September FLOTUS birthdays
There are just two First Ladies born in September. Hardly worth writing about, except I’ll be talking about both of their husbands soon and don’t really know much about either.
Here they are:
Sarah Polk: born September 4, 1803 in Tennessee
Margaret (“Peggy”) Taylor: born September 21, 1788 in Maryland
As sparse as this list is, there are twice as many FLOTUSes born in September as POTUSes (President Taft being the lone September baby).
Going into this, I thought it might be an unusually succinct post. I misjudged my propensity to be derailed.
There are some overlaps off the bat:
daughters of wealthy plantation owners
enslavers
married to men who stood 5’ 8” and were born in November in the 1700s
President Taylor was born on November 24, 1784
President Polk was born November 2, 1795
died August 14 (what?!)
Taylor in 1852, just a few weeks shy of her 64th birthday
Polk in 1891, just a couple weeks shy of her 88th birthday
I was struck that both died weeks shy of their birthday. They were both born in September?! Yes. That is the entire point of this post. 🤦🏻♀️
Hands-on / hands-off
Sarah Polk was very much into her husband’s political career. She was intelligent, extremely well-educated, and a frequent advisor to her husband. She even helped with his campaign strategy, lobbied for him, controlled the flow of information, and more. (And yet, curiously against equal rights for women.) According to biographer Amy S. Greenberg, Ph.D., “Her story shows that while democracy promises political power through election, real power often derives from wealth, connections, and influence hidden from public view.”
As hands-on as Sarah Polk was, Peggy Taylor might have been the exact amount hands-off. She didn’t want Zachary to go into politics and prayed for his defeat. When he won, she didn’t even act as First Lady at events. She delegated that to her daughter, who was thrilled for the opportunity.
Note: nobody really knows what Peggy Taylor looked like. There’s a depiction of her drawn a half-century after she died. A photo of her was released in 2010, but it hasn’t been authenticated.
America’s Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, from President to Political Maverick, by Bob Crawford
Their husbands didn’t like each other
There isn’t a whole lot known about Peggy Taylor. Sarah Polk didn’t allow any vices in the White House (except VP George M. Dallas, I assume; no drinking, dancing, cards, etc.). Not sure Peggy’s stance on fun. Or if she and Sarah liked each other.
Their husbands did not.
When President Polk started a war with Mexico without approval from Congress, he sent General Zachary Taylor. (Who, BTW, didn’t agree with his methods.)
I’ll obviously need to dig into this more when preparing my upcoming talks, but for now:
Taylor dressed kinda slovenly. He wore a giant straw sombrero. Looked more like a farmer wearing ill-fitting clothes than a military officer.
Polk at one point says “I am now satisfied that he is a narrow minded, bigoted partisan, without resource, and wholly unqualifed for the command he holds.”
I don’t believe those two bullet points are necessarily related, but that’s all I have for you right now.
Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest, by K. Jack Bauer
Confederacy
James K. Polk died more than a decade before the Civil War. His widow stayed active in society during the war, but remained neutral. Their home, Polk Place, remained neutral as well and she entertained people from both sides during the war.
Zachary Taylor (though a slaveholder himself) wanted to stop the expansion of slavery. His stance seems very fluid, depending perhaps on the evolution of his views over time and also possibly my sources…? I believe he evolved to put the Union above all else. He also died before the Civil War, but I wonder what he would have thought about going to war. Or about the fact that his son-in-law, Jefferson Davis, was the Confederate president…
… but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Children
Sarah Childress Polk (Child is right there in her maiden name) and James had no children. After her husband died, she “adopted” her orphaned great-niece Sally Jetton (Sarah Polk “Sallie” Jetton Fall).
TANGENT
Sally’s husband was George William Fall, which made me wonder if he was related to Albert B. Fall (of the Teapot Dome Scandal). I don’t know. But I forgot the B is for Bacon and there’s a Bacon in my family tree. So maybe I’m related to Albert Bacon Fall! Which lead me to discover that Albert B. Fall’s mom is a Taylor (Edmonia Louisa Taylor) and his grandfather is William Henry Harrison Taylor (1812-~1868) … born during the War of 1812, and I can only imagine (without any evidence to back me up) that he was named for War of 1812 hero William Henry Harrison…? Or maybe not. He was born in January and war was declared that summer. Maybe he was just named for not-yet-war-hero Governor of the Indiana Territory William Henry Harrison. Then I found this guy — Col. William Henry Harrison Taylor (1813-1894). He married William Henry Harrison’s daughter, his second cousin (Anna Tuthill Harrison Taylor). That. Is. Weird. This is not the first time I’ve encountered someone marrying a cousin who happens to have the same name as her dad (coughcalhounscough).
