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Holy Shit: President John Tyler's grandson just died


Gil Bang

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23 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Reminds me of hearing the last civil war veteran widow died. It was 2003. He married a young woman very late in life. 

2008. What you described was not uncommon. Dirt poor women, typically still teenagers, would find an old civil war veteran and claim a widower’s pension when he kicked the bucket a few years later.

The last daughter collecting a civil war pension died earlier this year.

 

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Weird facts about Tyler's presidency: 

-he assumed the presidency after Harrison's death 31 days into his term

- his first wife died early in his term and he married his second wife who was 30 years younger than him

- Texas annexation treaty failed in June 1844 but a joint resolution passed in February 1845 with some additional political pressure by incoming President Polk, won the election in December 1844 but wasn't inaugurated until March 1845. Texas and Florida gain statehood within days of each other.  (Probably some historians on here that may refute or argue some of these points,, don't shoot the messenger )

https://millercenter.org/president/john-tyler/key-events

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19 minutes ago, Dennis Taylor said:

Weird facts about Tyler's presidency: 

-he assumed the presidency after Harrison's death 31 days into his term

- his first wife died early in his term and he married his second wife who was 30 years younger than him

- Texas annexation treaty failed in June 1844 but a joint resolution passed in February 1845 with some additional political pressure by incoming President Polk, won the election in December 1844 but wasn't inaugurated until March 1845. Texas and Florida gain statehood within days of each other.  (Probably some historians on here that may refute or argue some of these points,, don't shoot the messenger )

https://millercenter.org/president/john-tyler/key-events

Some would argue the annexation of Texas was illegal. Or course, i believe the good people of the Kingdom of Hawaii would like to laugh in their face and tell them to stfu

 

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Weird facts about Tyler's presidency: 
-he assumed the presidency after Harrison's death 31 days into his term
- his first wife died early in his term and he married his second wife who was 30 years younger than him
- Texas annexation treaty failed in June 1844 but a joint resolution passed in February 1845 with some additional political pressure by incoming President Polk, won the election in December 1844 but wasn't inaugurated until March 1845. Texas and Florida gain statehood within days of each other.  (Probably some historians on here that may refute or argue some of these points,, don't shoot the messenger )
https://millercenter.org/president/john-tyler/key-events

UT probably wouldn’t have the advantage of the massive PUF if Texas had become a State under the original treaty rather than the joint resolution.
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2 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

To keep their 70 year generation gap streak alive, he or his brother should have talked some 20 year old woman into having a kid.  Then in 2100, some 80-year old would be talking about how President Tyler was his great-granddad.

The day is still young.

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I have a picture of my grandfather and his two brothers standing behind their great grandfather taken sometime in the 1920’s when the great grandfather was over 100. Always was weird to me that I knew a guy who knew a guy that was born in the 1820’s. 

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4 hours ago, blacklab said:

I have a picture of my grandfather and his two brothers standing behind their great grandfather taken sometime in the 1920’s when the great grandfather was over 100. Always was weird to me that I knew a guy who knew a guy that was born in the 1820’s. 

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“Meet the man who met Andy Griffith!”

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Paternal g-pa was born in 1866 somewhere around Evant, TX. G-ma was born in Missouri but was raised in part by some relative of the family who was a travelling bible salesman and riverboat gambler. She lived for a while in the Indian territory of Oklahoma with the natives. So, my dad was the 10th child of these two up and coming sharecroppers and was raised with their morals, social graces and understanding of how to behave. He then passed these on to me, a child of the 1960's and the 5th child in the brood. There was conflict. 

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My grandmother was born in 1898.  About 50 years ago she wrote down stories about growing up in north Texas at the turn of the century.  In one story, she, her older sister, and her father were taking the wagon into town for supplies.  On the way, they met her cousin, her uncle, and the sheriff on the way to get a local boy for a shotgun wedding.  She wrote that her sister explained to her what had happened.

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1 hour ago, 77horn said:

My grandmother was born in 1898.  About 50 years ago she wrote down stories about growing up in north Texas at the turn of the century.  In one story, she, her older sister, and her father were taking the wagon into town for supplies.  On the way, they met her cousin, her uncle, and the sheriff on the way to get a local boy for a shotgun wedding.  She wrote that her sister explained to her what had happened.

Pics of shotgun?

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  • 3 years later...

Necro-bumping this thread.  Saw this story today and figured it is adjacent to the story of President Tyler having grandchildren alive as of a few years ago.

