Obscure Presidential Fun Facts

[Orwell]

Lesser known facts, so please don't include stuff that would be interesting to normal people, but would probably be known by people here, if you'd like to add a President you'd like to hear a lesser known fact about. 


I'll start, Dwight Eisenhower originally was supposed to go to the University of Michigan, he actually put one of his brothers through college at Michigan, but he grew impatient and went to West Point instead.

Source: The Age of Eisenhower by William Hitchcock (no relation)

[Republican Party Stalwart]

This probably isn't that obscure, but it's one of my all-time favorites nonetheless.

Harry S. Truman's unabridged middle name (given, birth, legal and otherwise) was literally just the letter "S." His parents couldn't decide which grandfather to name him after, and both grandfathers had a first or middle name that started with "S," and so a convenient compromise presented itself.

Even though it wasn't technically short for anything, Truman nonetheless always punctuated his middle initial with a period.

[MarkD]

In 1960, former President Harry Truman was not at all fond of JFK becoming the Dem nominee. Truman wanted to make it clear he was not opposed to the Massachusetts Senator because of the fact that he was Catholic; it all had to do with the fact of who was Jack Kennedy's father. "It's not the Pope I'm afraid of, it's the pop."

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

Gerald Ford's birth name was Leslie Lynch King.  He was later adopted by his mother's 2nd husband.

[Republican Party Stalwart]

Gerald Ford's birth name was Leslie Lynch King.  He was later adopted by his mother's 2nd husband.

Similarly, William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton's birth name was William Jefferson Blythe III; he was born three months after his father died, and his mother met his stepfather when he was five. He and his family started informally using his stepfather's last name for himself, but he only "formally" changed it at age 15 (which, incidentally, was shortly before his mother temporarily divorced his stepfather for a couple months because he was repeatedly abusive to her and the kids).

Even stranger, the birth name of Vice President Henry Wilson (who served from 1873 until his unfortunate death in 1875, during Ulysses S. Grant's second term) was Jeremiah Jones Colbath. He legally changed it upon turning 21, for a number of presumed reasons: in order to distance himself from his poor socioeconomic background, to distance himself from his family in general and his "intemperate" father in particular, and/or to get people to stop calling him childhood nicknames ("Jed" and "Jerry") that he hated. The specific choice "Henry Wilson" was taken from the name of a Philadelphia teacher whom he had read the biography of, and/or from the name of an English clergyman whom Wilson had seen the name and portrait of while perusing through an English history book or English Church yearbook.

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

Woodrow Wilson's first name was Thomas.

Grover Cleveland's first name was Stephen.

[Republican Party Stalwart]

Woodrow Wilson's first name was Thomas.

Yeah, his nickname was actually "Tommy" growing up.

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

Warren Harding had a daughter by Nan Britton in 1919.  When he died in office his wife, Florence (a/k/a "The Duchess") refused to honor Harding's promise to support the child.  Parentage was confirmed in 2015 by DNA testing. 

[progressive85]

This is a local one concerning Monroe County (in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania), where I lived as a child and where I went to school and college.

In the Civil War, it was common to have a man fight in your place if you were unable to, and President Lincoln of all people had chosen a man from Stroud Township, John Summerfield Staples, to represent him on the battlefield.

(This has always been especially significant to me because I am from this area and it's something I discovered while doing a research paper on the county's history).

***
Another little fact is that George W. Bush won Monroe County in 2004 by just FOUR votes.

[Republican Party Stalwart]

This is a local one concerning Monroe County (in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania), where I lived as a child and where I went to school and college.

In the Civil War, it was common to have a man fight in your place if you were unable to, and President Lincoln of all people had chosen a man from Stroud Township, John Summerfield Staples, to represent him on the battlefield.

(This has always been especially significant to me because I am from this area and it's something I discovered while doing a research paper on the county's history).

***
Another little fact is that George W. Bush won Monroe County in 2004 by just FOUR votes.

This has got to be the best reply on this topic posted so far. Good job.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

In 1960, former President Harry Truman was not at all fond of JFK becoming the Dem nominee. Truman wanted to make it clear he was not opposed to the Massachusetts Senator because of the fact that he was Catholic; it all had to do with the fact of who was Jack Kennedy's father. "It's not the Pope I'm afraid of, it's the pop."

Absolutely based.

