Speaker 1: All right, So this may knock you for a loop,
Speaker 1: but did you know that one guy who just died
Speaker 1: in the past month or so had a direct link
Speaker 1: to the entire history of the United States. Harrison Ruffin
Speaker 1: Tyler was ninety six years old, and he was the
Speaker 1: last surviving grandson of John Tyler, the tenth President of
Speaker 1: the United States. Huh, how's that possible. I'm Patty Steele
Speaker 1: alive in twenty twenty five, with sort of two degrees
Speaker 1: of separation from George Washington. That's next on the backstory.
Speaker 1: We're back with the backstory. Harrison ruff And Tyler died
Speaker 1: on May twenty fifth this year, and with him went
Speaker 1: the last grandchild of President John Tyler, the tenth president
Speaker 1: of the United States from eighteen forty one to eighteen
Speaker 1: forty five. Now it seems a little bit of a
Speaker 1: stretch to think your grandpa was in the White House
Speaker 1: almost two hundred years ago. I mean, we all know
Speaker 1: our pause, right, but it's actually not quite as strange
Speaker 1: as it seems. Harrison and his older brother, Lyon Gardner
Speaker 1: Tyler Junior, that's quite a name, who died five years
Speaker 1: ago at the age of ninety five, were sons of
Speaker 1: Lyon Gardner Tyler Senior, the first I guess who was
Speaker 1: born in eighteen fifty three. He was their dad eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty three, but he had the boys when he was
Speaker 1: in his seventies. Lyon Senior died in nineteen thirty five
Speaker 1: at the age of eighty two, when the two boys
Speaker 1: were seven and ten.
Speaker 2: Starting to get the picture.
Speaker 1: Lyon Senior was born eight years after his own father,
Speaker 1: John Tyler, was already out of the White House, and
Speaker 1: their great grandfather, John Tyler Senior, was born in seventeen
Speaker 1: forty five. It turns out he was a roommate in
Speaker 1: College of Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker 2: That'd be a crazy dorm room, right.
Speaker 1: He went on to serve in the Continental Army during
Speaker 1: the Revolution, then became Governor of Virginia, all while having
Speaker 1: eight children, including the future President. Ten years ago, Lyon
Speaker 1: Junior gave a speech in which he said, I heard
Speaker 1: too much about presidents growing up. There were family stories
Speaker 1: about paling around with Patrick Henry, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster,
Speaker 1: fighting in the Revolution and the Civil War, and of
Speaker 1: course a ton of stories about my grandfather, President John Tyler.
Speaker 1: So what we're seeing here in this crazy close connection
Speaker 1: is a succession of Tyler men who married late in life.
Speaker 1: You see, that wasn't creepy or unusual. It was often
Speaker 1: because women so frequently died in childbirth in those days,
Speaker 1: so men would quickly remarry somebody young and full of
Speaker 1: enough energy to take care of the children, love behind
Speaker 1: her husband and the house, as well as adding more
Speaker 1: offspring to the household. So the Tyler family up until
Speaker 1: Harrison's death, was three generations of people that tied together
Speaker 1: almost the entire history of the United States. President Tyler
Speaker 1: was born two hundred and thirty five years ago in
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety, just months after George Washington was inaugurated as
Speaker 1: our first president. He was a governor, a congressman, a senator,
Speaker 1: and then the vice president under William Henry Harrison. But
Speaker 1: Harrison caught a cold during his inaugural speech, which turned
Speaker 1: into pneumonia, killing him within a month of becoming president.
Speaker 1: Thus John Tyler became president. While in office, his wife,
Speaker 1: Letitia died las of deaths in those days. Two years later,
Speaker 1: just before leaving the White House, he married Julia Gardner,
Speaker 1: a twenty four.
Speaker 2: Year old debutante.
Speaker 1: When he was fifty four, after leaving office, he got
Speaker 1: out of politics and went home to his Virginia plantation
Speaker 1: called Sherwood Forest to enjoy the good life with his
Speaker 1: young wife. Before he died in eighteen sixty two, he
Speaker 1: had fathered fifteen children, the most of any American president.
Speaker 1: President Tyler. Thirteenth child was Lyon Tyler Senior. Lyon had
Speaker 1: three children with his first wife, Anne, who died in
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty one, and in nineteen twenty three, when he
Speaker 1: was seventy years old, he married thirty five year old
Speaker 1: Sue Ruffin. They had three more children, including Lyon Junior
Speaker 1: and the recently deceased Harrison. That kind of pulls the
Speaker 1: story together now, I mean, it wasn't unusual for a
Speaker 1: man to immediately remarry somebody much younger when his wife
Speaker 1: had died again, mostly because she would have had the
Speaker 1: energy to care for him and any remaining children, as
Speaker 1: well as have more children for him. Those kids to
Speaker 1: be counted on to care for the family property, whether
Speaker 1: it was a farm or a business, and also the
Speaker 1: parents as they aged. Plus, for her part, the young
Speaker 1: wife was making a choice that probably allowed her a
Speaker 1: better financial situation. Women didn't have a lot of options
Speaker 1: to improve their financial lives. That didn't involve marrying a
Speaker 1: guy who'd already been successful money wise, So the Tyler
Speaker 1: family just happened to have a run of several long
Speaker 1: living men who had first wives who died young. They
Speaker 1: went on to create new families with much younger second wives.
Speaker 1: Now the only stain on the Tyler family legacy was
Speaker 1: President Tyler's support for the South during the Civil War
Speaker 1: and Lion Tyler Senior's academic and public attacks on Abraham
Speaker 1: Lincoln over his opposition to state's rights during the war.
Speaker 2: They were tried in True Confederates.
Speaker 1: As for Harrison's thoughts on modern politics, while back in
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, he said, I've sort of lost interest in politics.
Speaker 1: They're killing each other on both sides. The campaigns are
Speaker 1: just horrible. It has nothing to do.
Speaker 2: With what we really need.
Speaker 1: You're here hope you're enjoying the Backstory with Patty Steele.
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Speaker 1: to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram
Speaker 1: Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production
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Speaker 1: at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with
Speaker 1: Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't know you
Speaker 1: needed to know.