The 10th President has a living grandson?!
Friday, January 12, 2024
Make every day more interesting. Each day a surprising fact opens a world of fascinating information for you to explore. Did you know that….? 
| | Original photo by Library of Congress/ Unsplash |
| Tenth President John Tyler has a living grandson. | More than 200 years after the 10th President of the United States was born, one of his grandsons is still alive. As impossible as that may seem, the math — and biology — checks out. John Tyler, who was born in 1790 and became President in 1841 after William Henry Harrison died in office (possibly of pneumonia), had a son named Lyon Gardiner Tyler in 1853. This son was born to the then-60-something Tyler and his second, much younger, wife, Julia Gardiner. Lyon then had two sons of his own in his 70s (also with a much younger second wife), one of whom — Harrison Ruffin Tyler, born in 1928 — is still gracing the Earth in his 90s.
It may make this feat slightly less surprising to know that Tyler had 15 children, more than any other POTUS in U.S. history. Tyler's actual presidency is less remarkable than this biographical oddity, alas — he was referred to as "His Accidency" upon assuming office and wasn't renominated in the following election. (He was also an enslaver whose profitable plantation ran on the labor of 40 to 50 enslaved people.) Though his grandsons haven't had major political aspirations, you might say it was in Tyler's blood to seek office: His father, John Tyler Sr., was roommates with Thomas Jefferson at the College of William and Mary and later served as the 15th governor of Virginia.
|
|
 | | George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush were the only father and son to both become President. | | |
|
|
| George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush were the only father and son to both become President. |  |  |
|
|
|
|
|
| President John Tyler belonged to the __ Party. |  |
|
|
 | Numbers Don't Lie |
|
 | | Presidents who never had biological children (including George Washington) | | 5 |
|
| | | Age at death in 2022 of Kane Tanaka, for a time the world's oldest living person | | 119 |
|
|
|
| | Vice Presidents who later became President | | 15 |
|
| | | Presidents who belonged to the Whig Party (including John Tyler) | | 4 |
|
|
|
|
|
 | Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt were fifth cousins. |
|
| It's well known that the two commanders in chief were related, but how they were related is less-common knowledge. FDR assumed the presidency 24 years after his fifth cousin left the Oval Office, and their mutual political aspirations were no coincidence: The longest-serving President in U.S. history greatly admired his distant relative and intentionally followed in his footsteps. Teddy largely approved: Upon Franklin's engagement to Eleanor — Franklin's fifth cousin once removed — the younger Roosevelt received a note from the elder saying he was "as fond of Eleanor as if she were my daughter; and I like you, and trust you, and believe in you." | | |
|
|
|
|
|
posted by June Lesley at 5:21 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home