Strange Facts About Presidents of the United States

Everyone of us has our own strange habits, it could be a funny, scary, or weirdest habits that sometimes, we are embarrassed or often we feel so shy about it. What if those famous celebrities have their own “peculiar behavior” just like the President of the United States. Here are some names of US Presidents with their strange facts in life.

1)  George Washington Official First U.S. President

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732 , and died on  December 14, 1799 due to a disease known as quinsy or epiglottitis and died at age 67. During those times they use a medical practice known as bloodletting (withdrawing small quantity of blood from patients) to prevent or cure illnesses. He was not actually the First President of the United States, as claimed but it was John Hanson. Washington was elected the first president by unanimous choice in 1788, and he served two terms in office. The strange facts  about George Washington”s teeth, were made from human and animal teeth, and had springs, that if he relaxed, the teeth would break. His pets are; a donkey, a Royal gift, three gazehounds dogs, four Black and Tan Coonhounds dogs (used for hunting raccoons) and Nelson the horse.

John Hanson (First US President)

John Hanson, was born on April 14, 1721, and died on November 22, 1783 because of poor health after a year,  retiring  from public office as President of Congress. He was a merchant and public official from Maryland during the era of the American Revolution. He was the first person elected as the presiding officer in November 1781, thus some historians claiming John Hanson as the First President of the United States. He also approved and authorized the Great Seal of the United States. John Hanson‘s grave site has been lost, at his nephew’s plantation Oxon Hill Manor in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

John Adams  2nd President of the United States

John Adams was the second President of the United States from 1797 to 1801, and served earlier as the first Vice President of the United States. He was born on October 30, 1735 or Old Style  October 19, 1735. On October 25, 1764, five days before his 29th birthday, Adams married his third cousin Abigail Smith (1744–1818).  Sixteen months before John Adams’ death, his son, John Quincy Adams, became the sixth President of the United States (1825–1829). John Adams died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, at his home. Fifty years after the declaration of the United States Independence, John Adams last words on his death bed was, “Thomas Jefferson will survive”, (they are close friends), but Adams was not aware that Jefferson died few hours ahead of him, strange? His death left Charles Caroll of Carollton as the last surviving signatory of the Declaration of Independence. John Quincy Adams was the president during John Adams death at the age of 90 years and 247 days old. Adams official pets are his three dogs Juno, Mark, and Satan, and  Cleopatra, his horse.

Thomas Jefferson 3rd President of the United States

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 or the Old Style calendar, April 2, 1743 . Jefferson was the third President of the United States (1801 to 1809). He was an American Founding Father and the principal author of the 1776 Declaration of Independence. – July 4, 1826)  In July 1825, Jefferson’s health began to deteriorate, and by June 1826 he was confined to bed. He died of complications from  toxemia, uremia and pneumonia on July 4, 1826, 5oth Independence Day (strange fact, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day). Before Jefferson’s death, he was at ease with the idea of death and was ready to die, and called his immediate family around his bedside. Then on July 4, at 10 minutes before one o’clock, he finally died at age 83. He had his official pets, Dick the mockingbird, two Briards dogs and two bear cubs and his horse Caractacus. Jefferson invented the swivel chair, coat hanger, hideaway bed (wall bed, love seats or sofa converted into bed), and dumbwaiter (small lifts or elevators).

James Madison, Jr. 4th President of the United States

James Madison, Jr. was born on March 16, 1751 or the Old Style calendar March 5, was the fourth President of the United States (1809 to 1817). He is known as the Father of the Constitution and as the key champion and United States Bill of Rights.   – June 28, 1836)   In 1826, after the death of Jefferson, Madison was appointed as the University of Virginia second Rector (“President”) and his last occupation. He retained the position as college chancellor for ten years until his death in 1836.   James Madison was 43 years old when he married for the first time, which was considered late in that era. On September 15, 1794, James Madison married a young widow, Dolley Payne Todd, at Harewood (now, Jefferson County, West Virginia). Madison adopted John Payne Todd, Todd’s one surviving son,after the marriage. Dolley Payne was born May 20, 1768, at the New Garden Quaker settlement in North Carolina, where her parents, John Payne and Mary Coles Payne, lived briefly. Dolley’s sister, Lucy Payne was married to George Steptoe Washington,  President Washington’s nephew.  His pet is a Macaw parrot.