Ozarks Life: Bolivar WWII veteran is the only son of a Civil War soldier still alive

Quote

BOLIVAR, Mo. (KY3) - At the peaceful Parkview Residential Facility in Bolivar. Inside every door, there’s a great story.

“Pretty soon the school bell rang,” resident Bill Pool said, “knew right then, gonna be tardy again.”

Inside Bill’s room is a book full of his poems. It sits right next to the shadowbox full of World War II medals.

“I think he’s a great man,” Bill’s daughter Carolyn George said.

“He still has love,” Bill’s other daughter, Jeanie Price added.

Bill Pool enlisted in the Army in 1941 and, after basic training, was off to the heart of the ground offensive in Europe.

“The rest of France, across Germany, and Salzburg, Austria, when the war was over,” Bill recalls

Like so many families across the Ozarks, Bill’s family was in the military. Bill’s father served in the Civil War.

“The things I’ve heard them say, they thought very highly of him,” Carolyn said.

Bill’s father, Charles Parker Pool, was born in 1844. Doing the math, Charles was 80 when Bill was born. This January, Bill will turn 100.

He is the only son of a Civil War soldier still living.

“My grandfather served in the Civil War,” Carolyn would often tell her school teachers. “And the teacher would go, ‘Now honey. There is no way that your grandfather served in the Civil War.’ And I tried to tell them, ‘Yes, he did.’”

The Pool family is featured in Tim Pletkovich’s book Civil War Fathers: Sons of the Civil War in WWII.

“I have the utmost respect for the Pool family,” Pletkovich said.

Their chapter tells of Charles Pool’s service for the Union with the Sixth West Virginia Volunteers. Technically, Bill is a third-generation soldier because his grandfather, Charles’ dad, joined the Union at the same time.

After the war, the book goes into how generous he was with his Union pension. Including helping a young Arkansas mother whose husband left during the Great Depression.

“Mr. Pool, who was very benevolent, took it upon himself to secretly start sending money to Clara to be able to subsidize her and her children,” Pletkovich said.

“Grandma was 27 and grandpa was 71 when they married,” Carolyn remembers.

“He took care of them and made sure they had what they wanted,” Jeanie said.

Bill was only seven when his dad died. But a clear memory from 93 years ago is how an old war injury didn’t hold him back. Charles had a leg amputated after getting hit by a falling tree limb while on a march.

“If he wanted to hunt, he walked on crutches,” Bill said. “If he got a squirrel, he put it down in the crosses of his crutches.”

It’s that spirit Bill carried with him, even while fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. From rescuing an injured soldier on the battlefield to walking into a Nazi trap. Bill and two other soldiers thought they were returning to their company, in a secured area, but were wrong.

“There was a big bomb crater outside that place, and put us in that,” Bill said as the Germans guarded the men.

He was a POW for three hours. The Allies regained control of the area and the Germans retreated. For some reason, they did not shoot their prisoners.

“And that was unusual,” Bill said. “I figured that was a miracle.”

On the day we visited, Parkview threw a reception for Bill because he made it on local TV. It’s just a small reminder, we should celebrate the heroes in our life more.

Charles and Bill Pool, a father and son fought for what they believed in: America.

“He just said, like his father, ‘it was the right thing to do,’” Pletkovich said. “And he was doing this to preserve democracy.”

“You should just be thankful for your family,” Jeanie said.

“(And) how much we should appreciate those who brought freedom to this country,” Carolyn said.

The Pool family farm is now Devil’s Den State Park in Arkansas.

Bill’s mom, Clara, was the last Civil War widow in the state of Missouri to draw Union benefits. She died at the age of 102 in 1990.

Tim Pletkovich is working on a new book. He’s interviewing the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of former U.S. Presidents. He’s asking them how their ancestors would react to the events of today.

 

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I have an aunt that just turned 70, her grandfather was a Civil War vet. He had her father when he was in his 70s. Her father was in his mid 50s when he had her, she was the baby of the family. What is really cool is that her father lived really close to us. When I was a kid,  I would ride my dirt bike to their house a few times per week and help Jack (her father) check varmint traps. Jack had a moonshine still that had belonged to his BIL, and still used it. My paternal grandfather said that Jack's BIL made the best moonshine he had ever tasted, and they would run about 300 quarts per month out to Sweetwater during Prohibition. 

CHIEF

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