[Republican Party Stalwart]

Warren Harding had a daughter by Nan Britton in 1919.  When he died in office his wife, Florence (a/k/a "The Duchess") refused to honor Harding's promise to support the child.  Parentage was confirmed in 2015 by DNA testing. 

Chad lol

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

Warren Harding had a daughter by Nan Britton in 1919.  When he died in office his wife, Florence (a/k/a "The Duchess") refused to honor Harding's promise to support the child.  Parentage was confirmed in 2015 by DNA testing.  

Chad lol

Chad Harding's love letters were something else.  Before Nan Britton he had a long-term affair with Carrie Fulton Phillips.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Fulton_Phillips

Clinton, JFK, Harding, and FDR seem to be the biggest womanizers of our Presidents.

I originally suggested that Grover Cleveland was the creepiest.  He knew his wife from infancy; she was the daughter of a law partner.  There are some rather unflattering suggestions that she was groomed to be Mrs. Cleveland by her father (who was a lifelong friend of Cleveland).  But the accounts of her time as FLOTUS seems to contradict that.  She seemed to be happy married to Cleveland (by all accounts) and she was a tremendously popular FLOTUS, even when her husband's popularity was sinking.  It was a different time and place.  She also had children by Cleveland, and they seemed to be a relatively happy family. 

https://doctorzebra.com/prez/z_x22halpin_g.htm

Cleveland's treatment of Mrs. Halpin is a matter for debate.  Some have portrayed Cleveland as cruelly railroading her into an asylum to cover up his own actions, which reportedly go beyone what Cleveland admitted.  It's the MeToo narrative.  Could it be true?  Possibly, but it's an exaggeration to say that the grosser narrative has been "proven".

[Republican Party Stalwart]

Warren Harding had a daughter by Nan Britton in 1919.  When he died in office his wife, Florence (a/k/a "The Duchess") refused to honor Harding's promise to support the child.  Parentage was confirmed in 2015 by DNA testing.  

Chad lol

Chad Harding's love letters were something else.  Before Nan Britton he had a long-term affair with Carrie Fulton Phillips.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Fulton_Phillips

Yeah, Warren and Jerry (if you know, you know) really got around.

Gamaliel is a very Chad middle name, too.

Also it merits mention a guy named "Harding" ran for President against a guy named "Cox."

Another fact about Warren G: in addition to being the President of the United States and a certified player, he was also a great rapper.

[SWE]

Gerald Ford's birth name was Leslie Lynch King.  He was later adopted by his mother's 2nd husband.

Only former King to become president!

[dw93]

Trump/Pence in 2016 was the first winning Republican ticket since 1928 that didn't have Richard Nixon or a George Bush on it.

[TDAS04]

Only people elected President as a sitting Vice President? John Adams, Jefferson, Van Buren, Bush 41. Nixon and Biden were elected as former VPs.

Only initially unsuccessful vice presidential nominees who later became POTUS? Tyler and FDR.

Only people who served in all three top positions of the Executive Branch (President, Vice President, Secretary of State)? Jefferson and Van Buren.

Only Presidents elected directly from the Senate? Harding, JFK, Obama.

Only President for whom English was a second language? Van Buren, who grew up in a Dutch-speaking community in New York.

[SWE]

Phillipa Foot, the philosopher who first conceived of the Trolley Problem, was Grover Cleveland's granddaughter

[Republican Party Stalwart]

Only President for whom English was a second language? Van Buren, who grew up in a Dutch-speaking community in New York.

Quite ironically, Van Buren was also the very first President who was actually an American Citizen at the moment of his birth.

[vitoNova]

John Adams had a dog named Satan. 

I learned that from Rachel Maddow. 

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

Only Presidents elected directly from the Senate? Harding, JFK, Obama.

And James Garfield is still the only one elected directly from the House.

[Ricardian1485]

Teddy Roosevelt's dog Pete was extremely aggressive, he frequently chased people at white house, got into fights with other dogs, and ripped the pants off of high level officials including the secretary of the interior James Rudolph Garfield (son of president James Garfield), and the French ambassador Jean Jules Jusserand.
After repeated incidents Teddy wanted to have Pete euthanized, but was convinced not to by his son.

I like to imagine Roosevelt letting out a deep belly laugh as he watched his dog terrorize his cabinet members.