December birthdays
Three presidents were born in December. All democrats. All governors. All became president in their mid-50s. In this batch we have a president with no formal education to speak of. And one with the most education. Guess what? They were both late readers!
But Iām getting ahead of myself.
The December babies are:
Martin Van Buren (1782)
Andrew Johnson (1808)
Woodrow WIlson (1856)
If you prefer by birth date, hereās the order:
December 5: Martin Van Buren
December 28: Woodrow WIlson
December 29: Andrew Johnson
Education
Andrew Johnson was our least educated president.
Woodrow Wilson was our most educated ā the only president with a PhD. (He was also the only professional academicā¦ yet heād wondered if Abraham Lincoln would have been as successful if heād gone to college.)
Both Johnson and Wilson were late readers!
Johnson:
Born into poverty to illiterate parents
Dad died after rescuing some men whose boat overturned
Mother sold sons boys into apprenticeships (indentured servitude)
Was 10 years old and tied to it until he turned 21, but he escaped at 15
Had no formal education; his wife may have taught him how to read
Wilson:
Learned his letters at age 9
Couldnāt read well until he was 12 years old
Part of the issue may have been his vision (he didnāt start wearing his signature pince-nez glasses until after college)
But he also may have had a developmental disorder
After his stroke, he started using his left hand and wrote with the same neat handwriting with little practice. Thereās speculation that perhaps he was ambidextrous, which can go hand in hand (pun not intended) with speech and writing delays.
Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, by John Milton Cooper, Jr.
Wilson would say things like āI am a vague, conjectural personality, more made up of opinions and academic prepossessions than of human traits and red corpuscles.ā Super-relatable.
1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, by David Pietrusza
As for Van Buren ā I read that English was his second language and have been repeating that for years because itās incredible. But recently I heard thereās no evidence of that. I found no evidence that thereās no evidence so Iām in limbo here. I reached out to some experts for guidance and will amend this post accordingly when I know more.
Fashion
Van Buren dressed like a slob until getting lectured about it. He cleaned up his act and transformed into āa bald-headed but whiskered little gentleman dressed in the extreme of fashion.ā
The Sponge Slob Dirty Pants doodle is from a Halloween drawing challenge.
The other doodles are from Martin Van Buren: The American Presidents Series: The 8th President, 1837-1841, by Ted Widmer
Van Burenās outfits were unexpected and colorful; itās disappointing that we only have black and white photos of him.
Johnson may not have been into fashion (I have no idea), but he was a trained tailor. He could have made fancy outfits for Van Buren. I doubt he did. But he could have.
I donāt really have anything to say about Wilson, but I do want to share this picture of his dickies. (Are shirt collars considered dickies? I donāt really know. But watching The Studio last night got my husband and me discussing dickies and now here I am going down a rabbit hole researching them. No regrets.)
They were all alive for 19 years!
I kept second- and third- and etc.-guessing myself because how is it possible these three guys were alive at the same time?! But Between 1856 and 1875, they were.
All were born in different states
Martin Van Buren: New York
Andrew Johnson: North Carolina
Woodrow Wilson: Virginia
All were governors, but only one of his birth state
Martin Van Buren: New York
(for, like, no more than two months; Iāve seen conflicting info. It was not long. Newly-inaugurated President Jackson tapped him for Secretary of State.)
Andrew Johnson: Tennessee
Woodrow Wilson: New Jersey
Wilson was the first president to not really have a single association to a place. Born in Virginia. Raised in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Educated in North Carolina, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland. Worked in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Held office in New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
VPs
Served as VP
Both Van Buren and Johnson served as vice president before becoming president ā though Johnson was only in the role for 42 days.
But not only that! Friends, neither was the first VP!
Van Buren served as Andrew Jacksonās VP after John Calhoun (Calhoun resigned because of the Petticoat Affair, which is a whole thing. Itās bonkers. Read about it here. Note: this will not be the last time I use the word āpetticoatā in this post.)
Johnson served as Lincolnās VP after Hannibal Hamlin.
I love weird stuff like this. I learned something else on his birthday (hat tip to LearningPlunge) ā Van Buren was the last sitting president to be elected president until
[drumroll please]
George H.W. Bush
GEORGE H.W. BUSH!! More than one-and-a-half centuries later!