James Monroe 5th President of the United States

James Monroe was born on April 28, 1758, and was the fifth President of the United States (1817 to 1825) – July 4, 1831). Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the third President to die on Independence Day, July 4, 1831 due to heart failure and tuberculosis, and his term was marked by an “Era of Good Feelings”. Monroe’s health began to deteriorate, and by the end of the 1820s and John Quincy Adams visited him there in April 1831. His death came 55 years after the U.S. Declaration of Independence was proclaimed and 5 years after the death of two other Founding Fathers who became Presidents of the United States, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Strange facts about Monroe, he was the last president who had never been photographed and whose portraits are preserved today only on paintings, and the U.S. President to wear a powdered wig tied in a queue, tricorne (style of hat that was popular during the 18th century) and knee breaches (“culottes” commonly worn by gentlemen of the European upper-classes from the early 19th century), according to the 18th century old fashioned style, in which he gained the nickname “The Last Cocked Hat”. His pets is a Siberian Husky dog called Sebastian and one Spaniel gun dog.

John Quincy Adams 6th U.S. President

John Quincy Adams was born on July 11, 1767, was the sixth President of the United States and the son of John Adams, the 2nd President of the United States and Abigail Adams. On February 23, 1848, Adams died from a massive cerebral hemorrhage, 2 days after he collapsed inside the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. His last words were “This is the last of earth. I am content.” He passed away at 7:20 P.M. John Adams and John Quincy Adams, were the first father and son to each serve as president (the others being George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush). Both Adams served only one term as President of the United States. Quincy Adams, was the only President to have a First Lady born outside the United States (she was born in London, United Kingdom). Strange facts about John Quincy Adams, he loves to swim naked in Potomac River. One instance, when Anny Royal, a reporter, came to the shore and sat on Adams clothes, and decline to leave until Quincy Adams would give an interview, and known as the first female to interview a president. His pets are American Alligator and silkworms. 

Andrew Jackson 7th President of the United States

Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767 , and was the seventh President of the United States (1829 to 1837). Because of being aggressive and tough, Jackson was nicknamed “Old Hickory“, he fought in duels which some are fatal to his opponents. Jackson was a wealthy slaveholder, and supported a limited and small ‘federal government’ when he was elected president in 1828.  Jackson met Rachel Donelson Robards (an unhappy wife  of Captain Lewis Robards) because of jealousy rage between the couple, and separated in 1790. Jackson married Rachel after hearing that Robards had obtained a divorce, but the said divorce was “incomplete”, thus the marriage of Jackson and Rachel was invalid and bigamous. In 1794, they remarried after the official divorce came out. On December 22 1828,  Rachel died of a heart attack, two weeks after her husband’s victory in the election and two months before Jackson took office as President. John Quincy Adams was blamed by Jackson, for Rachel’s death because the episode ridiculing his wife was repeatedly used in the campaign of 1828. He felt that this had hastened her death and never forgave Adams. On May 1806, Jackson challenged Charles Dickinson for publishing immoral attack on Jackson in the local newspaper, and it resulted to a duel. During the duel, Dickinson shot Jackson in the ribs before Jackson returned the fatal shot. Jackson and his friend, Thomas  Overton, decided to allow Dickinson to fire first his gun, and Jackson would wait and take careful aim at Dickinson (which Dickinson did fire first, hitting Jackson in the chest, and this bullet struck Jackson near to his heart, and it would risk his life if it would be removed). Under the rules of dueling , Dickinson had to remain still as Jackson took aim and shot and killed him.  Andrew Jackson, was 6 feet, 1 inch tall, 130 to 140 pounds or 64 kg, and red hair, but by the age of 61 and became the President,  it turned grey hair . Jackson had blue eyes, but one of the most “sickly Presidents“, suffering from abdominal pains, chronic headaches, whooping cough caused by a “musket ball” in his lungs that was never removed, causing him spitting blood sometimes. Jackson died on June 8, 1845 at the age of 78 from chronic tuberculosis, dropsy (edema) and heart failure.  His pets are five horse, fighting cocks and Pol, a parrot who was taught to swear. Jackson had a lot of strange facts in life.

Martin Van Buren  8th President of the United States

Martin Van Buren was born on December 5, 1782, and the eight President of the United States (1837 to 1841). Under the Andrew Jackson administration, Buren was the 10th Secretary of States from 1829 to 1831. Van Buren was the first President from Dutch family, and the firs president to be born a United States citizen, unlike his predecessors having been born British citizen before the American Revolution. He is also the only president not to have spoken English as his first language, having grown up as Dutch speaking American citizen from New York, strange? Van Buren married his first cousin and childhood sweetheart, Hannah Hoes on February 21, 1807.  After 12 years of marriage, Hannah Van Buren died of  tuberculosis on February 5, 1819 at the age of 35, and Martin Van Buren never married again. After Martin Van Buren retired to his home in Kinderhook, his health failed and became bedridden with a bronchial asthma and heart failure and died on July 24, 1862 at the age of 79.  Martin owned two tiger cubs.

