Sarah Polk, left; and Sarah Polk Fall, her great-niece
August 14, 1891: Sarah Polk dies in Nashville, at the age of 87. No former First Lady had lived longer without her husband, the former President.
NOTE: My cutoff date for this project is 1869, the year of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, the 1st openly professional baseball team, and the 1st American football game. I had managed to work in references to every pre-1869 President except Polk. This was the only way I could think of to do it.
Sarah Childress had been born on September 4, 1803 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. James Knox Polk had been born on November 2, 1795 in Pineville, North Carolina, now a suburb of Charlotte, before his family moved to Murfreesboro. When he was 19, and she was 12, they were taught together in a one-room schoolhouse in Murfreesboro.
James graduated from the University of North Carolina, well before the invention of basketball. However, UNC still beats Duke: Its Presidential connection is that Richard Nixon graduated from its law school.
In 1823, he returned to Murfreesboro to practice law, and became acquainted with Tennessee's best-known lawyer, and its leading politician, former U.S. Army Major General Andrew Jackson. James was 27, Sarah was 20. Jackson told James that Sarah was "wealthy, pretty, ambitious and intelligent," and urged him to marry her. On January 1, 1824, he did, at her parents' plantation outside Murfreesboro.
A member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee from 1825 to 1839, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1835 to 1839, and Governor of Tennessee from 1839 to 1841, Polk was nonetheless considered a "dark horse" candidate when he ran for the Democratic Party's nomination for President. Yet, on November 1, 1844, he was elected the 11th President of the United States.
He defeated Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, who thus became the 1st man to go 0-for-3 in Presidential elections. Others have done so, but Clay is the only man to be nominated 3 times and lose all 3. The popular vote was actually very close, since Clay, a leading figure in American politics for over 30 years, was better-known nationally than Polk. Polk won 49.5 percent of the popular vote, making him the 1st plurality President since the popular vote began being recorded from every State then in the Union (starting in 1828); while Clay won 48.1 percent. The Electoral Vote was less close, as Polk won 170-105.
This is also the earliest known photo
of a President and a First Lady together.
Texas was annexed right before his Inauguration, so he doesn't get credit for adding Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. But in 1846, he launched the Mexican-American War, which was essentially won in a year and a half. Cities whose teams are possible because of his expansionism are San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Diego, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and, now, Las Vegas.
A devout Presbyterian, Sarah banned dancing, card games, and hard liquor (but not wine) at official receptions. Unlike the waltzed favored by her immediate predecessor, Julia Tyler, the Polk entertainments were sedate and sober affairs which earned the First Lady the nickname "Sahara Sarah."
Having achieved his ambitions, James kept his promise to not run for re-election, contracted cholera, and died on June 15, 1849, just 3 months after leaving office -- the shortest ex-Presidency ever. He was 53 years old, and left Sarah a widow at 46.
Sarah never remarried, and lived at Polk Place, the Nashville house she and James intended for their retirement. They never had children, but she unofficially adopted a grandniece, Sarah Polk, later Sarah Fall, whom she raised as her own daughter. Despite being a Southerner, she supported the Union during the American Civil War. Upon her death, she was buried alongside her husband in a tomb on the grounds of the State Capitol in Nashville.
Some First Ladies predeceased their husbands. A few wives of Presidents died before their husbands could become President, and thus they never became First Lady. Of those who did outlive their husbands, Sarah Polk did so by 42 years; Frances Cleveland, 39; Edith Wilson, 38; Lucretia Garfield, 37; Claudia Johnson (a.k.a. Lady Bird, Mrs. Lyndon), 34; Edith Roosevelt (Mrs. Theodore), 30; Jacqueline Kennedy, 30; Julia Tyler, 28; Grace Coolidge, 24; Anna Harrison (Mrs. William Henry), 23; Mary Lincoln, 17; Julia Grant, 17; Eleanor Roosevelt (Mrs. Franklin), 17; Dolley Madison, 13; Nellie Taft, 13; Nancy Reagan, 12; Bess Truman, 10; Mamie Eisenhower, 10; Ida McKinley, 6; Betty Ford, 5; Louisa Adams (Mrs. John Quincy), 4; Martha Washington, 3; Peggy Taylor, 2; Florence Harding, 1; and Eliza Johnson (Mrs. Andrew), just 6 months.
The longest any President has lived after being widowed is actually longer: Thomas Jefferson lived 44 years after the death of his wife, Martha.
George Bancroft, who served as Secretary of the Navy, was the last surviving member of Polk's Cabinet, dying the same year as Sarah Polk, 1891.
Polk remains the only President born in North Carolina, although he represented Tennessee.
*
August 14, 1891 was a Friday. There were 4 baseball games played that day, all in the National League, rather than in the American Association:
* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 at the Polo Grounds.
* The Brooklyn Bridegrooms beat the Chicago Colts, 10-6 at the original Washington Park in Brooklyn. The Chicago team became the Cubs in 1903, and the Brooklyn team became the Dodgers in 1911.
* The Boston Beaneaters beat the Cleveland Spiders, 5-2 at the South End Grounds in Boston. The Cleveland team went out of business after the 1899 season, making the American League team now known as the Cleveland Guardians possible. The Boston team became the Braves in 1912.
* And the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates at the Philadelphia Base Ball Grounds. That stadium burned down in 1894, and what would become known as Baker Bowl was built on the site.
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