Itās worth noting that only four sitting vice presidents were ever elected president. And, as I discovered when I added their-color coded portraits below, they were all from different parties.
In order: Federalist, Democratic-Republican, Democrat, Republican
Their VPs
Martin Van Buren ā Richard Mentor Johnson (the only vice president selected by the senate!)
Andrew Johnson ā no VP
Woodrow Wilson ā Thomas Marshall
The Vice Presidentās Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn, by Amrita Chakrabarti Myers
The Johnsons (and their Johnsons)
While weāre talking about Richard Mentor Johnson, I read a Van Buren biography that mentioned Johnson had a Black wife (Julia Chinn) and they had two girls, who received fantastic educations, and Julia ran the show when Richard wasnāt around. He sounded progressive and kind and loving and I liked him immediately. Then I learned about him.
Andrew Johnson, on the other hand, was very bothered by the āproblemā and would ādwell almost obsessively on racial miscegenation as the institutionās main evil,ā according to biographer Hans L. Trefousse. That said, he also purchased his first slave when he was elected to the Tennessee state legislature ā a 14-year-old girl named Dolly. When Dolly was older, she had three kidsā¦ all listed as āmulattos"ā¦ soooo, ya know, that lead to some chatter that he had a ācolored concubineā which would be bananas given his fear of āthe problemā but also why am I surprised?
Age elected president
All became president in their mid-50s! Van Buren was 55 years old; both Johnson and Wilson were 56.
All served different lengths of time
Less than one term
Andrew Johnson (coming into the role after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated)
One term
Martin Van Buren
Two terms
Woodrow Wilson (and he wanted a third)
First Ladies
Hannah Van Buren died of tuberculosis nearly 20 years before Van Burenās presidency. His daughter-in-law Angelica Van Buren served as hostess for much of his time in office.
Eliza Johnson was only 16 years old when she married ā the youngest person to marry a future president. Andrew was 18. They were married by Abraham Lincolnās uncle Mordecai Lincoln. Though they were united nearly a half century, they spent much of that time apart. And ā¦ infidelity? Possibly. Or, rather, probably. Not by Eliza.
Andrew Johnson: The American Presidents Series: The 17th President, 1865-1869, by Annette Gordon-Reed
Ellen Wilson died while Woodrow was in office five days after Germany declared War on Russia. Wilson was crushed. But then along cameā¦
Edith Wilson! And there were jokes. Like āWhat did the new Mrs. Wilson do when the president proposed? She fell out of bed with surprise!ā (Those jokes would backfire on the joke tellers.) Even Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo (Wilsonās son-in-law) wanted it to stop. For selfish reasons. Obviously. He and Colonel House (not a colonel) plotted to end the relationship. They were unsuccessful.
1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, by David Pietrusza; more doodles here.
Wilson is one of only two presidents to be married to two different women while in office. But more importantly ā¦ from this morningās dickie research, Iād like to share that I do believe McAdoo is sporting a Murrayhill collar. One of my favorites to draw.
Health and a petticoat president?
Woodrow Wilson suffered some strokes while president. It made him very cranky (irascible, if youāre fancy).
Heād blow things out of proportion, like demanding anyone who passed his extremely-slow-moving car be chased down and brought back for questioning. His agents pretended they couldnāt catch the āspeeders.ā Wilson wasnāt having it. He wanted the power to arrest the drivers and try their cases himself.
Edith Wilson kept things under wraps while he was incapacitated, leading Albert Fall to protest āwe have a petticoat president! Mrs. Wilson is president!ā
Ignore the typo. Fall went to jail for Teapot Dome Scandal (he was the Fall Guy). The little joke at the bottom thereā¦? That exchange took place on December 5 ā Martin Van Burenās birthday!
For more on Edith, check out the true-ish podcast Edith! Itās hilarious:
Where were we?
After Warren G. Harding was elected, William Jennings Bryan suggested that President Wilson resign etc., etc., (it was a whole thing). Iām telling you this solely so I can include the doodle of Bryan saying that āif the president is too sick to be criticized, he is too sick to hold office.ā
Sigh.
1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, by David Pietrusza
Wow, I veered off-track sharing about an incapacitated president who was quick to anger and not fit for office.
Death
Both Van Buren and Johnson died at the end of July.
A trio of dem governors-turned-POTUS