May 8, 2018 -
First Lady, 1877—1881 Lucy Ware Webb Hayes was born on August 28, 1831, in Chillicothe, Ohio, and attended Wesleyan Female College in Cincinnati, where she met Rutherford B. “Rud” Hayes. They married in 1852 and lived in Cincinnati until the...
May 8, 2018 -
First Lady, 1881 Lucretia Rudolph Garfield was born on April 19, 1832, in Garrettsville, Ohio. She first met future President “Jim” Garfield when both attended a nearby school, and they renewed their friendship in 1851 as students at the Western...
May 8, 2018 -
First Lady, 1869–1877 Julia Dent Grant was born on January 26, 1826, near St. Louis. She met future Union General and President Ulysses Grant at her affluent family’s plantation, White Haven, where he was welcomed as a former West Point...
May 8, 2018 -
First Lady, 1865—1869 Eliza McCardle Johnson was born on October 4, 1810, in Greeneville, Tenn. She was almost 16 and Andrew Johnson only 17 when they met. She married him within a year, on May 17, 1827. They converted the...
May 8, 2018 -
First Lady, 1861–1865 Mary Todd Lincoln was born on December 13, 1818, in Lexington, Ky. It was here that she cultivated her love for politics. Later, in Springfield, Ill., she met Abraham Lincoln and they married in 1842. When her...
May 8, 2018 -
First Lady, 1853–1857 The daughter of a devout Congregationalist minister, Jane Appleton Pierce was born on March 12, 1806, in Hampton, N.H. Her father later moved the family to Brunswick, Maine, when he became president of Bowdoin College, her future...
May 8, 2018 -
President, 1857–1861 The Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 contains a provision to provide continuity of the First Spouse Gold Coin Program during those times in which a president served without a first spouse. This provision applies to James Buchanan,...
May 8, 2018 -
First Lady, 1850–1853 Born in 1798 in Saratoga County, N.Y., Abigail Powers Fillmore developed a passion for learning early in life. Financial circumstances forced her to begin working at the age of 16 as a teacher while she continued her...
May 8, 2018 -
First Lady, 1845–1849 Sarah Childress Polk received an education traditionally available only to the most privileged young women of her time. When she was 14, Sarah and her sister undertook a month-long, 500-mile journey on horseback from Tennessee to North...
May 8, 2018 -
First Lady, 1849–1850 Zachary Taylor once commented that Margaret “Peggy” Mackall Smith Taylor “was as much of a soldier as I was.” For 30 years, she followed her husband during his military career to remote hardship outposts that stretched from...
