Passed Presidents - # 30 – Calvin Coolidge

“Cool’ Cal Coolidge, whose first name was really John, died 81 years ago today, January 5, 1933.  He is one of eight presidents buried in the place of their birth.  He is one of the eight vice presidents who assumed the top job upon the death of the Chief.  After Warren Harding was poisoned by his wife, er, passed away suddenly in San Francisco, Coolidge’s father, a Justice of the Peace and notary, administered the oath of office on August 3, 1923 at 2:47 in the morning.  I assume this was the only time a parent has done the honors.

Born in 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, he was educated at Amherst and rose through Massachusetts politics to become that state’s governor before he was chosen as Harding’s running mate in the 1920 election. 

I guess because there were no wars or significant social changes during his time in office [not to mention his reputation for impersonating a corpse], we remember little of him.

However, this nation’s greatest natural disaster did happen on his watch.  The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 left hundreds of thousands homeless but the president did not lead the response.  His Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover managed the relief effort and went on to succeed Coolidge in the White House.

Poor ‘Silent Cal’.  A socialite made a bet with friends that she could get the president to say more than three words.  After a few tries, she told Coolidge that a wager was at stake.  His reply was, “You lose.” 

Calvin Coolidge in the Final Year of his Presidency

Portrait by Joseph E. Burgess

National Portrait Gallery (24 January 2008)

Coolidge admitted he had great difficulty meeting new people...not the best quality to have in politics.  Alice Roosevelt, Teddy’s famously outrageous daughter, said Coolidge looked as though he had been, “weaned on a pickle.” 

On the other hand, he was just what the country needed after the exposure of his predecessor’s corrupt administration.   Harding’s scandals were prosecuted and the government was being fixed...sort of.   The public appreciated Coolidge’s honesty and his stoic New England values...even if those values included forbidding the charming First Lady Grace from wearing trousers, driving, dancing or speaking to the press.  Can’t be too wild and crazy now, can we?

As a symbol of progress, he was the first president to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.  He handily won the election in 1924 and presided over the heart of the ‘Roaring 20’s’, where business boomed and prosperity soared.  He was urged to run again in 1928 but declined and retired back to Massachusetts.  Unfortunately, good Republican that he was, his belief that business should be left to its own devices allowed them to flush our economy down the toilet in the Crash of 1929.  Fortunately for Cal, history hung that mess around Herbert Hoover’s neck.

Coolidge Family Graves

Plymouth Notch Cemetery, Plymouth Notch, VT (7 October 2009)

I visited the president’s grave on two occasions...after a Boston business meeting in 2004 [pre-digital era] and again during the glorious autumn New England State House Tour in 2009.  I was the only person anywhere near the cemetery on both occasions. 

When I lamented another autumn gone by without taking new fall color shots [See post 11/10/13], I noted that Plymouth Notch Cemetery is also the home of the “longest surviving Revolutionary War widow.”  Esther Damon died in 1906 (!) at age 93.  How could someone be connected to the war that ended 123 years before she died and 31 years before she was born in 1814?  Esther’s obit notes her marriage to Noah Damon in 1835 at age 21.  He was 75 at the time (Eeew!).  

Plymouth Notch Cemetery,

Plymouth Notch, VT (7 October 2009)

The last resting place of Calvin Coolidge is one of the simplest of the presidents’ graves...as one might expect from this taciturn New Englander.  In a line from his modest tombstone are the graves of Grace, who lived until 1957, and their two sons.  John lived 96 years but their younger son died during his second term at the age of 16.  He contracted blood poisoning from a foot blister following a tennis game.  The loss weighed heavily on the President for the remainder of his time in office.  He was only 60 when he died of heart failure less than four years later.

Calvin Coolidge

30th President; Served 1923-1929

Born: July 4, 1872, Plymouth, VT

Died: January 5, 1933, Northampton, MA

Grave Location: Plymouth Cemetery, Plymouth, VT

Dates Visited: 10/1/2004; 10/7/2009

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

John Calvin Coolidge