How many presidents are from Ohio? Test your knowledge
Here’s a quiz in honor of Presidents Day, which arrives next week: How many U.S. presidents are from Ohio?
If you answered “seven,” you’re right. You’re also right if you answered “eight” and maybe, if the judges are feeling generous, even “six.”
“How many presidents are from Ohio?” is actually a trick question. As a more recent president might have put it, the answer depends on what the meaning of the word “from” is.
Here’s a look at the presidents claimed, at least in part, by the Buckeye state, and at some of the historical sites associated with them.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Hayes is undisputedly an Ohioan through and through. Born in the town of Delaware, he represented Ohio in Congress and was elected governor of the state before becoming the 19th president. He retired to his Spiegel Grove estate in Fremont and is buried there with his wife, Lucy.
Spiegel Grove is now the site of the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums (www.rbhayes.org), which includes Hayes’ 31-room mansion.
James A. Garfield
Garfield succeeded Hayes as president and like him was born in Ohio, represented the state in Congress and was a resident for most of his adult life. He was assassinated less than a year after taking office as the 20th president.
Garfield’s Mentor estate, Lawnfield, (8095 Mentor Ave.,www.nps.gov/jaga/) is now the Garfield National Historic Site. The site includes a presidential library which, like the Hayes Presidential Library, claims to be the first of its kind. (But let’s save that dispute for another quiz.)
Garfield is buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, where his grave is marked by a monumental and ornate 180-foot-high Ohio sandstone tower.
William Mckinley
Mckinley, the 25th resident, was born in Niles. Mckinley also served as a congressman and Ohio governor, and made his home in Canton, the location of the Mckinley Presidential Library and Museum (800 Mckinley Monument Drive Nw,www.mckinleymuseum.org).
Mckinley, like Garfield, was assassinated in office. He is entombed in Canton
next door to the Mckinley Museum in the massive Mckinley National Memorial.
William Howard Taft
Taftwas born in Cincinnati and established his professional and political career there before being elected the 27th president.
Taft’s birthplace and childhood home is now the Taft National Historic Site (2038 Auburn Avenue,www.nps.gov/wiho/).
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia beneath a marker which is lovely, but exponentially more modest than that of most presidents from Ohio.
Warren G. Harding
Harding was born in Blooming Grove. He made his home in Marion, where he became owner and publisher of the Marion Star newspaper and was elected a U.S. senator and then the 29th president. Although he, like Garfield and Mckinley, died in office, the causes were natural, although certain conspiracy theories say otherwise. (But that, too, is a quiz for another day.)
The Harding Presidential Home and Museum (380 Mount Vernon Ave.,www.hardingpresidentialsites.org ) includes his presidential library and museum, which recently reopened after an extensive remodeling and expansion.
Harding and his wife, Florence, are buried in Marion in a tomb resembling an ancient Greek temple.
William Henry Harrison
Now we come to the presidential Harrisons, William Henry and Benjamin, who are at the center of the Buckeye presidential enigma.
Unlike the other men on this list, William Henry Harrison was not born in Ohio, but in Virginia. He became governor of the Indiana Territory before achieving renown as a general on the Ohio frontier during the War of 1812.
Harrison moved to the Buckeye state after the war and was elected as a U.S. congressman and senator. He became the ninth president in 1841. On his 32nd day, he became the first to die in office, serving the shortest tenure in U.S. presidential history.
An impressive monument in Congress Green Cemetery in North Bend, near his farm, marks his tomb (41 Cliff Road,www.hsmfmuseum.org). However, the historic site that is most associated with him is Grouseland, his Vincennes, Indiana estate (www.grouseland.org), which he built and occupied while serving as territorial governor.
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of William Henry Harrison, was born on his grandfather’s farm near Cincinnati and graduated from Miami University in Oxford.
However, the younger Harrison settled in Indiana, which he represented in the U.S. Senate before being elected the 23rd president. His Indianapolis home is now the Benjamin Harrison Presidential
Site (1230 N. Delaware St.,www.bhpsite.org).
He is buried beneath a (relatively) modest marker in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
Ulysses S. Grant
Although it might seem fair that Ohio gets credit for at least one of the Harrisons, there’s one more twist to the story of presidents “from” Ohio.
Grant, who earned universal fame and (Northern) acclaim as a general in the Civil War before being elected the 18th president, was born in Point Pleasant, in a humble family home now open to visitors as Grant’s Birthplace State Memorial (1551 Ohio Route 232, www.ohiohistory.org/visit/museumand-site-locator/us-grant-birthplace).
His boyhood home in nearby Georgetown, Ohio, is also a state historic site, as is the Georgetown schoolhouse he attended (219 E. Grant Ave.,www.usgrantboyhoodhome.org).
But despite Grant’s undeniable Ohio roots, he left the state as soon as he could and never returned to live. So which state gets credit for Grant?
Illinois, where Grant and his wife Julia resided for many years, claims him as avidly as does Ohio. The Grants lived in Galena for a few years, and their home there is now the U.S. Grant State Historic Site (www.granthome.org).
And where is Grant buried? In Grant’s Tomb, of course, in New York City, where he and Julia lived near the end of his life. The General Grant National Memorial (www.nps.gov/gegr/), the largest mausoleum in North America, is a must-see for any history-loving traveler, no matter which way you come down on the question, “How many presidents are from Ohio?”
Steve Stephens is a freelance travel writer and photographer. Email him at sjstephensjr@gmail.com.