Lucretia Garfield’s perilous journey

From June 18– July 2, 1881, Lucretia Garfield was in Long Branch, New Jersey, staying at the Elberon House Hotel. Her daughter Mollie was with her, along with friends Mrs. Lionel Sheldon, Mrs. Jennie Swaim and Mrs. Henrietta Rockwell.

Theirs was a collective effort to assist Mrs. Garfield in overcoming the last bit of malaria, which she contracted in early May. The day Lucretia left Washington for New Jersey to finish her recovery, she was escorted by her husband into the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station.

On June 30th, Lucretia wrote what became the last letter to her husband. Having been in New Jersey for a few weeks and in better health and spirits, she spoke of their plans to meet in Elberon (Long Branch) to begin their vacation journey to New England.

Unfortunately, the vacation never happened. After stalking the president for several days, Charles Guiteau shot him in the back on July 2.

Later that day, as Mollie and Lucretia were chatting with their friends Mrs. Rockwell and Mrs. Swaim, Garfield’s old friend Major David Swaim arrived with the frightening news that Garfield had been shot.

The telegram read: “The President wishes me to say to you that he has been seriously hurt, how seriously he cannot yet say. He is himself and hopes that you will come to him soon. He sends his love to you. (Signed) A. F. Rockwell.”

Lucretia asked Swaim, who had tried to conceal the serious nature of the shooting, to “Tell me the truth.” Swaim told her what he knew, that a gunman, who was angered over Garfield’s treatment of the Stalwart faction of Republicans, thought that removing Garfield would elevate Arthur to the presidency and the country would be better off. “Arthur is President and I am a Stalwart!” Guiteau had shouted when he shot the president.

Mollie and Lucretia left Elberon on a local train at 12:40 p.m. At Monmouth Junction, N.J., they transferred to a special train that the Pennsylvania Railroad had arranged to rush them to Washington.

What most folks don’t know is that a life-threatening accident occurred with that train while it was enroute to the president. The track had been cleared and the engineer pushed the locomotive to full throttle, speeding along at over 60 mph. Near Bowie, Md., about 20 miles south of Baltimore, there was a jolt and a sickening loud crack. Looking out his window, the engineer “saw that a steel engine rod had sheared; a six-foot spike of jagged metal stuck outward and had begun swinging out of control, tearing up track ties and crashing against the engine’s own wheels.”

“It made the train veer wildly side to side, its wheels barely holding the steel track. The engineer yanked hard on the air brakes, jolting Lucretia and the others from their seats, throwing them forward. The train took a full two miles to reach a stop; a derailment would have killed them.”

The president constantly questioned those around him, “Where is Crete?” … “Where is she now?” …“When shall I see her?”

If the near-accident affected Crete, she didn’t show it. She was impatient at being stranded because her husband might be dying. Around 7 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Garfield were reunited at the Executive Mansion.

She greeted him with a smile, promising he would not die so long as she was there to nurse him. Out of Garfield’s presence though, she broke down and wept.

Son Jim’s diary entry for July 2, 1881, states that “Mamma was very brave & courageous. ... Mamma’s arrival seemed to encourage him [Papa] a great deal.”

Mrs. Garfield had always been a woman to meet adversity head-on, adjust her sights, and carry on.

Where this belongs

• James A Garfield National Historic Site

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