Here's Where It Gets Interesting - Two White House Weddings and a Funeral

Episode Date: December 9, 2022

Welcome to today's episode of Here's Where It Gets Interesting where we'll talk about a president who had three women perform the official duties of the White House Hostess. John Tyler, often called the “Accidental President”, stepped in when William Henry Harrison died a month into his first term. While his incumbency wasn’t filled with many political gains, he did enter the White House with one wife… only to leave it four years later with a different wife. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Buy from dysoncanada.ca. With ANC on, performance may vary based on environmental conditions and usage. Accessories sold separately. Hello, friends. Welcome. Thank you for joining me today. While our last three presidents' wives never made it to their White House debuts, our next first lady, or should I say first ladies, joined our 10th president, often called the accidental president, in the U.S. Capitol. John Tyler served for just shy of a four-year term, but the White House, under the direction of three different women saw plenty of excitement. I'm Sharon McMahon, and here's where it gets interesting. In an early morning hour just before dawn on April 5th, 1841, a few men, travel-weary from a 30-hour journey by train and boat,

arrived on the doorstep of Vice President John Tyler. As the myth goes, Tyler himself opened the door when their knock interrupted his game of marbles with his young grandsons. But we know that Tyler was an enslaver who relied on the work of more than 70 enslaved people, so it's pretty improbable that he answered the door of his Virginia plantation on his own. And his grandsons were mostly grown by the 1840s and likely not asking their grandfather to play marbles with them at dawn. Nevertheless, when Tyler was able to receive the men who had traveled fast and furiously to get to him, they handed him a letter.

The note read, Sir, it has become our most painful duty to inform you that William Henry Harrison, late President of the United States, has departed this life. This distressing event took place this day at the President's mansion in this city at 30 minutes before one in the morning. We lost no time in dispatching the Chief Clerk in the State Department as a special messenger to bear you these melancholy tidings. William Henry Harrison, tip a canoe, had died, and Tyler, too, was on his way to be sworn in as the 10th President of the United States. When James Tyler rushed from his plantation in Williamsburg, Virginia to Washington after William Henry Harrison's death, he left behind his wife of 28 years, Letitia. Letitia was not

in the greatest of health, but she did eventually join her husband, moving into the White House two months later in May. In his only surviving love letter to her, written while they were courting, John Tyler promised a young Letitia this, Whether I float or sink in the stream of fortune, you may be assured of this, that I shall never cease to love you. And while John Tyler's love for Letitia may have been steady, it was a bit of a slow burn. Letitia was a quiet, pious woman who loved to garden. She was the daughter of a wealthy Virginia planter, and while she had no formal education,

she would have likely grown up learning to read and write and been taught the skills she'd need to run a large home. She met John Tyler in 1808 when she was just 18. John was a law student and together they were a cautious couple. John wanted to finish his education and establish his career. He came from a well-connected family, but Letitia's family was wealthier, and he wanted to prove he would be able to support her and their life together before they got engaged. After five years of courting, Letitia and John married. The pair was so proper that John did not dare to kiss Letitia until three weeks before their wedding. And when he finally did lean in for a kiss, his lips met, not her lips, not her cheek, but the back of her hand. Needless to say,

no one was writing newspaper headlines about the impropriety of aspiring politician John Tyler and his new wife Letitia. The couple was scandal-free. Shortly after their wedding, however, both of Letitia's parents died and the Tylers inherited a large fortune, plus another 500 acres of land from John Tyler's father. This gave them plenty of cushion to start their family and to let John continue to take a chance of his growing political career. After the War of 1812, John served two terms in the House of Representatives and was then elected as the governor of Virginia. Letitia ran their home in Virginia's capital, Richmond, and raised their seven children. and raised their seven children. The salary of the governor was so low that John and Letitia were expected to spend their own money when they entertained politicians and visiting dignitaries. John Tyler continuously asked for a salary increase, but state officials refused. In a bold

