President Garfield died in New Jersey this week in 1881

The 20th U.S. President James A. Garfield died in Elberon, New Jersey, on Septermber 19th, 1881 from an assassin’s bullet. Garfield had been shot on July 2nd at a train station in Washington, DC preparing for his trip to New Jersey. He was brought to Elberon, part of Long Branch, in the hope that the sea air and quiet atmosphere would help him recover. The bullet had lodged behind his pancreas.

Garfield was not the first president nor the last to visit Long Branch. Chester A. Arthur, Ulysses Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford Hayes, William McKinley, and Woodrow Wilson all spent time there, with Grant declaring it the nation’s “Summer Capital” in 1869. Seven Presidents Park was built in Long Branch to memorialize the visits. Garfield was succeeded by Arthur.

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