I Wish I Knew That: U.S. Presidents: Cool Stuff You Need to Know (10 page)

Americans wanted to know every detail about the fairytale couple. The two had traveled on a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean. In those days, young women had chaperones whose job was to watch over them whenever handsome young men were around. Nellie’s chaperones spent the trip seasick in bed, allowing the pair to meet and fall in love.

The wedding ceremony took place behind closed doors for invited guests only. Hundreds of candles blazed as flowers adorned the East Room of the White House, with white lilies and roses covering staircases and chandeliers. The smell of orange blossoms fresh from Florida filled the air.

Described as one of the most beautiful of all the young women who ever lived in the White House, Nellie was dressed in white, a color made popular by Queen Victoria of England. She was the only daughter in a family with three sons, and the thought of his sweet girl leaving home and going to England with her new husband brought President Grant to tears. He escorted Nellie to an altar covered with a lovely carpet, which was a gift from the sultan of Turkey. The elegant wedding was copied by many other fashionable young women of the day.

But even fairytales come to an end. The couple’s marriage was troubled from the start. They had four children, but the marriage couldn’t be saved. Four years after her father’s death, Nellie filed for divorce and returned to the United States with her children.

Almost 40 years later, another Nellie Grant, the granddaughter of President Grant, decided to have a much simpler wedding. She was married by a judge in New York—without even telling her mother!

FUN FACTS

In 1828, young John Adams, grandson of President John Adams and son of President John Quincy Adams, married Mary Catherine Hellen in the White House. This is the only time that a president’s son has been married at the White House.

After Nellie and Algy left the White House, the president walked into his beloved daughter’s room, threw himself onto her bed, and cried.

19th President ~ 1877–1881

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES

Dark-Horse President

“He serves his party best who serves his country best.”

Born

October 4, 1822 Delaware, Ohio

Political Party

Republican

Vice President

William Wheeler

First Lady

Lucy

Children

Birchard, James, Rutherford, Joseph, George, Fanny, Scott, and Manning

Pets

Hector and Nellie, German shepherds; the first Siamese kitten in America

A Disputed Election

Rutherford Hayes was a Union general in the Civil War. When he ran for president, he vowed he would serve only one term. That way he could focus on doing a good job and not worry about getting re-elected.

Winning the election, however, caused a scandal. In secret, his party bosses had made shady deals and rigged votes to get him elected. That’s how he got the nicknames “Rutherfraud” and “His Fraudulency.” His election—which was decided by Congress in the end—is one of the most disputed elections in American history.

A Hard Worker

Once in office he proved to be honest, upstanding, and hardworking. With the nation’s wounds from the Civil War still healing, he had the last of the government troops removed from the South. He blocked a law that would have stopped people from immigrating to the U.S. from China. He thought it was racist. He believed that education was the best way to prosperity and harmony among a free people.

A New Kind of First Lady

Hayes’ wife, Lucy, was the first First Lady to have a college degree. When her husband was a general, she accompanied him to the battle camps and helped care for the wounded and dying. She would not allow any liquor in the White House and became known by the nickname “Lemonade Lucy.” Mrs. Hayes started the tradition of the annual Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn.

PRESIDENTIAL FIRST

Rutherford Hayes was the first president to take the oath of office in the White House. Most previous presidents had taken the oath at the U.S. Capitol.

FUN FACT

Rutherford Hayes refused to campaign for Congress while he was still in the army. He won anyway.

New Inventions

Thomas Edison demonstrated his new phonograph for the Hayeses—and they kept him up until three in the morning listening to it. Hayes was also the first president to try out a telephone. “An amazing invention,” he said. “But who would ever want to use one? ”

20th President ~ 1881

JAMES A. GARFIELD

Preacher President

“A brave man is a man who dares to look the Devil in the face and tell him he is a Devil.”

Born

November 19, 1831 Cuyahoga County, Ohio

Political Party

Republican

Vice President

Chester A. Arthur

First Lady

Lucretia

Children

Eliza, Harry, James, Mary, Irvin, Abram, and Edward

Pet

Veto, a dog

From a Log Cabin to the White House

Probably the poorest person to ever become president, James Garfield was born in a log cabin and lost his father when he was just under two years old. His mother struggled on her own to raise the family.

When he was 17, Garfield worked on canal boats and put himself through school, eventually graduating from Williams College. He became a great teacher, preacher, and scholar. To amuse people, he would write in Greek with one hand and Latin with the other at the same time.

Garfield’s Mother

He was the first president to have his mother present at his swearing-in ceremony. A tiny, frail woman, she moved into the White House and lived with the First Family. Garfield, an ex-Civil War general who was six feet tall, would personally carry his mother up and down the stairs.

President for 200 Days

As president, Garfield wanted to end the practice of handing out cushy government jobs as favors. Just four months after Garfield took office, a deranged gunman, who had been turned down for a job, sneaked up on him in a train station and shot him twice. One of the bullets lodged in Garfield’s abdomen and doctors could not get it out. After two and a half months of agonizing operations and infections, Garfield died, becoming the second U.S. president to be killed by an assassin’s bullet. The gunman was tried and hanged. Garfield is seen as a hero in the cause of honest government.

PRESIDENTIAL FIRST

James Garfield was the first left-handed president.

FUN FACT

Doctors couldn’t find the assassin’s bullet inside Garfield’s body (X-rays hadn’t been invented yet), so Alexander Graham Bell—known for the telephone—invented a metal detector to locate the bullet. It didn’t work because it reacted to the metal in Garfield’s bed, rather than the metal in his body.

21st President ~ 1881–1885

CHESTER A. ARTHUR

Elegant Arthur

“Good ballplayers make good citizens.”