William Henry Harrison , 9th US President

William Henry Harrison born on February 9, 1773, and was the ninth President of the United States (1841), and the first President to die in office, and the “oldest President” to take office at the age of 68 years and 23 days old when inaugurated, and the last President to be born before the United States Declaration of Independence. On his 32nd day in office, on April 4, 1841, Harrison died of pneumonia complications, serving the shortest tenure as President of the United States. Strange facts can be unpredictable . His pets is called Sukey, a cow and one goat.

John Tyler, 10th US President

John Tyler was born on March 29, 1790 , and was the tenth President of the United States (1841 to 1845), and was the first to succeed to the office of President on the death of the incumbent, William Henry Harrison. Although many had praised Tyler’s administration, historians considered his term as less visible and unclear president, with little American cultural memories.  Tyler fathered many children with his two wives, more than any other President of the United States history. His first marriage to Leticia Christian-Tyler, he had 8 children, but Leticia died in the White House September 10, 1842. Then he married again, Julia Gardiner Tyler, his second wife and had 7 children. In his early days of being a president, he was attacked by Joshua Leavitt, an abolitionist publisher, accused Tyler that he fathered several sons and “sold” with his slaves, prompting response from the Tyler administration newspaper The Madisonian. It was reported that number of African-American families today have descent from Tyler, but no evidence of such a link has ever surfaced. Tyler is the oldest former President with living grandchildren, and none of the succeeding Presidents have living grandchildren until James A. Garfield, who served forty years after Tyler, with Abraham Lincoln and bachelor James Buchanan each having no living descendants of any kind. After his term from the White House, he fell victim to repeated cases of dysentery, had many aches and pains in the last eight years of his life. On January 12, 1862, Tyler start complaining of chills and dizziness, he vomited and collapsed, and was revived, yet the next day he admitted to the same symptoms. He was treated for the rest of the week, but his health did not improve, And on January 18, 1862, as he lay in bed the previous night he began suffocating, and Julia summoned his doctor. Just after midnight, Tyler took a last sip of brandy, and told his doctor, “I am going. Perhaps it is best.”It is believed that he had suffered a stroke.  His pet is an Italian Greyhound known as  Le Beau, and a canary called Johnny Ty, and a horse whom he called The General.

James Knox Polk , 11th US President

James Knox Polk was born on November 2, 1795, and was the 11th President of the United States (1845 to 1849).  As he promised to serve only one term and did not run for reelection. After three months  end of his term, he died of cholera on June 15, 1849.  Polk was ranked favorably on the list of greatest presidents by the  Scholars, for his ability to set an agenda and achieve all of it. Polk has been called the “least known consequential president” of the United States.  During Polk’s administration, in the White House, his health became poor. Polk was full of enthusiasm and vigor when he entered office, Polk left on March 4, 1849, exhausted by his years of public service. He lost weight and had deep lines on his face and dark circles under his eyes, and was believed to have contracted cholera in New Orleans, Louisiana, on a goodwill tour of the South. Among the previous Presidents,  Polk had the shortest retirement at 103 days. He was the youngest former president to die in retirement at the age of 53. Polk and wife Sarah Childress, never had a children.

Zachary Taylor 12th US President

Zachary Taylor  was born on November 24, 1784, and was the 12th President of the United States (1849 to 1850), uninterested in politics, he was an American Military Leader( serving 40 years in the military), and known as ” Old Rough and Ready“. As president, Taylor angered many Southerners by taking a moderate stance on the issue of slavery. On July 9, 1850,  Taylor died of gastroenteritis, 16 months after his inauguration, and he was the third-shortest tenure of any President. President Taylor was succeeded by his Vice President,Millard Fillmore. Taylor was the last President to “own slaves” while in office. Taylor was also the second president to die in office, preceded by William Henry Harrison who died while serving as President nine years earlier, as well as the only President elected from Louisiana. Zachary Taylor’s cause of death has never been fully established and very strange for other people.  On July 4, 1850, Taylor was known to have consumed large amounts of iced water, cold milk, green apples, and cherries after attending holiday celebrations and the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument. Several days after, he became severely ill with an unknown digestive ailment, and believed he was dying.  He died within the hour, reports listed the cause of death as “bilious diarrhea, or a bilious cholera”. But the Scholars believed it was a kind of severe gastroenteritis. A former University of Florida professor, Clara Rising, had a tentative explanation for an observation about Taylor’s death in 1980, that he was “murdered by poison”. Rising persuaded Taylor’s immediate living relative for exhumation for testing the remains. The remains was exhumed on June 17, 1991, and samples from hair, fingernail and other tissues were removed for radiological studies by the Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner. Then the remains of Taylor was returned and reinterred to the cemetery with appropriate honors. The Neutron activation analysis conducted at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory result, there are no “evidence of poisoning”, the arsenic levels were too slow, thus the analysis was that Taylor died of cholera morbus or acute gastroenteritis, as Washington had ‘open sewers, and his food and drinks might have bee contaminated. He was bled and blistered and treated by his doctors with ipecac ( roots of ipecacuanha plants), calomel (mercury(I)chloride chemical compound), opium or poppy tears (sap), and quinine a reducing malaria fever medicine.

