The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-22
LOVES OF THE PRESIDENTS.
How They COUrted and Whom They Mar
ried.

headed and treckled Jefferson, had been dead
nineteen years before her husband was elected
President. Rachel Donaldson, the wife of the
hot-headed, but courtly jackson, had her
dresses made to take her place as mistress of
the executive mansion, but died three months
before Old Hickory was inaugurated. Hannah
Hoes, the consort of the foxy Miss Nancy Van
Buren,, lay in her grave seventeen years before
Jackson made him his successor, and President
Harrison died in Office before his wife had come
to Washington.
The Presidents wives now living are Mrs.
Polk, at Nashville Mrs. John Tyler. at Rich
mond; Mrs Grant, in New Jersey; Mrs Hayes,
in Fremont and Mrs. Garfield, in Cleveland. OF
these the widows-Dfrs. Polk, Mrs. Tyler and
Mrs Garaeld-draw from the government pen
sions of s., 900 year.
Mrs Zach Taylor died in Louisiana during the
same administration for which her husband was
elected. She opposed her husbands being can
dldate, and would have nothing to do with the
social life of the capital. Abigail Fillmore died
at Wizards Hotel here about one month
after her husband finished his term. The hard
work of the White House fastened her decease.
Mrs Lincoln hay i'll at the White House for
long time after her husbands death, and Andrew
johnson did much of his first executive bust
ness at the Treasury Department Mrs. Letitia
| Christian Tyler is the only Presidents wife who
has died in the White House. Martha Wash
ngton died two years after the death OF her
husband at Mount Vernon, where Washington
died in 1893. She shut herself up in an attic
chamber, and cut hole in the door for her cat.
She saw no and lived without fire, and
had she lived to-day she would have been
deemed slightly crazy. Abigail Adamss health
failed her after she had lived four months
in the White House She lett it and
went back to Massachusetts, and died
there aged seventy four. Dolly Madison was
driven from Washing ton when the British burned
the Capitol, in 1914. but the shock did not kill
her She returned here to live after her hus-
bands death, and she died at seventy seven, in
| 1S49. Mrs. John Quincy Adams also lived to be
| seventyseven years of age. She was married at
| twenty-five, and was born educated and married
in London. John Quincy Adams was engaged
| to her three years before he married her, and
| her first tour after her wedding was to Berlin,
| where Mr. Adams went to serve as minister
| 1t is curious fact that the first three Presi-
| dents married widows. The stories of their
courtships abound in romance George Wash
| ington was colonel, on his way to Williamsburg,
| the old capital of Virginia, when he was stopped
| by an old planter friend, and asked to stay over
| night. He replied his business urgent and
stoppage of any kind was impossible. His
| friend then cited the virtues and beauties of
| beautiful widow of twenty years in such
| glowing terms that Col Washington decided to
| take dinner and see the paragon. He was so
! delighted that he staid adj night and on the way
! back became engaged to her. This was Nine.
| Curtis whose maiden name was Martha
| cambridge.
Jefferson's wife had been widow four years
when she married him. and she was only thirty
| seven years old at that time. She was ten
| years Jetierson's wife, and in that period had
| six children by him. She died in 1882. 1t is
said that she was much courted, and two of
| Jefferson's rivals met on her doorstep day or
| two before the latters engagement They
| heard sounds of music within, and soon found
! that jefferson was singing love song to the
young widow while she played an accompani-
ment on the harp They concluded not to press
| their suits, and left with their love untold.
Dolly Madisons parents were Virginia Quak-
! ers. who freed their slaves and went to Phila-
delphia to live. Here, at nineteen, Dolly, de
mure Quakeress, married John Todd, Quaker
| lawyer. who died when she was twenty-three,
! and left her pretty widow. In less than year
| she married again, and this time Mr.. Madison,
| who was a member Of Congress. She was
thirty years old when her husband became
| President
Andrew Jackson's wife's first husbands name
was Richards, and she only sixteen years old
when she married him. Richards jealous
fellow, and of an exceedingly ugly disposition
Rachel Richards separated from him, and got
| what both jackson and she thought was q
valid divorce before she was married to Jack
son. She was about twenty two years old
at this time, and the circumstances of their
union created no general remark over the
country Nevertheless, almost forty years later,
during the campaign for the presidency the mat
ter was dug up and it was charged that jackson
had married ner DeIOr6 Sne was legally divorced
from Captain Robards. The story is too long to
repeat here 1t is enough to say that Mrs. Jack
son was cruelty slandered, and that this was one
of the causes of her death. She not anxious
to come to Washington. and once said to friend;
II assure you would rather be door-keeper
in the house of my God than dwell in that pal
ace in Washington" Andrew Jackson dearly
loved his wife. and there is a tradition at the
White House that he never went to bed without
taking ocket holding her picture from his
bosom and propping it up against his Bible so
that 1t would be the first object upon which his
eyes would rest i'll the morning. Andrew jack
son was the second widower President Jefer
son came before him. and after him came Mar
tin Van Buren,, John Tyler and Chester A.
Arthur
The only bachelor President the country has
had is James Buchanan, who respected the
woman who Tilted him when he was a young
man too much to ever marry another.
Martin Van Buren, green lawyer when
he married his wife Hannah She was of good
family, and was few months older than her
| husband. The two had gone to school together
as children, and their engagement was a long
one They were married as soon as Van Buren's
law practice would warrant it. Their married
life, like that of the Jeffersons, lasted only ten
years
When John Tyler married his first wife he
was twenty three years old and she was twenty
two. He had long been i'll love with her and
had courtea her for five years. Still, says his
son. General Tyler, he never ventured to even
kiss her hand until three weeks before
the marriage on his last visit to
her prior to the wedding. John Tyler was at
tbs time young lawyer, and he had already
served term or two in the Legislature. lie was
Governor Tylcr's SON and his wife was one Of
the flowers of the F. F. VS.. She was an Epis-
copalan and was a beautiful woman. President
Tyler's second wife was a Catholic She lived
with President Tyler seventeen years and had
sons and daughters
President Fillmore was a wool carder and his
wife was school teacher when they fell in love
Both were poor, and Fillmore, after studying
law and moving to Buffalo, did not see his az
danced wife for three years, because he was too
poor to pay the fare of the $50 miles
which lay between them. Mrs Fill
more was two years older than her
husband, and she was twenty eight years old