Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: James Polk, Disinterred

Episode Date: May 22, 2019

Did you know that former president James Polk had his final resting place moved twice? It's true! And almost a third time even. Let's go listen to some short stuff.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're gonna use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, everybody, and welcome to Short Stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck, there's Jerry, and like I said, this is Short Stuff,

so let's get to it about James K. Polk. That's right. Let's get to it. James K. Polk, 11th President of the United States, former Governor of Tennessee, former Speaker of the House and House Representative of the State of Tennessee, former member of the Senate, or was he? He clerked for the Senate. He did clerk for the Senate.

That's where he got his start, which is pretty impressive because he was still in law school, I think, but he made such a name for himself that they basically said, come on as the Tennessee State Senate mascot, buddy, and we're gonna raise you up from there. Yeah, so Polk was born in North Carolina,

although I think people in Tennessee have a lot of respect and reverence for him, but he was born in North Carolina, or North Cackalackie, as we call it, and when he was 10, they moved to Tennessee, this article calls the Tennessee Frontier. Yeah, well, I mean, it was at the time. Sure, why not?

If you were a white European settler, sure. I guess so, yeah. And his dad, Sammy Polk, Samuel Polk. His paw, Chuck, we're talking Tennessee. Oh, that's right, his paw. He built a two-story house in 1816 in Columbia, and that's where James lived for a while as a young adult, and it now serves as the James K. Polk home and museum.

Presidential museum. Yeah, so that's just a bit of the background of this interesting story about the fact that James Polk has been exhumed and moved a couple of times since his death. Yes, this short stuff just got interesting. Even though this article, I'm sure you noticed, did not say anything about his death or where he was buried.

There is clearly a paragraph or two missing. I think so. I went back and I was like, is it under this ad? Like, what's going on here? I did the same thing. But nope, it's not there. So basically, James Polk, he became the 11th president of the United States after John Tyler,

who was the first president not elected, I believe, to become president. He succeeded William Henry Harrison, who died after a month, you know, that famous Simpson song. There's William Henry Harrison. I died in 30 days. Well, that's what happened and John Tyler succeeded him. Well, James Polk soundly beat Tyler and he beat him,

basically saying like, look, I've got some campaign promises I'm going to handle. I'm going to take care of these things in one term and then I'm going to go. And I'm young and no one's ever elected a president this young. No, I think he was 49 when he was elected or something like that.

So at the time, he was definitely the youngest. For sure. Although you'd think in like the 1840s or 1850s, that was like old school, but I guess not. But he was elected and he did what he said he was going to do. He established the Naval Academy. He oversaw the very first US postal stamp created. Yeah, he was like, you know what we need?

Stamps. Right. And everyone's like, what's that? And he's like, just watch everybody. Yeah. And then he signed into law the Smithsonian, which makes me a big fan of him. Sure.

He also did something pretty big. He established the Independent Treasury System, which was the predecessor chuck to the Federal Reserve. Yeah. And at the time, you might think, well, Federal Reserve, you know, boo or yay or whatever, however you feel about it. It was very much needed at the time because back then state owned or private banks

would routinely just not trade you gold and silver for the paper that you came to trade back in. They would say, we don't have it. Sorry. And this would cause panics over and over again. So they set up a bank to the banks, the Independent Treasury System. And that was a big one that he did

because it took a lot of political clout to overwhelm the state's interest at the time who were run by these influential bankers who didn't want a federal system above them. So those were some big ones. He also started the Mexican-American War, which is definitely a mark against him. That's right.

But through all, I mean, he got a lot happened in those four years. And like you said, true to his word, he said, four years, I'm out. And went back to Tennessee. And then I think let's take a break now. And then we'll talk about how he died and started bouncing around after that.

On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it.

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Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. So Polk died of what they think now is cholera. He got sick. They kind of denied it was cholera, but he was surrounded by people with cholera. But they were like, no, you don't have cholera. And he was like, I'm pretty sure I have cholera,

because everyone around me has cholera. And they said, no, it's not cholera. Not you, James. But I think he died of, that's kind of widely believed to be his cause of death today. Well, the first place he was interred was the Nashville City Cemetery with the cholera victims. Yeah, it was a legal thing.

It wasn't called the Nashville City Cemetery back then. But the way I saw it, it was basically like if you died from infectious disease, infectious disease, you had to be buried there. Yeah, as close to the groundwater as possible. Yeah. So that's the first place that he's buried. We need like a ding or something here,

because he's been interred one time. I think Jerry could manage a ding. Let's hope, Jerry. So he's buried there in, again, the Nashville City Cemetery, like a common cholera victim. And somebody said, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is no place for a beloved president to be buried. We need to show some respect.