move, John and Letitia hosted a banquet and served their guests nothing more than Virginia ham, hunks of cornbread, and cheap whiskey to wash it all down. The pointed message did not sway legislators, however, and Tyler never saw a salary bump. So he moved on. In 1828, John Tyler was elected to the U.S. Senate. Letitia preferred to stay at home in Virginia and out of the limelight. She had kids to raise, very little interest in spending time in Washington, D.C. Although her husband did convince her to spend a winter there in late 1828, it was an exciting winter, by the way, as John Quincy Adams left office and Andrew Jackson entered the White House, throwing raucous soirees and reinvigorating the Capitol's social scene. You might remember from

a previous episode, people were climbing out of the White House window and breaking glasses and ruining the interiors. Historians often consider Letitia Tyler to have been a woman who actively avoided outings and parties, but some of her personal items in the Smithsonian's First Lady collection, like a pair of fashionable coral earrings and an ornate silver calling card case, tell us otherwise. She wasn't exactly the life of the party, but during her early years, she was no doubt well-versed in the social duties of a politician's wife. In 1836, John Tyler resigned from the U.S. Senate, but he was already regarded as a popular national political figure. found himself unofficially accompanying the Virginia delegation to the Whig Party convention in 1839, though with no aspirations to serve as a candidate in any capacity. When William Henry Harrison secured the party's nomination as their presidential candidate over

Henry Clay, Tyler found himself nominated as vice president on Harrison's ticket. Tyler found himself nominated as vice president on Harrison's ticket. One of the convention managers confessed that Tyler was finally taken because we could get nobody else to accept. And Tyler's own biographer wrote that Tyler was put on the ticket to draw the South to Harrison. No more, no less. The nomination did not come at a good time for the Tylers. Letitia had recently suffered from a stroke that left her partially paralyzed at the age of 49.

Her mobility suffered, and even though Tyler accepted the vice presidential nomination, he did so thinking he'd be able to spend most of his time in Williamsburg by his wife's side. Remember at the time, the vice president did not have a lot of duties. They were very much a placeholder, just in case something happened to the president. And in this case, something did happen to the president. But on day to day, the vice president was not always there doing important work. And it's true that the role of the vice president was not always there doing important work. And it's true that the role of the vice president has always been more ceremonial than substantial. So even when William Henry Harrison won the election, became the ninth president, Tyler didn't hurry back to Washington, D.C. He stayed home.

Which is why on that early spring morning in 1841, he had to be fetched from Virginia after Harrison's untimely death. It was the first time a president had died in office, and the Constitution was a bit unclear about the role of the vice president. No one was sure if John Tyler was meant to assume the full role and power of the president, or if he was supposed to act as more of an interim chief executive. Two powerful politicians who felt that Tyler was unfit for the full-time gig? Former President John Quincy Adams and Whig leader Henry Clay. The Quincy regularly referred to Tyler as the quote-unquote acting president and wrote in his daily diary, Tyler is a political

sectarian of the slave-driving Virginian Jeffersonian school with talents not above mediocrity. In upwards of half a century, this is the first instance of a vice president being called to act as president of the United States and brings to the test that provision of the Constitution which places in the executive chair a man never thought of for it by anybody. never thought of for it by anybody. Ouch. Nevertheless, Tyler had himself immediately sworn in as president of the United States. Judge William Cranch, the circuit judge of the District of Columbia and former president John Adams' nephew,

administered the presidential oath in Tyler's Washington hotel room. Technically, Tyler felt like the oath was unnecessary since he had taken a similar one just a month earlier when he was sworn in as vice president, but he recognized that the formality would give his presidential assertion more credibility. It didn't matter to Tyler that Harrison's cabinet addressed him as vice president, or he was called his accidency by his detractors and newspaper columnists. Tyler never wavered in his conviction that he was the president, and not just temporarily. used every opportunity to undermine his authority, sent correspondence to the White House addressed to the vice president or acting president, Tyler instructed his staff to return it unopened. Tyler's audacity to interpret the Constitution so quickly and resolutely set a precedent which would unofficially dictate the rules around presidential succession until the 25th Amendment formalized the practice in 1967 after the death of JFK.

I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends. And together we have the podcast Office Ladies, where we rewatched every single episode of The Office with insane behind the scenes stories, hilarious guests and lots of laughs. Guess who's sitting next to me? Steve! It is my girl in the studio! Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from The Office and our friendship with brand new guests.

