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Page 20 - Shelton-Mason County Journal — Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023
r681 ent , O .
e don’t recall. ever seeing them on our coins, stamps, or succumbing to
the corrupt New York political machine of Roscoe “f
monuments, but we’re told the following seven men were once Conkling.
(How anyone could fail to detect corruption in someone 1
president of the United States. Roscoe “Boss” Conkling is beyond us.)
. In 1881, Arthur became vice president under James Garfield, but
Herbert Hoover (PICSldent #3 1 , soon butted heads with the president
over an appointment that sapp
Although Herbert Hoover won the 1928 presidential election with almost
Conkling’s power. In fact, Arthur and Garfield were hardly commun
60 percent of the vote, today he’s basicallyremembered as a dam.
Actually, when, a few months later, Garfield was assassinated, and Arthur
sud
many Americans probably think he was an FBI director or the, guy who ‘
became the big cheese. I
‘ invented a vacuum. ‘ g ' Instead of behaving like a pawn as
everyone expected, Arthur becz
‘ But Hooverw'as, in fact, a US. president-tend an interesting one to
, V a man of the people, taking steps to cut back on cronyism and rebufl
boot. Orphaned at age 9, heworked and scraped his way into the newly ,
pressures from big business. And what do you call him? The preside
minted Stanford UniVerSity to study mining engineering. V I the big
moustache. Nice going!
There, he married Lou Henry, the only femalegeology student at the . r l ,
. .
school, and the pair traveled the world evaluating mining sites and
learning Fillmore resident # 1 3, 1850- 1 853
languages. (In the White House, they often spoke in Mandarin when they ,
Today, Millard Fillmore’sname is synonymous with overlooked. I\“
didn’t want staff eavesdropping.) ' ‘ V ‘ "' L ‘
proof? In February 2006, a group called the Friends of Millard Fillm
Hoover’s successful coordination of the US. Food Administration during‘
Will host the 38th annual FOMF Trivia Hunt, a contest celebrating 0
WI paved his way to the Oval Office. Although massively popular early
knowledge.
in his term, a little thing called the Great Depression came along and .
Fillmore was born in 1800 to a destitute family, but thanks to a me
seriously soured his approval rating. Herbert battled bravely against the
work ethic, he taught himself to read and eventually became a lawye
dusty/tide of poverty, but his programs were largely ineffective. That
quickly segued into politics, and in 1848, the Whigs ran Filln
Sorry, Herbert. Great dam, though. v for VP alongside Zachary Taylor. The
pair won the election, but rem
' divided by their views on slavery (Taylor being a southern slave owr
1, , Martin Van Buren (President #8, 1 837— l 841) Fillmore, well, not).
,
Despite earning catchy-nicknames such as “The Little Magician” and When
Taylor died, Fillmore tried to appeasethe North and South
‘ “The Red Fox of ,Kinderhook” on the political battlefield, M.V.B.
is far from supporting the Compromise of 1850. Unfortunately, the move
alien:
the MVP of the American presidency. North and created a fair share of
enemies on both sides. Thus taintet
One title he can claim, though, is that of the first president not of
British lost seVeral bids for re-election and died of a stroke in 1874.
descent. Van Buren was the son of a Dutch tavern owner and gained his '
r taste for'po‘litics listening to debates-in the rowdy rooms of the
family Rutherford B. Hayes (President #19, 187 7 -1
-, saloon. r r , g Rutherford B, Hayes is slightly more memorable due to
the catchii
I Aiself—taught lawyer,_the_ politically adept Van Buren quicklyrose
up‘ his name, but he’s still more than obscure enough to make our list.
the/governmental ranks; landing a spot as President Andrew Jackson’s
' Raised by a single mother, Hayes worked his way up in the world i
secretary of state in .1828. By keeping clear of the Cabinet infighting
that next to nothing, studying at Harvard'and practicing law in
Cincinnz
marred Jackson’s first terns, Van Buren replaced John Calhoun as
Jackson’s When the Civil War erupted, Hayes was 39 and a father of three.
viCe president in the seCondI-term. . . t . Nonetheless, he volunteered to
fight and quickly distinguished hims
In 1836, he Won the presidency" sOon fizzled out in a daze of
valuable leader. a .
leadership defeats and egpolicies. Don’t 100k for him on the penny After
parlaying this fame into a Senate seat and then the governor:
any time soon. L ' of Ohio, he received the Republican presidential
nomination in 187!
L “' .- , Until the chad—alicious scandal of 2000, this was perhaps
America’s 1
Warren, Harding resident #29, 192 1 1923) contested election --ending with
a special Congressional committee
Warren 'G. Harding is generally regarded as the‘worst president ever.
, declaring Hayes the winner over Samuel J. Tilden by one electoral V(
He was disappointing from the get-go, as the very basis of his campaign
Once he took office, Hayes got right to work healing a nation still
was boring. Harding ran on the promise of a “return to normalcy,” which
battered by the Civil War. He later claimed to have inherited the cou
he (somehoW)fe‘lt.people craved following Woodrow Wilson’s bold and
“divided and distracted” and left it“united, harmonious and prosper
visiOnary term. . ' Unfortunately for 01’ Rutherford, harmony and
prosperity alone w
To'make things worse, Harding ‘ran the White House like a kind of
your mug on Mount Rushmore.
boys’ club, where he and some friends known as the “Ohio Gang”
enjoyed .r . ' .
drinking, playing golf, and cheating on their wives. (Harding is widely
101111 (PreSIdent # 10, l l
rumored to have paid a gambling debt with antique White House china.) John
Tyler was up against it from the start. For one thing, he Only
After admitting to friends that he felt overmatched by the job of , be
president because he was the VP under William Henry Harrison,
president, Harding gave his Cabinet free reign and treated the presidency
died of pneumonia following his inauguration speech.
as more of a ceremonial post. . Let’s put it thisway: When your nicknames
include “His Accidenc
Just as the friends he’d appointed were being nailed for corruption one
you’re not destined to make a splash.
after another, Harding contracted what doctors assumed was ptomaine After
Harrison’sunscheduled departure, Tyler’s orchestration 0f a1
poisoning and‘died of a related heart‘attack. No‘autopsy was
performed, orderly transfer of power was his only recognized political
suCCeSS. T
but rumors abOunded that his wife poisoned him to protect What legacy he
didn’t want to alienate Harrison’s supporters, so be retained the dept
had left. , r president’s Cabinet. Unfortunately, they had little respect
for their 114
l ' . . leader. When he once vetoed a bill they favored, all but one of
them
Chester Arthur (President #2 1 , 1 1 ‘1 ‘ resigned. That’s pretty
muchhow the presidency went for Tyler.
Mostpeople don’t know 01’ Chesty for anything other than his mammoth In
fact, his own Whig tried to have him impeached. Tyler ga
moustache. But he should be remembered as a guy who rose to the , ran for
re-election in 1844, but was persuaded to withdraw. Broke) 'I
occasion. ’ . returned to his Virginia plantation and spent a lot of time
supportin
As a young man, Arthur worked on civil rights cases in New York before
secession of the South. (That didn’t work out so well either.)