Presidential history reveals curious facts
Lawton genealogist Phyllis Young posted the following last week about Presidents Day, which was on Feb. 20. Some are well-known and some are not so well-known.
•Four Presidents survived assassination attempts: Andrew Jackson (1895), Harry S. Truman (1950), Gerald Ford (twice in 1975) and Ronald Reagan (1982).
•John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence; they were the only signers who became president.
•Herbert Clark Hoover was the only president born in Iowa (1874).
•Virginia was the birthplace of the most presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, W.H. Harrison, Tyler, Taylor and Wilson).
•First lady (1933-45) Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the niece of one president and the wife of another. Her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt, “gave her away” when she married her distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
•George Washington did not have a middle name. His step-greatgranddaughter, Mary Custis, married Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. He is the only “founding father” who did not sign either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. He added “So Help Me God” to the oath of office.
•Zachary Taylor’s daughter, Sarah, died threemonths after her marriage to Jefferson Davis, who became president of the Confederacy.
•James Monroe is the only president to have had a foreign capital named for him: Monrovia, Liberia.
Genealogy notes
The Oklahoma Home and Community Education group canceled its Feb. 20 program because ofillness. However, members present reviewed and discussed the society yearbook and plans for the spring genealogy workshop.
The group also plans to reschedule Michael McCoy’s program highlighting “FindAGrave,” “Billion Graves” and “Online Cemetery Websites” later in the year.
The group’s meeting on March 20 will feature Craig McKinley, from Oklahoma State University, who wrote “Francis Marion, Swamp Fox.”
Frances Marion served in the American Revolutionary War as a military officer. He was born in 1732 in Berkeley County, South Carolina, and died on Feb. 27, 1795, in Orangeburg County, South Carolina. He is buried at Belle Isle Plantation Cemetery in Berkeley County.