And we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. even more exclusive stories from the office and our friendship with brand new guests. And we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. So join us for brand new Office Lady 6.0 episodes every Wednesday. Plus, on Mondays, we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there. Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. Life for Letitia in the White House was subdued. She had a hard time getting around after her stroke,

and she spent most of her time confined to the second floor living quarters. But that didn't mean she relinquished all of her first lady duties. Her daughter-in-law, Priscilla, who assisted Letitia with hosting at the White House, said, notwithstanding her very delicate health, mother attends to and regulates all the household affairs and all so quietly that you can't tell when she does it. It's said that Letitia made only two public outings when she was in the White House. The first was to accompany her grown daughters to an evening at the theater, and the second was to join the revelry in a White House wedding. On February 7, 1842, Letitia and John's second youngest daughter, Elizabeth, married William

Waller and became the second presidential daughter to marry in the White House, the first being Maria Monroe, daughter of James and Elizabeth Monroe. It was a joyful ceremony and reception, and it was the last time Letitia would make a public appearance. The first president's wife to die in the White House, Letitia Tyler, passed away on September 10, 1842, a few weeks after suffering a second stroke. Her funeral was held in the White House's East Room, and her body was taken back to Virginia, where she was buried in her family's cemetery. Letitia Tyler's tenure as First Lady ended with her death just 17 months after her husband took office. She's one of the first of three First Ladies who died during their

incumbencies at the White House. Caroline Harrison and Ellen Wilson followed her. When Letitia died a morning, John Tyler appointed his daughter-in-law, Priscilla Tyler, as his proxy hostess. Priscilla had already been helping Letitia carry out White House duties while she was confined to the second floor, so she was a natural fit for the role. Priscilla was born Elizabeth Priscilla Cooper, and she was, some would have said, an unusual choice for a White House hostess. Priscilla was an actress. In fact, she was the only professional actress who served in the White House until Nancy Reagan moved in in 1981. Her father was a famous stage actor, Thomas Apthorpe Cooper, and her mother was a New York socialite. And Priscilla's upbringing was unusual. Her family had money and social status, and they lived in a grand house on Broadway Street.

on Broadway Street. She lived very well for most of her childhood and spent most of her time watching and imitating the actors who graced the stage at the Park Theater where her father acted. By the time Priscilla was 17, though, her father had lost his assets in the economic panic of 1837, which, if you remember, was the recession that followed after Andrew Jackson brought the national debt down to zero. The Coopers were so destitute at that time that they were eating strawberries and radishes in a run-down leaky cottage in between taking any performance gigs they could get. Priscilla was enigmatic and beautiful, and when she traveled with her father to Richmond, Virginia to play the formidable Desdemona in Othello, one of the audience members was completely captivated by her. For Robert Tyler, the eldest son of John and Letitia Tyler, it was love at first sight. Despite her poor prospects that Tyler Tylers would not be inheriting any wealth from

the match. He knew he wanted to marry her. Lucky for him, Priscilla returned the sentiment, and by all accounts, the pair were madly in love. When Robert and Priscilla married in the fall of 1839, Letitia had already suffered the first of her strokes, and while she couldn't attend the wedding, she fully embraced her new daughter-in-law. Robert told Priscilla in a letter that, my mother is more glad that I should marry you than anyone in the world. The Tylers adored Priscilla and openly accepted her. They could have dismissed her or forbade the match. It was scandalous for an impoverished John Underlock actress to marry the son of a popular national politician, but they loved Priscilla with the same ferocity with which they loved their own children. They opened accounts

for her at every store in Richmond and encouraged her close relationship with their second youngest daughter, Lizzie Tyler, the one who would go on to marry in the White House a few years later. So when Letitia Tyler died in 1842, Priscilla was the natural choice to fill her beloved mother-in-law's shoes. She charmed the many notable visitors who came to the White House, everyone from members of Napoleon's family to writer Charles Dickens. For the general public, she initiated summer music concerts on the south lawn of the White House. Priscilla was charming and gracious, but she wasn't above asking for

