Ohio bar and established the Cleveland, Ohio-based law firm of Garfield and Garfield, with his brother