Review: Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Prior to reading Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, James Garfield was just a name on the list of Presidents. A man born in poverty he became a educator, father, lawyer, Civil War General, Congressman and President.

Although he only served a few brief months, his death helped change medical world as we know it. It is often said necessity is the mother of invention. Alexander Graham Bell's early versions of metal detectors was an effort to help find the bullet lodged in President Garfield. Dr Lister's antiseptic surgery finally gained respect and acceptance after the autopsy on the President. It showed the massive infection that finally killed him came from his doctors inserting unsterilized fingers and instruments into the wound.

A proponent of black suffrage President Garfield appealed to southerners with the belief that the way to repair the south was through education and supporting southern commercial and industrial interests. Following the assassination attempt and the agonizing months until his death allowed the country to connect in a way it hadn't found in decades. President Garfield's brief presidency helped finally unite the country.

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Newest Blair County Founders Recognized

Jacob Shoenfelt II was born 9 Sep 1792, near Hagerstown, Maryland and died in his 91^st year on 14 Apr 1884. His parents, Jacob the 1^st and Elizabeth Baker Shoenfelt settled on land given them by Jacob I’s father William Shanefelt, near Woodberry, Bedford County in the spring of 1796. According to a 1946 Altoona Mirror article, the land William purchased has remained in family hands for 166 years.  Jacob I with the help of Jacob II built the family home there (now known as Taylor Twp, Blair County) in 1812. The family of eight were of the German Reformed faith and although Jacob I became a Dunkard preacher later in life, Jacob II remained with the German Reformed. Of hardy German stock, Jacob II did not learn to read or speak English until he was an adult.

Jacob and Elizabeth Marks celebrated the arrival of daughter Elizabeth in 1802. Betsy grew up in Huntingdon Boro. She married Jacob II at an early age. They raised their family of thirteen (Henry, Joseph, Elizabeth, George, Sarah, Jacob, Andrew, Isaac, Mary, Susan, John, Harriet and James) on the Plum Creek farm.  The family resided in Woodbury in 1846 when Blair county was formed and in 1856 when their section of Woodbury became Taylor Twp. Jacob II out lived his wife Elizabeth and his children: daughters Elizabeth, Sarah, Harriet and sons Issac and James. 

While Jacob was primarily a farmer in his later years. As a young man he was a wagoner transporting pig iron from Maria Forge to Pittsburgh before the construction of highways.

Jacob Shoenfelt voted for our 4th President James Madison thru the 20th President James Garfield

In the last few years of his life he became a favorite subject of the Altoona Tribune. In a profile celebrating his 90^th birthday, the interviewer reports that Jacob II “voted for James Madison for President and voted at every presidential election since casting his vote for General Garfield for president in 1880. He only missed voting at two elections ever since he voted. He was a Federalist, Whig, American and Republican, always true to his party. He is a hale old man, and bids fair to be a centenarian. The lustre of his eyes is not bedimmed and he reads and writes without the use of glasses. He never used a pair of spectacles in his life. His memory is remarkably good and it is pleasing to hear him relate incidents and occurrences of long ago, speaking of the kind and charitable disposition of some of the early settlers of the Cove.” The Shoenfelts are purportedly buried in the Snowberger Cemetery in East Sharpsburg, PA.