Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1920 — 117TH ANNIVERSARY YESTERDAY [ARTICLE]

117TH ANNIVERSARY YESTERDAY

Of Birth of Thomas Jefferson, the Founder of Democratic Party. Yesterday was the 177th anniversary of the birth of Thomias Jefferson, the founder of the Democratic party. He was our third president and was born at Shadwell, Va., April 13, 1743, (April 2 according to the old-style calendar, which was abandoned when he was 9 years old.) He began his political career in 1769 and was successively a member of the Continental congress, governor of Virginia, minister to France, secretary of state in Washington’s cabinet and vice-president before becoming president in 1801. By a strange coincidence he died July 1826, 50 years to a day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which he wrote at the age of 33 years.