James A. Garfield worked on the Ohio & Erie Canal for his cousin, Amos Letcher, during the summer of 1848. Garfield was in charge of leading the mules pulling the Evening Star canal boat. He got into a fight with a man on top of this canal lock after his mules became entangled with another canal boat. Garfield was thrown into the canal during the fight and nearly drown because he couldn't swim. He fell into the canal 14 times that summer, but escaped with his life each time. Garfield eventually contracted malaria and was sent back home to Orange Township, Ohio.