And also, more closely, follow the wishes of his will. Because he said that he wanted to be buried at Polk Place, which was his mansion, where he and his wife lived. And they moved him there. They actually built him like a pretty sweet little memorial on the front yard. You can see drawings of it. And it's like, there's the house.

There's the memorial right there in this little front yard. It was pretty cute. Yeah, and his wife, Sarah. Thank you. For? For remembering her name. I was frantically searching for it and couldn't find it. Yeah, his wife, Sarah, I guess, she was like, well,

let me just live for another, I don't know, 42 years. I read that, and I was like, is that a misprint? No, it could be in this article, but it's not. Yeah, exactly. According to this article, he never died. He's right behind you. So he, oh my god. So yeah, she lived another 42 years, which

is outstanding, great, great long life. And once she finally died, there was a bit of an argument over the ownership of Polk Place and kind of like where they should be ultimately in their whatever they thought was their final resting place, but what everyone else is like. But where should their real final resting place be? Right, well, I think they would technically be there, but he and his will had left the stipulation

that the state of Tennessee could take Polk Place and own it, as long as a Polk would be allowed to live there forever. And Tennessee said, that's an improprietuity, which is illegal, so this clause, this part of your will is null and void, which left it open to his heirs to do what they wished with this place, which was turn around and sell it to a developer, because he didn't have any children.

These were all relatives who didn't give a spit about what happened to his beloved home. Yeah, I can't believe that was sold by developers in 1900, and they demolished it. They demolished it. And this was like this, Tennessee was thinking of turning this into the governor's mansion and preserving this.

And they said, nope, get rid of it. So they actually disinterred him. So the state of Tennessee disinterred he and Sarah and moved their remains to the state capital. And you'd think, OK, that would be the end of the story. The guy's been buried two times now. No, one, two, three times. He's been buried three times.

Let him rest in peace, right? But it's not. Wait, buried? Buried. And then was it three times? Yeah, he was buried in the city cemetery. Oh, moved twice. Buried?

Yeah, right. I know it kind of confounded me, too. It's like trying to understand economics. Yeah, that's the old saying. Buried, never mind. Buried thrice, but moved only twice. That's it. So like you said, they moved into the capital

and a place of great reverence and respect where people can go see, although he is sort of in the shadow of these two. He doesn't have the kind of monuments that Jackson and Johnson have. No, and that's why there are some people in the Tennessee state government, specifically a guy named, oh, what's that state senator?

Joey Hensley. Joey Hensley, which is number one, not a senator's name, if you ask me. And number two, not a Tennessee senator's name, but there you have it. Joey Hensley, eh? Right, exactly. I could see him on Jersey Shore or something like that. He's like bright orange, his hair stands up like a mile high.

Anyway, Senator Joey Hensley is like, look, man, I have been up here for 14 years working in the Tennessee legislature. And I can tell you, James Polk is not getting his reverence. People don't know he's buried there. They barely mentioned him on the tour. He's literally in the shadows of Jackson and Johnson statues, like you said.

We got to do something better. Let's move this guy to his presidential library at his father's house in Columbia, Tennessee. Yeah, this is a couple of years ago in 2017. And a lot of hoops have to be jumped through to move a dead president's body, believe it or not. It did pass the state senate in March 2017, which was just kind of like the first stop to getting this done.

The governor has to approve it. The house has to approve it. A local judge. And then most importantly, in this case, the Tennessee Historical Commission has to approve it. And that's the one that said, no, I don't think you should do that. Yeah, and his family is kind of divided about it.

Some people are like, yeah, of course, this would be a great place for him. It's his presidential library. And other people are like, who? Right. But then I didn't understand why anybody would be opposed to moving him if he's not getting his due in the Capitol.

But the opposition's position seems to be that he wanted to be buried at Polk Place in Nashville. So at least it's closer to that. Right. Polk Place isn't around anymore. So he's still buried in Nashville and at the Capitol. Yeah, I get that. So I saw also in 2018, the issue was brought back up again.

And it got voted down by one vote by the state senate this time. So he's not going anywhere. Yeah, it doesn't look like he's going anywhere. So if you're ever in Nashville, go eat some hot chicken. Maybe go cut a record at Jack White's little recording booth. Don't forget to pick up a moldorama while you're there. Pick up a moldorama and go, if you want to,

pay your respects to James Polk. Short stuff. Out. The stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.