Upper Montclair NJ Womans Club to Host Author of Garfields Train



Members of the Upper Montclair Woman's Club will host a lecture and book signing about "Garfield's Train", by New Jersey author Feather Schwartz Foster, at 1:30 PM, Wednesday, January 23. The meeting will be held at their Club House at 100 Cooper Avenue, Upper Montclair.

It has been more than 125 years since the death of little-known President James Garfield, who died from an assassin's bullet in 1881, only a few months into his presidency in Long Branch, New Jersey. Foster's book, "Garfield's Train," offers a glimpse of the Gilded Age of the 1880s in Long Branch, New Jersey, when that beautiful shore area was considered the "gilded strand." The rich and famous of that time summered in Long Branch in sprawling 30-room "cottages." "The fictional Dunbar family interacts with such characters as General Grant, Roscoe Conkling, James G. Blaine, and, of course, the Garfield family in the early 1880s," says Foster, "in order to make the characters, the times, and the episodes leading to the death of President Garfield come to life."

James A. Garfield was only president for six months - three of which were spent dying. To finally escape the heat of the Washington summer and offer the dying man some respite, he was brought to Long Branch for his last days. In a burst of patriotism and community spirit, a ¾ mile railroad spur was built overnight for the President to be brought from the train station right to the door of a cottage-by-the-sea.

According to the author, "This was arguably Long Branch's proudest hours, and for some reason, it has become a mere footnote to history. The actual historical records only indicate that it happened - not how it happened. In 'Garfield's Train', I tried to draw the picture in my mind of the entire posh resort and the way the 3,000 residents turned out to support the railroad workers in their labor of love and patriotism."

Feather Schwartz Foster, a Scotch Plains resident, has also written "LADIES: A Conjecture of Personalities" about the First Ladies between Martha Washington and Mamie Eisenhower, and "T: An Auto-Biography" - a children's book about a Model-T Ford. Ms. Foster has made more than 100 appearances in the New Jersey area talking about the "old" First Ladies and the Garfield Era.

Author Feather Schwartz Foster has been an "amateur" presidential historian for three decades. Following a long career in advertising and having written a score of children's musical shows, she has decided to draw on her thousand-volume personal presidential library and her love of history by penning "LADIES: A Conjecture of Personalities" and "Garfield's Train".

"Garfield's Train" is available at most online booksellers or through the author's webpage at www.featherfoster.com.






Upper Montclair NJ Womans Club to Host Author of Garfields Train