Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1895 — FIRST WHITE HOUSE BABY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FIRST WHITE HOUSE BABY.

Mr*. Wilcox I* a Clerk in the Treasury De partinent. The number of children born in the White House is small, being so far only six. They have not all bad happy lives

nor ones pleasanter than most people’s notwithstanding the glory of their infant days. The first White House baby was a girl, and made her debut during the far away reign of Jackson, back in 1830. There was a space of sixty-three years between the first and the last White House baby. Who was the first? She was the daughter of President Jackson’s niece, who was the wife of Andrew Jackson Donaldson. This latter gentleman was the Thurber of his day, and performed as Jackson’s private secretary. Mrs. Donaldson, Jackson’s niece, not yet 20, came with her uncle to the White House to preside as its mistress. The first White House baby, Baby Donaldson, grew yp and married a Mississippi gentleman—once in Congress—named Wilcox. Gen. Wileox has now been dead full thirty years, and Mrs. Wileox, who was the first baby to try the White House as a place wherein to be born, has, since Grant’s time, been a clerk in the Treasury Department. The first White House baby Is an old gray lady now, and the day Baby Esther Cleveland was born, she was busy at her desk in the treasury, not 100 yards from the last baby’s cradle. Yet the first baby has witnessed much of the world. Her father, Donaldson, following his term as Jackson’s private secretary, was at various European courts as Minister. He came home to plunge into politics, and once ran for the Vice Presidency. But whether it was the property of her father other husband, or both, the fact remains that the war swept away what riches the first White House baby—Mrs. Wil-cox-possessed, and President Grant gave her the position which she now holds, and which she will probably hold until death claims the first White House baby for himself.

MRS. J. A. WILCOX.