James A. Garfield was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, on November 19, 1831. He was elected the 20th U. S. President in 1880, but he would never complete his first term. Garfield's life would be cut short by an assassin's bullets. "On July 2, 1881, in a Washington railroad station, an embittered attorney who had sought a consular post shot the President." [1]
Over the coming weeks President Garfield languished in the White House as frustrated doctors searched and searched for the bullet lodged in his body. Famous inventor Alexander Graham Bell put together a metal detector in a fruitless attempt to locate that bullet. [2] However, the probing of unwashed fingers and instruments caused Garfield to develop infections and ultimately his death on September 19, 1881. [3]
So how exactly is the relationship of our Bragg family and President Garfield? The table below illustrates that connection:
| Edward Tyrrell and Anne Pashley [4] | |
| Philippa , Heir Tyrrell b.1425 | Anne Tyrrell b.1432 |
| Sir William Cornwallis b.1460 | Jacquet St. Leger b.1466 |
| Sir John Cornwallis b.1485 | Elizabeth Fortescue b.1503 |
| Margaret (Mary) Cornwallis b.1506 | John Hare b.1526 |
| John , of Nayland Warren b.1525 | Elizabeth Hare b.1555 |
| John Warren b.1552 | Richard Ward b.1575 |
| John Warren b.1585 | Gov. Andrew Ward 4 b.1597 |
| Mary Warren b.1624 | Esther Ward b.1623 |
| Samuel Bigelow b.1653 | Daniel Burr b.1660 |
| Martha Mercy Bigelow b.1686 | Elizabeth Burr b.1696 |
| Thomas Garfield, Jr. b.1713 | Nathaniel Hull b.1726 |
| Solomon Garfield b.1743 | Ezekiel Hull b.1765 |
| Thomas Garfield2 b.1773 | Platt Hull b.1787 |
| Abraham Garfield b.1799 | Ezekiel Hull b.1813 |
| James Abram Garfield b.1831 | Rebecca L. Hull b.1841 |
| Frank Martin Bragg b.1867 | |
| Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895 | |
| Don Cicero Bragg b.1920 | |
Notes:
[1] The White House [http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/jamesgarfield]
[2] Rick Beyer, The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told, Collins, New York, 2007, 100.
[3] Rick Beyer, The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told, Collins, New York, 2007, 101, in fact, assassin Charles "Guiteau used their incompetence as the centerpiece of his defense, saying he didn’t kill Garfield; “The doctors did that. I simply shot at him.”"
[4] The PEDIGREE of Anne PASHLEY [http://fabpedigree.com/s055/f082755.htm] suggests that Anne Pashley was possibly direct ancestor of Prince Charles (15th Great-grandmother), his late ex-wife, Lady Diana (15th Great-grandmother), and Winston Churchill (14th Great-grandmother).