advice or help from former First Lady Dolly Madison, who was living in Washington, D.C., and was always around to act as an informal advisor to Priscilla. Priscilla accompanied her father-in-law on an official presidential tour during the summer of 1843. It was the first time that any president traveled the country with a female member of his family as part of his official party. It elevated Priscilla's visibility to the public. She wasn't just a name in gossip columns. She was able to receive the public, and they were definitely team Priscilla. She was young, beautiful, humble, and quick-witted. As one New York newspaper editor wrote, she has shown all the power of her native strength of mind and without being dazzled by the

elevation of her position. Also notable was the fact that Priscilla Tyler was the first official hostess of the White House to give birth during her tenure. Her second child, who she and Robert named Letitia after his late mother, was born in the spring of 1843. But just as Robert, Priscilla, and their small but growing family began to plan a move back south to put down roots, President Tyler revealed a secret he had been keeping. A big secret. in january of 1842 less than a year into his presidency john tyler met the darling of the capital if you're a bridgerton fan it's the same idea everyone was watching julia and expecting great things from her and by great things i, I mean a great marriage. High society was not yet expecting women to do much else, frankly. Julia Gardner, the daughter of New York

State Senator John Gardner, embodied the idiom born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Her family was New York royalty. Lots of money and even more land. In fact, Julia was born on Gardner's Island, one of the largest privately owned islands in the United States. The island has been owned by the Gardner family since 1639 and has its own fascinating history that includes pirate treasure, escapes from burning buildings, and squabbling siblings. One of the final heirs of the island tried to adopt a middle-aged man in the 1980s in order to keep his niece from inheriting the island when he died. But he wasn't successful. And so when Robert Gardner did die, his niece became the sole owner of Gardner's Island, and she still owns it today.

Imagine one plot of land being owned by one family in the United States since the early 1600s. That is very unusual. Before he died, Robert Gardner, who was a descendant of Julia Gardner, who was born on the island, said, we have always married into wealth. We've covered all our bets. We were on both sides of the revolution and both sides of the Civil War, the Gardner family always comes out on top. So that gives you an idea here of the type of family we are talking about. Julia was trained from a young age to be an accomplished young woman. She made her debut

into society at age 15, but stumbled when she let a fashionable New York clothier use her image in their advertising. The cheeky ad did not name Julia, but it did label it with a rose, which was a direct reference to Julia's informal title of the Rose of Long Island. And people were shocked. Modeling? How improper. The Gardners escaped the judgmental gossip about Julia's modeling by traveling, as one would. I mean, right? As one would. They took a tour of Europe, and then they went to Washington, D.C. for the winter social season, and it was there that Julia turned everyone's heads, including the president's. She recounted an evening at a White House reception to her mother, telling her his thousand compliments were so enthusiastic that people

looked and listened in perfect amazement. John Tyler tried numerous times after the death of his wife to entice Julia, who was 30 years younger than him, to marry him. Each time he asked, she told him no. She was young and charming. He was old and stodgy. Washington society could see that John Tyler was enamored with Julia, but it seemed like she did not return his feelings. That changed two years later in February 1844. The newly constructed ship, the USS Princeton,

took its first ceremonial cruise down the Potomac River with 300 passengers aboard, including President Tyler and his cabinet members. In revelry, the ship's crews fired off shots from the Peacemaker, an ironic name for the world's largest naval cannon at the time. And the Peacemaker sat on the deck of the Princeton, by the way. One of these shots caused the cannon to malfunction and explode. President Tyler was safely below deck while it happened, but the malfunction killed and wounded many passengers, including two of his cabinet members and Julia Gardner's father, John Gardner. Julia and her sister Margaret were also on board the USS Princeton. By some accounts, President

