March birthdays
Just like January and February, March brings us four presidents:
James Madison (1751)
Andrew Jackson (1767)
John Tyler (1790)
Grover Cleveland (1837)
If you prefer by birth date, here’s the order:
March 15: Andrew Jackson
March 16: James Madison
March 18: Grover Cleveland
March 29: John Tyler
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Birth
Madison, Jackson, and Tyler were all southerners born in the 1700s.
Cleveland was born NJ in the 1800s in a house across the street from a Dunkin’ Donuts. Now. Not in the 1800s. (Wait, did America run on Dunkin’ in the 19th century…? No, probably not.)
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Political party
Democratic Republican
James Madison
Whig
John Tyler (first term)
Democrat
Andrew Jackson
John Tyler (second term)
Grover Cleveland
Jackson and Cleveland both won the popular vote three times.
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Aaron Burr (sir)
James Madison asked Aaron Burr to introduce him to his future wife, Dolley.
Andrew Jackson was friends with Burr. And they were both in duels! Jackson testified at Burr’s trial.
John Tyler was a traitor. So was Aaron Burr! (Tyler was the only president buried under the Confederate flag).
Grover Cleveland is buried in the same cemetery as Aarons Burr.
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Either had two VPs or zero VPs
Or two and zero.
John Tyler didn’t have a vice president.
Madison, Jackson, and Cleveland both had two. And get this — only two vice presidents served under two presidents — George Clinton and John C. Calhoun. Clinton was one of Madison’s VPs.
Cleveland’s first VP, Thomas Hendricks, died before serving even a year. The post was vacant the rest of his term.
Only one of their VPs became president — Martin Van Buren.
Adlai Stevenson’s son, Adlai II, tried three times to become president.
Pretend you don’t see the typo. Probably harder to do since I brougt it to your attention.
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Appearance
Madison was our tiniest president, measuring in at just 5’ 4”
Jackson and Tyler were both 6’
Cleveland came in at 5’ 11”. Job stress caused him to gain about 100 pounds or, as biographer Troy Senik put it, “in presidential terms, the equivalent of swallowing James Madison whole.” Nom nom nom!
This and some of the other doodles below were inspired by A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland, by Troy Senik
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Military
Madison fought in the Revolutionary War, but briefly due to health issues…?
Jackson and Tyler were two of five War of 1812 veterans who went on to be president.
Grover Cleveland paid a guy $300 to get out of serving in the Civil War.
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Death & gore
Three died in June.
Jackson was the last president to die at the same place his funeral was held and he was buried! And the only one who have his profane parrot kicked out of his funeral service.
Tyler was one of five presidents to die in 1860s, the deadliest decade. That’s the same number of presidents that have died during my lifespan. But all in seven years!
Doodles inspired by The President Is Dead! The Extraordinary Stories of Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials, and Beyond, by Louis L. Picone
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Wives
Three of these guys are in the Top 4 of Biggest POTUS/FLOTUS Age Gaps (Madison, Tyler, and Cleveland). The Jacksons apparently had the smallest age gap of any presidential couple — 92 days.*
Each of these couples had one person who was married twice:
Dolley Madison
Two children with her first husband.
Tragically, her husband and baby died from yellow fever … on the same day.
First to perform “First Lady” duties, though that term hadn’t been coined yet.
Influential social butterfly.
Rachel Jackson
Her first husband was a jerk and they lived separately.
She’d married Andrew Jackson, thinking she was divorced. She wasn’t.
This was used against them during the presidential campaign.
Died a couple of months before Jackson took office.
Jackson blamed John Quincy Adams for her death.
Letitia Tyler
Age-appropriate!
Married for three decades.
Died when Tyler was in office.
Julia Tyler
The newly-widowed president got all flirty with 22-year-old Julia aboard the USS Princeton, on the trip that killed her father (and others).
Frances Cleveland
As far as I know, Cleveland was the only one to buy a baby stroller for his wife. When she was an actual baby. And he was a grown man.
Youngest First Lady (21 years old).
Only First Lady married in the White House.
One of only two First Ladies to remarry after their husbands died. (Jackie Kennedy was the other.)
*The second smallest age gap (93 days) were the Van Buren’s… making the Jackson/Van Buren ticket the ticket with the very lowest POTUS/FLOTUS age gap and holy cow I love that. Both were widowers by the time they took office, so that’s a bummer.
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Descendants
Madison: no biological children; Dolley came into the marriage with a son.
Tyler: had the most babies of any president — fifteen, spread between two wives. And his grandson is still alive today. (His grandson, people! That means the grandson of the 10th president and the great-grandchild of our 46th president overlap! See how bonkers it is? I’m using a lot of exclamation point restraint here. It’s exhausting.)
Jackson: no biological children. But he adopted Lyncoya, a Native American boy! So sweet, right? Not so fast. The boy was only an orphan because Jackson slaughtered his family.
Cleveland: three daughters and two sons. One of his daughters was Ruth (the one that Baby Ruth candy bars are definitely not named after). Her birth in 1891 caused popularity of the name to jump from #46 to #5 in just two years.* She tragically died young. Another daughter was mother of English Philosopher Philippa [Ruth] Foot, inventor of the Trolley Problem.
* When I learned that, I discovered that both of my paternal great-grandmothers were named Ruth. (I knew one of them, but didn’t realize the other was, too.) One was born in 1895 so, unlike the candy bar, the president’s daughter was surely the inspiration. Right?
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Misc.
Cleveland was almost on the $20. Instead we got Jackson. (Boooo!)
Jackson was referred to as King Andrew the First in a caricature. It was not a compliment. It’s beautiful though!
3 big POTUS/FLOTUS age gaps