A Railroad Strike & an Iconic Department Store Closes

Today in New Jersey history:

July 14, 1877 As the nation remained mired in the depressed economy produced by the Panic of 1873, layoffs and wage cuts became more and more damaging to workers across the economic spectrum. The trouble ignited a great railroad strike that began in West Virginia and spread across the country. National Guard troops called out in West Virginia refused to fire on the strikers, while Maryland Guardsmen engaged in pitched battles with them in Baltimore. The Pennsylvania state military killed more than forty demonstrators in Pittsburgh, and federal troops were sent in to end the violence. The conflict spread right up to the border of New Jersey, and New Jersey governor Joseph D. Bedle called up the National Guard in anticipation of violence, but none materialized. Although there were a few minor disturbances, most New Jersey railroad workmen were apparently content with having their grievances heard by management and the public. 

July 14, 1979: The cash registers rang for the last time at Steinbach’s Department Store in Asbury Park. When the massive five story store bolted its doors, the closing marked the departure of a more than hundred-year-old business that epitomized the allure and excitement of shopping in Asbury Park, considered a Jersey Shore shopping Mecca in the early and mid-twentieth century.