Passed Vice Presidents - # 24 – Garret Hobart

Grave of Garret Hobart (14 August 2022)

Served under William McKinley

4 March 1897 – 21 November 1899

Preceded by # 23 – Adlai Stevenson

Succeeded by # 25 – Theodore Roosevelt

Born – 3 June 1844

Died – 21 November 1899 (age 55)

Buried – Cedar Lawn Cemetery, Paterson, NJ

Date Visited – 14 August 2022

One more dead vice president before the final September 11 post.

I’ve always said that this vice president grave pursuit did not have the same urgency and it would be a quest of opportunity and convenience. Then I realized there was one within a mile of the road I take to my sister’s home in New York. I needed to harvest that low-hanging fruit. It happened on a bright Sunday morning last month.

New Jersey born and raised, Garret Hobart, graduated from Rutgers and studied law with an influential Paterson lawyer whose daughter he later married. He rose through state politics and became Speaker of the General Assembly, then President of the Senate. By 1896, Republican presidential candidate William McKinley saw the value of adding this important swing state leader to his ticket and they won.

In keeping with long-standing perceptions of the position, one Chicago newspaper wrote,
"Garret A. Hobart will not be seen or heard until, after four years, he emerges from the impenetrable vacuum of the Vice Presidency."

Garret Augustus Hobart

24th Vice President of the United States

(Doremus Gallery of Art, Paterson, NJ)

Despite the weakness of the office, Hobart was popular in Washington and a close advisor to President McKinley. His tact and good humor came in handy at times…like when Secretary of War Russell Alger performed poorly in prosecuting the Spanish-American War. Apparently, Alger didn’t take the president’s hints and it was Hobart who made the secretary understand it was time to resign.

Hobart Mausoleum, Cedar Lawn Cemetery,

Paterson, NJ (14 August 2022)

Hobart became the sixth vice president to die in office. Heart disease ended his life at age 55. True to form, President McKinley made no effort to replace him until it was time to run for reelection. He then selected Teddy Roosevelt to be his running mate…and we know how that turned out.

 

Hobart Sarcophagi Through the Glass Door

Cedar Lawn Cemetery,

Paterson, NJ (14 August 2022)

Although the First Lady serves as the White House hostess, in this case, Ida McKinley was not able to fulfill that role. In poor health much of her life, the deaths of her mother and two young daughters brought on depression and epileptic seizures. The vice president’s wife Jennie often stood with the president at White House functions. She was a close friend of Mrs. McKinley and rushed to Buffalo to be with her when the president was shot.

On the other hand, Jennie Hobart was also against women’s suffrage and organized state efforts opposed to giving women the vote. She never remarried and lived to be 91, forty-two years following her husband’s death.

Not All the Residents Here are Dead

Cedar Lawn Cemetery,

Paterson, NJ (14 August 2022)