All right, So this may knock you for a loop, but did you know that one guy who just died in the past month or so had a direct link to the entire history of the United States. Harrison Ruffin Tyler was ninety six years old, and he was the last surviving grandson of John Tyler, the tenth President of the United States. Huh, how's that possible. I'm Patty Steele alive in twenty twenty five, with sort of two degrees of separation from George Washington. That's next on the backstory.
We're back with the backstory. Harrison ruff And Tyler died on May twenty fifth this year, and with him went the last grandchild of President John Tyler, the tenth president of the United States from eighteen forty one to eighteen forty five. Now it seems a little bit of a stretch to think your grandpa was in the White House almost two hundred years ago. I mean, we all know our pause, right, but it's actually not quite as strange
as it seems. Harrison and his older brother, Lyon Gardner Tyler Junior, that's quite a name, who died five years ago at the age of ninety five, were sons of Lyon Gardner Tyler Senior, the first I guess who was born in eighteen fifty three. He was their dad eighteen fifty three, but he had the boys when he was in his seventies. Lyon Senior died in nineteen thirty five at the age of eighty two, when the two boys were seven and ten.
Starting to get the picture.
Lyon Senior was born eight years after his own father, John Tyler, was already out of the White House, and their great grandfather, John Tyler Senior, was born in seventeen forty five. It turns out he was a roommate in College of Thomas Jefferson.
That'd be a crazy dorm room, right.
He went on to serve in the Continental Army during the Revolution, then became Governor of Virginia, all while having eight children, including the future President. Ten years ago, Lyon Junior gave a speech in which he said, I heard too much about presidents growing up. There were family stories about paling around with Patrick Henry, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, fighting in the Revolution and the Civil War, and of course a ton of stories about my grandfather, President John Tyler.
So what we're seeing here in this crazy close connection is a succession of Tyler men who married late in life. You see, that wasn't creepy or unusual. It was often because women so frequently died in childbirth in those days, so men would quickly remarry somebody young and full of enough energy to take care of the children, love behind her husband and the house, as well as adding more
offspring to the household. So the Tyler family up until Harrison's death, was three generations of people that tied together almost the entire history of the United States. President Tyler was born two hundred and thirty five years ago in seventeen ninety, just months after George Washington was inaugurated as our first president. He was a governor, a congressman, a senator,
and then the vice president under William Henry Harrison. But Harrison caught a cold during his inaugural speech, which turned into pneumonia, killing him within a month of becoming president. Thus John Tyler became president. While in office, his wife, Letitia died las of deaths in those days. Two years later, just before leaving the White House, he married Julia Gardner, a twenty four.
Year old debutante.
When he was fifty four, after leaving office, he got out of politics and went home to his Virginia plantation called Sherwood Forest to enjoy the good life with his young wife. Before he died in eighteen sixty two, he had fathered fifteen children, the most of any American president.
President Tyler. Thirteenth child was Lyon Tyler Senior. Lyon had three children with his first wife, Anne, who died in nineteen twenty one, and in nineteen twenty three, when he was seventy years old, he married thirty five year old Sue Ruffin. They had three more children, including Lyon Junior
and the recently deceased Harrison. That kind of pulls the story together now, I mean, it wasn't unusual for a man to immediately remarry somebody much younger when his wife had died again, mostly because she would have had the energy to care for him and any remaining children, as well as have more children for him. Those kids to be counted on to care for the family property, whether it was a farm or a business, and also the
parents as they aged. Plus, for her part, the young wife was making a choice that probably allowed her a better financial situation. Women didn't have a lot of options to improve their financial lives. That didn't involve marrying a guy who'd already been successful money wise, So the Tyler family just happened to have a run of several long living men who had first wives who died young. They went on to create new families with much younger second wives.
Now the only stain on the Tyler family legacy was President Tyler's support for the South during the Civil War and Lion Tyler Senior's academic and public attacks on Abraham Lincoln over his opposition to state's rights during the war.
They were tried in True Confederates.
As for Harrison's thoughts on modern politics, while back in twenty twelve, he said, I've sort of lost interest in politics. They're killing each other on both sides. The campaigns are just horrible. It has nothing to do.
With what we really need.
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