President Garfield's wife Lucretia had suddenly contracted…

President Garfield's wife Lucretia had suddenly contracted malaria and possibly spinal meningitis in mid-May 1881.

She was thought to be near death; her temperature at one time reached 104 degrees.

At the end of the month, her temperature had subsided and her doctor had recommended she recuperate in salty air.

The President had loyally dedicated time at her bedside until her recovery.

On June 18, the Garfields had left Washington and had traveled to Elberon, New Jersey, a popular beach resort.

Unknown to Garfield, a rejected office seeker and Stalwart Republican supporter, Charles J. Guiteau, has plotted to murder the President.

After purchasing a .44 revolver, Guiteau had obsessively stalked Garfield at Lafayette Square Park and at Garfield's Disciples of Christ Church in Washington.

Finding out that Garfield was to leave for Elberon on June 18, Guiteau had decided to assassinate the President at the Washington train depot.

While at the depot, Guiteau had lost his will to shoot the President when he saw the poor condition of Garfield's wife.

While his wife is convalescing in the cool ocean air, President Garfield has brought his cabinet to Elberon for consultation and runs the government by telegraph.

While staying at the Elberon Hotel, President Garfield reviews the Seventh Regiment and speaks with pressmen at the Ocean Hotel.

Garfield is to attend a formal banquet on June 26th in honor of the Seventh Regiment veterans at the West End Hotel.

Instead, he retires early, after hearing news that his eighty-year-old uncle, Thomas Garfield, had been killed in a locomotive accident in Cleveland, Ohio.

Windom speaks on the President's behalf at the banquet.

Former President Ulysses S. Grant, who had traveled from New York with his family, is also at Elberon.

On June 25, Garfield and Grant informally greet each other in the Elberon Hotel lobby.

After attending church services, Garfield returns to Washington the following day (June 27, 1881).