The arrival of the re-enactors of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson at the homestead of Calvin Coolidge at Plymouth Notch this summer brings to focus the very different backgrounds and challenges that the more famous founding fathers faced in the early and formative period of our country, compared to those that Calvin Coolidge faced in the 1920’s. But what is not well known is that in their early and formative years, all three presidents faced similar challenges in their families and they also brought similar habits of personal discipline which helped them overcome these problems. All three had to deal with the death of a parent in their early teens, all outlived their brothers and sisters, and they all lost children and step-children, even during their presidencies. Their service to our country had its price and they needed their discipline to carry out their presidencies.

Of the three future presidents, George Washington probably had the most difficult experiences growing up. His father, Augustine Washington was an only moderately successful planter who had regularly overextended himself in land speculation and died when George was only eleven in 1743. His mother, Mary Ball Washington’s naturally overprotective nature limited and embarrassed George in his youth , and in her old age, in the midst of the Revolutionary War, she complained so publicly (and unjustifiably) that her son was not supporting her that there were whispers that she was a loyalist! Lack of funds at age 15 necessitated George’s leaving school, but his half-brother Lawrence helped him rise above the mid-level of planters by introducing his in-laws, the wealthy and well-connected Fairfax clan, to George. Since the Fairfax estates needed surveying, and George showed ability and industry, the family hired him to do this work in the wilderness, and on the Potomac River, doing a first survey of Alexandria, Virginia. This work paid so well that George could buy over 1400 acres of land in his own name when he was 18 years old and he gained the contacts and experience to enable him to manage Mount Vernon when he inherited it at the tender age of 20.

His ambition and discipline made him a successful planter and an experienced soldier in the 20’s, and after courting many women, George married the widow Martha Custis in 1759. While they had no children of their own and the two children Martha brought into the marriage had died by 1782, Martha’s calm and understanding personality provided the happy home that he lacked when growing up. George's own siblings were a mixed group. His sister Betty was able to help Mary Ball in her old age and while brother John Augustine was not a strong person, he had charm and Washington wrote to him often from the field. But the brothers Samuel and Charles were regularly in debt or drunk and were a constant trial to their older brother. All the siblings died before George, who was the oldest, and he noted his loneliness in his final retirement even as he was receiving adoring visitors and helping raise Martha's grandchildren.

At age 14, Thomas Jefferson faced the same parental loss that Washington did when his father, Peter Jefferson, died suddenly. Peter was a vital, strong man who had set a good example for this first son through his force of character and in his leadership in the local positions he held in Albermarle County. Peter left legacies to all his children, but to his bookish son Tom he left the land on which Monticello was later built. He also named an executor who would see that enough income was generated from this property to carry Tom through college and the beginning of his law studies. We know little about Tom’s mother Jane, who successfully raised eight children, but she did see Tom elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in his twenties.

Probably the most notable part of Jefferson’s character was his personal intellectual discipline, he being rarely seen without a book in his hand and he always making copious detailed notes on his wide-ranging observations. He even advised a friend who was starting the study of law that he should read on ’physical studies, ethics, Religion, natural and sectarian’ before 8 am each day! Tom needed this discipline to weather the losses he was to face, with three women named Martha playing key roles. Sister Martha had married Dabney Carr a very close friend of Tom’s but Dabney died suddenly in 1773 leaving his wife and children and Tom then helped his sister manage the estate and teach her children. About this time in 1772, Tom married Martha Wayle. This marriage was very happy, with the couple sharing a such a love for music that they took instrument lessons together. Tragically, Martha died ten years later in 1782 with only two of her six children living beyond infancy. Then sister Martha moved into Monticello and Jefferson helped raise these nephews and nieces. Eldest daughter Martha went to France with Tom in the 1780's and was a later support for her father, being the only child to outlive him. The younger daughter Mary died in Kentucky after a short marriage during Jefferson’s first administration. Mary was not the only child to die during a father’s presidency.

Since the Coolidge family landholdings and personal connections were more modest than those of his Virginia planter predecessors, diligent application to formal education was Calvin Coolidge's path of advancement. In his earliest years, Calvin benefited from the discipline of farming, performing the daily chores and heavy seasonal work that a moderately prosperous hillside Vermont farm demanded. But Calvin also learned by listening to his father, John, conduct local town business and hearing about wider issues that John dealt with as a Vermont State Senator. This simple farm life ended for Calvin at age 13 when his loving but sickly mother died, leaving a major hole in his life. In the same year, with great anticipation, Calvin went to Black River Academy in nearby Ludlow, this change helping Coolidge get over the death of his mother. He boarded with local people there while he completed his classical studies course, in one case catching up in an advanced French class by rising at 3am to make up the work. He returned to his father’s farm many weekends, sometimes even walking the twelve miles home. Calvin’s only other sibling, Abbie, died of appendicitis in his senior year, providing another sad reason to pull father and son closer together.

Calvin then traveled the Connecticut River to attend Amherst College. In his first two years, his natural shyness kept him from pledging a fraternity and his grades were only average. But as a junior, he came into his own in the Oratory, Philosophy and History courses and as a senior he pledged a fraternity that he helped start, and his grades had improved enough to be elected to give one of the three Graduation class speeches. In this speech, he showed the deadpan humor that Will Rogers later admired noting that a diploma is like a wolf because it comes in a sheep's clothing. He then started studying law in nearby Northampton, Massachusetts, married Grace Goodhue in 1905 and started his long rise up the political ladder. He started with local offices in Northampton, being elected to the Massachusetts State Senate, to the Governor’s office, then leaping to the vice-presidency of the US in 1920, riding on the fame of his handling of the Boston Police Strike of 1919.

With the sudden death of Warren Harding in 1923, Coolidge ascended to the presidency, reaching the apex of his career. However, a year later, as he was starting his campaign to be elected president in his own name, his namesake son, Calvin Junior, got blood poisoning from a blister while playing tennis at the White House, and died in a few days. In his autobiography, Coolidge said ”In his suffering, he was asking me to make him well. I could not. When he went, the power and the glory of the presidency went with him.” Coolidge went on to win the election and he successfully served out his second term, but died four years after leaving the White House, worn from the strain of public life.

While the personal tragedies of Washington, Jefferson and Coolidge are not the reason we honor them, knowing about the family problems they all went through and the discipline needed to manage both these trials and their public duties, casts a new light on these presidents and makes them both more believable human beings and even more admirable leaders.

©2002 Charles Buell

Sources:
George Washington, by James Thomas Flexner (Four volumes, New York, 1965-1972)
Washington, A Biography, by Noemi Emery (New York, 1976)
Thomas Jefferson, by Fawn Brodie (New York, 1974)
Jefferson and his Time, by Dumas Malone (six volumes, Boston, 1948-1981)
The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge (New York, 1929).
Meet Calvin Coolidge: The Man Behind the Myth , edited by Edward Connery Lathem (Brattleboro, VT, 1960)