Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1901 — PRESIDENTS’ WIDOWS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PRESIDENTS’ WIDOWS

QUARTETTE OF FORMER WHITE HOUSE MISTRESSES. Women Whim the Country Revere*, Not Only Because of Their Husbands’ Greatness, but for Their Own Noble Traits. • ~ In her widowhood the beloved wife of our last martyred President has the deep sympathy and compassion not only of the public generally, but in particular of three other ladies who have presided over the White House and who have since been bereft of the noble husbands on whom they leaned and to whom they were a source of joy and comfort. The eldest of these is Mrs. Ulysses 8. Grant. Julia Dent had married plain U. S. Grant Aug. 22, 1848, when he was in the regular army, stationed at Detroit. Later he went to Panama and the Pacific coast and, after leaving the army at 32, began a struggle for existence on a farm near St. Louis, with his wife and one son, now Gen. Frederick D. Grant. Mrs. Grant was by her husband’s side through all the hardships which followed. Few of the aristocracy of St. Louis in 1858 could have been made to believe that the Grant who hauled wood for them and the wife who waited for him at the farm would be on their way to the White House ten years later. It was in May, 1861, that Grant entered the service of the State of Illinois and began

that career which was to make him twice a President. Mrs. Grant was essentially an ornament to the White House, as distinguished in the social life of the capital as was her husband in national affairs. When his fatal illness came and the long struggle against encroaching disease those qualities which had at first endeared her to him became more and more nationally known, winning the unstinted admiration of the people. Mrs. Grant still lives, happy in the life of her children and grandchildren. Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes, as the successor of Mrs. Grant in the White House, came into social life of the capital when much bitterness prevailed. Dempcratic authorities and Democratic wives believed that Tilden had been sleeted, and that President Hayes was an usurper. Mrs. Hayes was a woman Df tact, slow to give provocation and most anxious with her husband to allay the bad feelings aroused during the election. She succeeded in doing this long before her husband’s term ended. Dne„pf the strongest steps taken by her after her arrival in Washington was a itand against the use of liquor at PresiJential functions. Like Mrs. Grant, ihe survived her husband and is still living at Fremont, Ohio. Mrs. James A. Garfield is also living, [n wealth, In retirement and in the enloyment of her beautiful home at Mentor, the widow of the President who fell a victim to misguided political strife probably now thinks of the days, a score of years ago, when millions watched with her in spirit at her husband’s bedside and wept with her at his grave. The nation never knew Lucretla Garfield as it knew the wives of other Presidents. She never cared tor society and as mistress of the White House, during the brief period of her husband’s occupancy of the executive chair, she was little seen. She was in ill health much of the time. Mrs. Garfield’s maiden name was Lucretla Rudolph, and she was the pupil of her husband at Hiram College long before he married her. They began their home life under modest circumstances and accumulated little during the President’s lifetime. Ills estate, at death, amounted to His life Insurance was SOO,OOO. Could he return now and see the wealth and luxury of his family he would, Indeed, be amazed. His widow to-day is worth a million. When he died, Congress voted her his salary for a full year, In addition to an annual pension of $5,000. A fund was raised by the public amounting to $363,000. Cyrus W. Field Invested this for Mrs. Garfield and It has nearly trebled now. In addition to her vast wealth, she has what is Infinitely more precious—the memory of the repeated expressions of her husband, during his

long lllnesn, in which he spoke of hei love for and devotion to him. Of whpt Mis. McKinley has borne it Is not necessary to speak. The nation has observed the close union between husband and wife and it has touched the people’s hearts. Mrs. Benjamin Harrison cannot be properly called the widow of a President. It was not, however, until after he had left the Presidential chair that she was married to him; so that she does not occupy a place In the same category with Mrs. McKinley, Mrs. Garfield, Mrs. Hayes and Mrs. Grant The country remembers her as the widow of an ex-President.

MRS. ULYSSES 8. GRANT. MRS, JAMES A. GARFIELD.

MBS. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. MRS. WILLIAM M’KINLEY.

WIDOWS OF AMERICAN PRESIDENTS.