Monmouth Originals: Garret Hobart
Monmouth County’s “Almost President”
Monmouth County can’t claim that a native was President of the United States. Almost though. Garret Augustus Hobart, born in this county, was America’s vice president under President William McKinley from 1897 until his death in 1899.
VP Garret Hobart
Students of history know that Hobart was replaced on the 1900 Republican ticket by Theodore Roosevelt and TR went on to become the nation’s Chief Executive (indeed, a great one) when McKinley was assassinated in September 1901.
There’s no doubt that had Hobart lived he would have remained on the ticket for a second term (McKinley greatly respected and trusted him) and almost certainly would have become President after McKinley’s death. During his VP tenure, he was known as the “Assistant President.”
A Rutgers College graduate and self-taught lawyer, Hobart was a powerful state politician and banker. He served as the NJ Assembly Speaker and NJ Senate President and was chairman of the state Republican Party when he was nominated as VP in 1896. He was much admired for his judgment on the “relations between business and politics”
It was Hobart’s strong fund raising connections with Eastern big business and his ability to help carry New Jersey’s electoral votes that secured his place as the nation’s 24th vice president. The McKinley-Hobart ticket won with 51% of the vote our of nearly 14 million cast and the Republicans carried New Jersey for the first time in 24 years. Back then New Jersey was a key battleground state but often inhospitable to Republicans (much like today). Indeed, Abraham Lincoln didn’t carry New Jersey in either of his two successful presidential races.
Born in Long Branch in June 1844, Hobart grew up in the Marlboro Twp. area. His father, Addison, had left New England and come to the county to start a primary school in Long Branch. Later in life after building his fortune, Hobart owned homes in Long Branch, Sea Bright, Monmouth Beach, West Long Branch, and Paterson. He died of a heart attack at the age of 55 on Nov. 21, 1899 in Patterson.
For More:
Hobart’s United States Senate Biography
NJ & the Presidency – President Grover Cleveland was born in New Jersey (Caldwell in March 1837) but he moved out of the state when he was a child. Prior to his presidency, he served as mayor of Buffalo, NY and Governor of New York. After his two-terms (non-consecutive) in the White House Cleveland retired to the Westland Mansion in Princeton where he died in June 1908. President Woodrow Wilson was born in Virginia (December 1856) and didn’t move to New Jersey until he was in his 30s. In 1902, he was named President of Princeton University and then elected Governor of New Jersey in 1910, before his two-terms as President from 1913 to 1921. During his presidency he summered in Long Branch. He died in Washington, DC in February 1924.
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Monmouth Originals is a regular web column that will profile the lives of notable Monmouth County natives. Suggestions are welcome by e-mail. (Note: the person must have been born in Monmouth County.)