But back to Albert B. Fall’s mom … I think she ultimately rolls up to James Taylor II (1675-~1729) through his son Colonel George Taylor (1711-1792) . And I believe that Zachary Taylor also rolls up to that same James Taylor II (sweet baby James), but through his son (President Taylor’s grandfather) Zachary Taylor, Sr. (1707-~1768).
1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, by David Pietrusza
Margaret Taylor and her husband had six children:
Ann Mackall (1811)
Sarah Knox (1814)
Octavia Pannill (1816)
Margaret Smith (1819)
Mary Elizabeth (1824)
Richard (1826)
The year after Margaret Smith was born, the family was stricken with illness (diagnosed as bilious fever). Both the baby and Octavia died that same year. Unimaginable.
Much to Taylor’s dismay, his daughter Sarah Knox fell in love with Jefferson Davis. How could Davis resist, what with her “exquisite hands and feet.”
Taylor did not want his daughters marrying anyone in the military. He knew what kind of life that was and tried to keep Davis away, sending him on various missions.
It didn’t work. The couple engaged secretly. He left the military. They married. Fine, Taylor is cool with it now.
I’d wondered if Sara Knox was conflicted about being the daughter of a former president and the wife of a Confederate president.
She was not conflicted.
She was dead.
Knoxie (as she was called) died of malaria three months after their wedding:
Fourteen years before her dad’s presidency.
Twenty seven years before her husband’s Confederate presidency.
Richard Taylor, I was disappointed to learn, grew up to be a Confederate general. (His brother-in-law was the Confederate President, as I mentioned above, and his uncle was Union Brigadier General Joseph Pannell Taylor.)
TANGENT ☠️
Richard Taylor was in Skull and Bones, the secret club at Yale. I tried to find a connection with William Howard Taft (the only president born in September) with this post. Taft was a Bonesman, too. Did they overlap…??
No.
Richard graduated in 1845. William Howard Taft was born in 1857.
But guess what?! Taft’s dad, Alphonso Taft, co-founded Skull and Bones. 🤯 Alphonso graduated in 1833, which is disappointing. Would have been cooler to be able to say he graduated with Richard Taylor.
Mary Elizabeth (“Betty”, AKA “Miss Betty”, AKA Mary Elizabeth Bliss Dandridge) served as First Lady because her mom was not interested. At the end of 1848, she married William Wallace Smith Bliss… who I was just looking into the other day! President Taylor is sworn in in 1849 and he makes his son-in-law his secretary.
BLISSFUL TANGENT
I have no idea how I happened upon the two Blisses associated with President Zachary Taylor. Maybe I found the first when looking into Zachary Taylor and reading that one of his daughters married a Bliss…? I wondered if this guy might be related to Dr. Doctor Willard Bliss. I don’t think so… but they both have a connection to Zachary Taylor!
William Wallace Smith Bliss (1815-1853)
born in Whitehall, NY
Zachary Taylor’s secretary and son-in-law
but before that, he was his chief of staff during the Mexican-American War
he died just three years after President Taylor
Dr. Doctor Willard Bliss (1825-1889)
born in Brutus, NY
originally drawn to this guy because his germy fingers killed my favorite president, James Garfield
found out quite by accident that he’s (probably??) named for someone in my family tree (you can read all about it here; it’s bonkers)
I think I maybe looked him up again to see if he might be related to William Wallace Smith Bliss… and in doing so saw that he treated Zachary Taylor once! (For malaria… in Louisiana in 1844.)
I traced both back to the 1500s … and was excited to see Johns Bliss and Thomases Bliss in both family trees, the dates don’t align. I didn’t uncover any overlaps.
Not much later, I looked into whether Mount Marcy is named after Governor William L. Marcy (it is), because he was mentioned in this letter between Martin Van Buren’s sons. In looking into Marcy, I noticed a Troy, NY-based lawyer named William L. Bliss. All I can find is what is in Marcy’s Wikipedia listing. Marcy studied the law with Bliss. Not very satisfying.
No post-presidency marriage
Their husbands died just about a year apart:
James K. Polk (who had until that point been our youngest president yet, taking office at 49 years old) died June 15, 1849, just three months after his presidency ended.
Zachary Taylor died July 9, 1850, 1.33 years into his term.
While James K. Polk had the shortest-ever post-presidency (109 days), Margaret Taylor briefly held the record for the First Lady with the least amount of post-presidency (just over two years and one month) until Abigail Fillmore snagged the title from her… dying weeks after Millard Fillmore’s term ended.
Sarah, widowed at 45-years-old, outlived James K. Polk by 42 years.
I happened to stumble on Sarah and James Polk’s graves without even trying! They were across the street from a conference I went to a few years ago… a completely not-related-to-history-at-all conference. You can find a better photo here, because for some reason I only took zoomed in photos.
Both died August 14!