Garfield was originally named Cannibal Creek but in 1887 its name was changed in honour of James Abram Garfield, the 20th President of the United States. President Garfield was shot on 2 July 1881 at the Baltimore and Potomac Railway Station in Washington D.C. and died on 19 September 1881 from infections caused by his doctors not washing their hands before administering treatments.
Garfield was not the first choice of name for the district, Hope Town was, but the Victorian Railways advised that the name was already used by a postal town in the colony, possibly referring to Hopetoun in the Mallee area. Other names brought forward at a public meeting were Mount View, Kenilworth, Soho and Gladstone.
Source: South Bourke & Mornington Journal 9 Feb 1887
Surveyed on: 27 Nov 2018
Surveyed by: Lynne
Garfield, Victoria, Australia
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