Fun Presidential Facts – Grover Cleveland

Here are some quick facts, opinions, quotes and other information on President Grover Cleveland:

Personal Information on Grover Cleveland:

Twenty-second and Twenty-fourth President (1885-1889 and 1893-1897)

Birthday: March 18, 1837 (Saturday)
Birthplace: Caldwell, New Jersey
Birthplace Website: President Grover Cleveland’s Birthplace
Zodiac Sign: Pisces

Date of Death: June 24, 1908 (Wednesday)
Place of Death: Princeton, New Jersey
Place of Burial: Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, New Jersey
Burial Website: President Grover Cleveland’s Grave
Cause of Death: Coronary Sclerosis (others)
Age: 71 years old
Length of Retirement: 5590 days

Library of Congress: Grover Cleveland – A Resource Guide

Interesting Grover Cleveland facts:

Grover Cleveland was the second bachelor President. Unlike President James Buchanan, Grover Cleveland would get married. In fact, to date, Grover Cleveland is the only President to get married in the White House. He was married there during his first term. President John Tyler and President Woodrow Wilson would both remarry while they were President, but neither would hold their wedding ceremonies at the White House. John Tyler would marry Letitia Christian at Greenway Plantation in Charles City, Virginia. Woodrow Wilson would marry Edith Boling Galt at her home in Washington DC.
Grover Cleveland’s first child, Ruth Cleveland, would be born after Cleveland was defeated for office after his first term and before he would come back four years later to serve his second term. America fell in love with little Ruth from the time she was born. Unfortunately, little Ruth would die when she was twelve years old. Twenty-four years after Cleveland left office, and seventeen years after Ruth died, the Curtiss Candy Company, located on the same street as Wrigley Field (where the Chicago Cubs play), would change the ingredients on its Kandy Kate and rename it the Baby Ruth bar, in 1921. In 1921, Babe Ruth, the baseball player, was beginning his own run with popularity. Many would claim that the Curtiss Candy Company was trying to profit off Babe Ruth’s fame without paying any royalties. Curtiss Candy would claim they were naming the bar in memory of Ruth Cleveland. As evidence, the showed a medallion from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition that had the pictures and engraving of Grover Cleveland and “Baby Ruth.”
When Grover Cleveland ran for reelection in 1888 he would win the popular vote and lose the electoral vote. That would put Benjamin Harrison in the White House. Cleveland is just one of four (maybe five, depending on the final results of the 2016 election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton) candidates for President, so far, to win the popular vote, but lose the election. Andrew Jackson would beat John Quincy Adams in the popular vote in the election of 1824, but he would lose the election when it went to the House because no one received more than fifty percent of the electoral vote. Jackson would come back four years later and defeat John Quincy Adams when Quincy Adams sought reelection. In the election of 1876, Samuel Tilden would win the popular vote over Rutherford B. Hayes (our nineteenth President). Finally, Al Gore would win the popular vote in the election of 2000 and George W. Bush would become President (our forty-third President).

My favorite Grover Cleveland Quotes:

What is the use of being elected or reelected, unless you stand for something.

The ship of Democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those aboard.

If it takes the entire army and navy of the United States to deliver a postcard in Chicago, that card will be delivered.

A government for the people must depend for its success on the intelligence, the morality, the justice, and the interest of the people themselves.

Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters.

Grover Cleveland blogs (click the title to go to that page):

Grover Cleveland page on Presidential Crossroads (click “Grover Cleveland” below):

Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland Blogs:

The Pullman Car Strike

Was it his child?

Mouth Cancer Surgery

What similiar trait do I have with Presidents Garfield through Wilson

Personal thoughts on Grover Cleveland:

Strengths:

Honesty, Was a man of the times (those times)

Weaknesses:

Not very original, Didn’t want to make waves

Presidential Greatness Scale (1-poor to 5-great): 3

Comments:

Presidents like Cleveland are very difficult for me to rate. It is very easy to sit in the future of history and look back at how someone should have done things differently. Regardless of what people want to admit, times change our attitudes and thoughts. For example, who today really thinks it’s okay to own a slave? Yet in the early years of our country half the population thought it was okay. Cleveland was one of those Presidents who lived the life of the President like he, and most citizens, thought a President should live. He believed the people should support the government and that the government wasn’t supposed to support the people. Labor unrest was one of the biggest results of that attitude. He did what he believed the people, of that time, thought their President should do. To me, he is only average because above-average Presidents step out of that box of what is normal and they usually have a vision of a better America.

Favorite Grover Cleveland book:

An Honest President – The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland by H. Paul Jeffers

Favorite Grover Cleveland story:

The story of Cleveland’s wife, Frances Folsom. Cleveland possibly got Frances’ father out of a jam by clalming that it was him and not her father that was the father of an illegitimate child. Cleveland was a bachelor and Oscar Folsom was married. Later Frances was born and Oscar would die. Cleveland would be appointed her guardian, but one day he would also marry her. Who knows, maybe their story is what inspired the birth of the soap opera.

Most memorable Grover Cleveland memory:

When I was a kid, and just learning I had an interest in the Presidents, Grover Cleveland was the most confusing President for me. He is considered the twenty-second and twenty-fourth Presidents of the United States. Why was that I wondered? Just because his terms were non-consecutive, did that give him the right to be counted twice? George Washington served two terms. Why isn’t he considered the first and second President? Now we have President Obama as our forty-fourth President, yet he is only the forty-third person to serve as President. Thanks a lot Grover Cleveland. You have permanently messed up our Presidential counting system.

Favorite Grover Cleveland possession (see picture at the top):

The Grover Cleveland Drake’s Kids Vote96 Collector Card