Tyler scooped up the scared and grieving Julia in his arms and carried her off the ship. But that's probably a sensationalized story that was made up for the newspapers. It sounds really great, right? We do know that the death of her father devastated Julia and John Tyler's quiet attentiveness in the aftermath of the accident led to her finally accepting his marriage proposal. What followed was a quiet and in some ways secret elopement. The Gardner family was still in mourning for patriarch John. So when Julia and John Tyler got married in June of 1844, just four months after the accident, there were only 12 guests invited to the ceremony in New York City. Julia, who had been wearing black to show that she was mourning, wore a plain white dress for the day

with no jewelry or embellishments. The gardeners and the tilers did not make the announcement of the couple's elopement public until after the ceremony. Imagine a president today getting secretly married while president. It seems like that would never happen. I mean, am I wrong? So by the time Julia and john took a train to philadelphia the following day the news had spread rapidly crowds of thousands came out to catch a glimpse of julia she was the type of fascinating curiosity that only a 22 year old secret bride of the president could be. The union was celebrated with a two-hour reception at the White House. Tyler's own adult children were a bit hesitant at first. Understandably, their mother had died only two years earlier and Julia was their age. No doubt there was plenty of gossip between the

seven Tyler children and their spouses, probably along the lines of, what was he thinking? But over time, Julia won them over. She was cheerful and loyal to a fault. She was the mother of seven children, giving John Tyler the gold star award for president with the most offspring. Between his marriages to Letitia and Julia, Tyler fathered 15 children, 14 of them surviving to adulthood. And Julia also got to work in the White House. John Tyler's presidency wasn't a particularly fruitful one. He was at odds with the big party that nominated him

as vice president, and they sought to make his time in office as difficult as possible. They refused to allocate money to the upkeep of the White House, which was looking pretty shabby. And that did not matter one bit to Julia, who had a sizable dowry to work with. She had the White House repainted inside and out. She bought furniture from France, along with new draperies and linens that were fit for a queen. She brought a purebred Italian greyhound to the White House as the official pet, delighting the Tyler grandchildren. Julia knew how to make a splash, and even though she was only first lady for the last eight months of her husband's presidency, she went out in style. When John Tyler decided

to not seek re-election, Julia planned a massive going-away party. Like, seek re-election, Julia planned a massive going away party, like massive. The guest list was 2,000 people deep and over 3,000 showed up. The wine and champagne flowed very freely. Thousands of candles lit the ballroom and Julia presided over the whole thing. She was finally out of her morning clothes. She wore a white gown dripping with silver embroidery. The dress made me like the one she would have liked to have worn to her wedding. She was a celebrity. A Washington correspondent for the New York Herald dubbed her the Grand Presidentress, and an oil portrait of her likeness was mass-produced and sold across the country. She was the very first First Lady to have her photograph taken.

But her time in the White House was ultimately brief, and John's retirement saw the couple residing in a Virginia plantation called Sherwood Forest. During the Civil War, John Tyler followed the lead of his home state of Virginia by supporting its secession. He was the only former president to ever publicly come out against the Union, which he once led. to ever publicly come out against the Union, which he once led. Julia was a Northerner, but she followed Tyler's lead, supporting his pro-enslavement politics and managing the home's enslaved people. On August 1st, 1861, Tyler was elected as a member of the Confederate Congress, but he died before the Congress assembled. His death was officially ignored by the United States government. Julia lived for another 28 years, frequently spending her winter seasons in Washington, D.C. years, frequently spending her winter seasons in Washington, D.C. Like Dolly Madison, she became well known for her willingness to advise first ladies, and the press regularly referred to her

as Mrs. Ex-President Tyler. And while there was no federal law regarding pensions for former presidential spouses until 1957, in 1880, and after much lobbying by Julia, Congress voted to award her a pension of $1,200 a year. That amount was raised to $5,000 in the year following President Garfield's assassination. That's around $150,000 in today's money. The pensions helped Julia Tyler and also Lucretia Garfield, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Sarah Polk live in financial comfort after their husband's deaths. And here is one little fun fact to leave you with. Because John Tyler had so many children and he had so many children later in life,

he still has one living grandchild. A grand, not a great grandchild, one living grandchild whose name is Harrison Tyler. He was born in 1928. He actually became a chemical engineer and invented technology related to water treatment facilities. He started a company called Chemtreat that had to do with soft water, water treatment, and he's still alive. And that is remarkable that John Tyler still has a living descendant. Thanks so much for being here today. I'll see you soon. Thank you so much for listening to Here's Where It Gets Interesting.

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