The sun., 1885-01-01
THE LOVES o. THE PRESIDENTS.

THE LOVES o. THE PRESIDENTS.
.,- ~ '- 20 4 ~
How They courtsd and Whom They Mar
risd-oossip About All OF the 1rssi.
dents Wives Prom Washington to Ar.
thur.
Letter to the Cleveland Leader
The gossips of Washington still dis
cuss the probability of President Arthur
marrying Miss Tillie Frelinghuysen.
They say the denial of the report by the
interested parties is only the customary
action in love matters and assert that
the match will be both eminent and
proper. President Arthur, they say,
is in his physical prime. He is just the
age of President Tyler at the time of
his second marriage to Miss Julia Gard
ner during the last year Of Tylers
Presidential term, and Mr.. Arthur's
marriage to Miss Frelinghuysen will be
more in accordance with the fitness Of
things than Tyler's by reason that the
difference in their ages is, not SO great.
President Tyler at the time of his second
marriage was fifty four years old and
Miss Gardner was under twenty. Pres
ident Arthur is now fifty four, just the
age of Mark Antony when he was most
enamored of Cleopatra, who, strange to
say, was, when she killed herself, just
the age of Miss Frelinghuysen. In
January next President Arthrr's first
wife will have been buried FIVE years.
Tyler's first wife was not yet two years
dead when he took his second. Presi-
dent Arthur's wife was the daughter of
Captain Herndon. He married her.
am told, in Washington, in St. Johns
Church, where he now goes every Sun
day, and in which he has placed mem
orial window to her memory. The pew
he sits in, it is said; is the same her fam
ily used in the latter days Of the 6ftles,
and have newspaper paragraph stat
ing that he keeps her room in his New
York mansion in the same condition as
it was when she left it for her long Jour-
ney of 1880.
Mrs. Arthur is by no means the first
presidents wife who has died before her
husband has reached the White House.
Martha Shelton, the beautiful wife of
the red-headed and freckled Jefferson,
mad been dead nineteen years before her
husband was elected. Rachel Donelson,
the wife Of the hot headed but courtly
Jackson, had her dresses all made to
take her place as mistress of the Execu-
tive Mansion, bit 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 Har-
tison died in office before his wife had
com. to Washington:
The Presidents wives now living are
Mrs Polk at Nashville, Mrs. John Ty-
ler at Richmond, Mrs. Grant in New
Jersey, Mrs. Hayes in Fremont, and
Mrs Garfield in Cleveland. Of these
the widows. Mrs. Polk, Mrs Tyler and
Mrs. Garfield, draw from the govern
ment pensions of five Thousand dollars
a year.
Mrs. Zack Taylor died in Louisiana
during the same administration fol
which her husband was elected. She
opposed her husbands being a candi
date, and would have nothing to dc
with the ungodly social life Of the Capt.
tai. Abigail Fillmore died at Willara's
Hotel here about one month after hel
husband finished his term. The
hard work of the White House hastened
her decease. Mrs. Lincoln lay ill al
the White House for long time after
her husbands death, and Andrew
johnson did much o: his first executive
business at the Treasury Department
Mrs. Lititia Christian Tyler is the only
Presidents wife who has died in the
White House. Martha Washington
died two years after the death of he1
husband, at Mt. Vernon, where Wash
ington died in 1899. She shut hersel
up in an attic chamber, and cut a hole
IN the door for her cat. She saw d.
one and lived without fire, and had
she lived to-day she would have beer
deemed slightly crazy. Abigail Adam
health failed her after she ha(
lived four months in the White House
She left it and went back to Massachu
setts and died there aged seventy-four
Dolly Madison was driven from Wash
ington when the British burnt the cap
itol in 1914, but the shock did not xii
her. She returned here to live afte
her husbands death, and she died a
seventy-seven, in 1S49.
Mrs. John Quincy Adams also live
to be seventy seven years of age. Sh
was married at twenty-five and wa
born, educated, and married in Lon
don. John Quincy Adams was en-
gagged to her three years before he mar
ried her, and her first tour after he
wedding was to Berlin, where Mr.. Ad
ans went to serve as Minister.
It is curious fact that the first thre
presidents married widows. The storie
of their courtships abound in romance
George Washington was a colonel O.
his way to Williamsburg, the old CAP
ital OF Virginia, when he was stoppe
by an old planter friend and asked t
stay over night. He replied his busi
ness was urgent, and a stoppag
of any kind was impossible. Hi
friend then cited the virtues and beau
ties of beautiful widow of twenty 81
years who was stopping with him, i
such glowing terms that Colonel Wasf
ington; decided to take dinner and sc
.he paragon. He was so delighted ths
he stayed all night. and on the wa
, back became engaged to her. This ws
Madame Custis, whose maiden name We
Martha cambridge.
Jefferson's wife had been q wido
fe..,. ..ao.s rrhor che ,nar,rad him ON