The USS Princeton

I have this knack for reading a book about something and having a pivotal event taking place on the same date as I am reading. Take today as an example. I'm reading about President Tyler's administration when February 28th pops up. It is really one single event, but when you scratch the surface you uncover some history, the Annexation of Texas, and a love story.

On February 28, 1844 the USS Princeton was on the Potomac River for a pleasure cruise and demonstration of a new type of gun, capable of hurling a twelve inch 225 pound shell 5 miles with a charge of 50 pounds. What follows is a recap of the events.

The ship was the USS Princeton, Capt. Stockton commanding. The ship was designed with 12 small cannon and a new weapon, made in England, named the "Oregon". Captain Stockton wanted another gun just like it and commissioned the construction of a replica, named the "Peacemaker" in NYC using older techniques of forging. This led to the guns explosion after about 3 rounds.

 

The explosion took place just abeam of Mount Vernon and was meant as a salute to George Washington. That blast killed Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmer, and four other high-ranking federal officials. The disaster on board the Princeton killed more top U.S. government officials in a single day than any other tragedy in American history.

President John Tyler, who was aboard but below decks, was not injured. Had he not gone below deck to hear a  musical entertainment, he too would have been killed. Since he had no VP at the time, this would have resulted in the Senate choosing a President under the existing Article in place at the time.

To succeed Gilmer as Secretary of the Navy, Tyler appointed John Y. Mason, another Virginian. Secretary of State Upshur was about to win Senate approval of a treaty annexing Texas when he died. Under his replacement, John C. Calhoun, annexation was deliberately delayed, so as became an issue in the presidential election of 1844. So much for the history. On to the love story....

Julia Gardiner, who was below deck on the Princeton when her father David died in the Peacemaker explosion, became First Lady of the United States four months later. She had turned President Tyler's marriage proposal down over a year earlier in 1842, though sometime in 1843 they agreed that they would marry, but set no date.

The President had lost his first wife in September 1842, and at the time of the explosion he was almost 54. Julia was barely 24. She later wrote that her father's death changed her feelings for the President. "After I lost my father I felt differently toward the President. He seemed to fill the place and to be more agreeable in every way than any younger man ever was or could be."

Because he had been widowed less than two years and her father had died so recently, they married in the presence of just a few family members in New York City on June 26, 1844. A public announcement followed. They had seven children together before President Tyler died in 1862, and Julia, despite her relative youth and beauty, never remarried. It was not for want of hopeful suitors.

In 1888,  Nellie Bly quoted Julia Gardner Tyler as saying that at the moment of the Peacemaker explosion, "I fainted and did not revive until someone was carrying me off the boat, and I struggled so that I almost knocked us both off the gangplank". She said she only later learned that President Tyler was that man.

PS Julia Gardner Tyler was the 2nd youngest First Lady. The youngest was Frances Clevland who was just 21 when she married Grover Clevland in the Blue Room of the White House in 1886.

There is another unusual l love story there, as Frances was his friends daughter, and when her father died Clevland became her unofficial guardian. She was about 8 years old. In effect, 13 years later, he was marrying his de facto daughter.......

"Secret Lives of the First Ladies" by Cormac O'Brien

A very unusual collection of stories about the First Ladies, told in chronological order, this book is a terrific insight into the history that we never learned in school. The job of being First Lady is an arduous task, and at times, thankless. But at other times it can be a most rewarding position that allows some input into the affairs, and history, of our country.

Beginning with Martha Washington, who, as the first "First Lady", set the tone for all of the First Ladies to come, this book makes you realize that the story of the "Father of Our Country", without any mention of Martha,is one that is only half told. And that truth is evident throughout this book.

Originally Martha Washington was referred to as "Lady" Washington, a title that would define all the First Ladies until Dolley Madison, who had held sway over Washington during the Presidency of not only her own husband, James Madison, but also that of Thomas Jefferson as well. (He was widowed.) When she passed away in 1849 she was lauded as the nation's "First" Lady, and that designation became the basis for today's title.

And so it goes with the rest of this book, all the way through to Michelle Obama. These women were really quite remarkable, especially the earlier First Ladies, who often lacked the formal education and schooling of their husbands. Each woman who has occupied the position has contributed something admirable, or noteworthy, to our collective history. And so often, these contributions have been overlooked.

Our earliest President's had some of the most interesting wives, women who were sometimes raised on the frontier, as well as women who were the product of great wealth.

The author does a credible job at both enlightening the reader on the accomplishments, as well as the eccentricties, of this select group. Of course the book is filled with all kinds of trivia, which makes it all a bit more fun, but the real story is the role that these women have played in shaping this slightly crazy and unique country that we call home.

Sue Pensinger Williams - DAR

My wife, Sue Pensinger Williams, has just this week received her membership certificate for the Daughters of the American Revolution. This organization is comprised of women who have a blood relative in the family that fought, or died, in the American Revolution.

Sue's great grandfather, five times removed, was Henry Pensinger. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Militia when the Revolution broke out. He traveled across 2 mountain ranges to fight at the 2nd Battle of Ticonderoga, in upstate New York. This was no easy task. Just getting there took months of humping everything they would need over the mountains. Think of it, cannon, ammunition, guns, horses and food, all had to be carried to the scene of battle. It was this fight in which Henry Pensinger was injured, incurred frostbite and lost his leg. Then he first had to go home, over those same two mountain ranges. That he would have been in great pain the entire way goes without saying.

The Daughters of the American Revolution have had some darker moments in their history, most notably when they denied Marian Anderson permission to sing in front of an integrated audience at Constitution Hall in 1939. President Roosevelts wife, Eleanor, herself a member of the DAR, actually resigned over this and on Easter Sunday, Marian Anderson did sing, on the steps of the new Lincoln Memorial.

Since that time, the mission of the DAR has largely been one as the caretaker of the nations monuments, providing scholarships, and keeping track of all the descendants of the veterans of the American Revolution. The best part of this is that as people have intermarried over the years, the face of the DAR has become multi-cultural. And now my daughter, Sarah, is a member as well. I wonder what Pincus Max Marcus, my grandfather, who arrived here from Poland in 1911, would think of that!