Is Someone Playing "Hail to the Chief?"

I don't know, I only got to "Stars and Stripes Forever" before I quit band.

Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. I bet this fact will make you feel exceptionally young.

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

John Tyler, the 10th President of the United States, who was born in 1790, has a grandson who is still alive today.

If someone asked you to name a U.S. President, chances are “John Tyler” wouldn’t be the first words out of your mouth.

Perhaps you’re familiar with “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too,” the campaign song used by the Whig party during the 1840 election. Tyler was the vice-presidential nominee on that ticket alongside William Henry Harrison.

You may also know that William Henry Harrison had the shortest presidency in U.S. history. He spent a mere 30 days in office before dying of pneumonia and pleurisy at age 68.

That means Tyler was the first Vice President to become President due to the death of his predecessor. The Whigs ultimately booted him from the party—he also vetoed a lot of their bills—and he had to live with nicknames like “His Accidency.”

Nevertheless, he got through virtually an entire presidential campaign, minus the month Harrison spent in charge. Among Tyler’s biggest accomplishments: a “Log-Cabin” bill that allowed settlers to claim land before it went on the public market, protecting northern manufacturers, and annexing Texas in 1845.

And then we’d never get the Prada Marfa store! (Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash)

Is any of that relevant to this issue’s particular fact? No, but I doubt we’ll be talking about John Tyler again in this newsletter, so may as well load it up with information.

Tyler had a whopping 15 children, which is more than any other U.S. president. He had eight kids with his first wife, Letitia Christian. Letitia died of a stroke in the White House in 1842, and Tyler remarried two years later. His second wife, Julia Gardiner, had seven children.

One of those children was named Lyon Gardiner Tyler, born in 1853 when John was 63 years old. LGT (surely a nickname among his friends) also later remarried and had many children, including one named Harrison Ruffin Tyler.

Today, Harry Ruff (also surely a nickname) is 95 years old, residing in an assisted-living facility after a series of mini-strokes and dementia. He was a chemical engineer who founded ChemTreat to improve industrial water cooling systems. Harrison is a preservationist, too, having owned the Sherwood Forest Plantation since 1975.

And because we’re all about things coming full circle, Harrison is a descendant of Benjamin Harrison IV, grandfather of William Henry Harrison.

Finally, a use for all this yarn I bought!

Two other bonus fun facts:

• Tyler had TWO living grandsons until September 2020. His older grandson, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., lived to be 95 years old.

• John Tyler Sr. (John’s father and Harrison's great-grandfather) was college roommates with Thomas Jefferson.