Millard Fillmore 13th U.S. President

Millard Fillmore was born on January 7, 1800 and was the 13th President of the United States (1850 to 1853) and the last member of the Whig Party to hold the office of the President, as the Vice President of Zachary Taylor he assumed the presidency after Taylor’s death. Throughout the Civil War, Fillmore opposed President Lincoln and during Reconstruction supported President Johnson. He commanded the Union Continentals, a corps of home guards of males over the age of 45 from the New York Upstate area.  Fillmore died on March 8, 1874 at 11:10 pm, of  severe stroke. His last words were alleged to be, upon being fed some soup, “the nourishment is palatable.”  He owns two ponies he called them  Mason and Dixon.

Franklin Pierce 14th U. S. President

Franklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804, he was he 14th President of the United States (1853 to 1857), he was from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a ‘doughface‘(a politician, who is perceived to be pliable and moldable). Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War.  Abandoned by his party, Pierce was not renominated to run in the 1856 presidential election and was replaced by James Buchanan as the Democratic candidate. After losing the Democratic nomination, Pierce continued from his alcoholism, affecting his marriage to Jane Means Appleton-Pierce and fell apart. During the Civil war, his reputation was destroyed, when he declared support for the Confederacy, and personal correspondence between Pierce and Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President was leaked to the press. Pierce died in 1869 from liver cirrhosis. Pierce was the youngest President to have taken office, until Ulysses S. Grant took office in 1869 at age 46. Pierce had three children all of whom died in childhood; Franklin Pierce, Jr. (February 2, 1836 – February 5, 1836, 3 days old baby), Frank Robert Pierce (August 27, 1839 – November 14, 1843), died at the age of four from epidemic typhus, and Benjamin Pierce (April 13, 1841 – January 6, 1853), died at the age of 11 in a train accident, and never see their father became the president. On January 6, 1853, two months before the election, the Pierce family was trapped in a train, when their car was derailed and rolled down an embankment near Andover, Massachusetts. Pierce and his wife Jane survived, but saw their 11 year old son, Benjamin crushed to death. It was believed, since Benjamin’s death from that tragic accident, where he was decapitated, and Pierced covered him with a sheet, hoping to spare his wife, but Jane saw their son’s tragic death; Pierce began his presidency in mourning after weeks he won. Pierce died on October 8, 1869 at 4:49 am, at age 64. He had seven miniature Oriental dogs and two Japanese birds.

James Buchanan, Jr. 15th President of the United States

James Buchanan, Jr., the 15th President of the United States (1857 to 1861), was born on April 23, 1791 . He died on June 1, 1868, due to respiratory illness at the age of 77. He is the only president from Pennsylvania and the only president who remained a bachelor.  Harriet Lane, his niece played the role of the First Lady. Buchanan’s view of record was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal, ranking by historians as one of the worst Presidents.   In 1819, Buchanan was engaged to Ann Caroline Coleman, the daughter of wealthy iron manufacturing businessman Robert Coleman. Buchanan spent little time with her during the courtship, he was extremely busy with his law firm and political projects during the 1819 Panic, which took him away from Coleman for weeks at a time. Rumors spread that Buchanan was marrying Coleman because of her wealth, but Buchanan, never spoke publicly of his feelings or motives to Coleman. Ann broke off the engagement, and soon died from believed to hysteria producing death on December 9, 1819, but later known caused of death was overdose of laudanum, a tincture concentrated opium. Speculations spread that Buchanan and his close friend William Rufus King, Alabama Senator, has an intimate relationship and believed Buchanan was gay. His official pets is a Newfoundland dog named Lara, and Punch, a Toy Terrier dog and an Eagle.

 Abraham Lincoln 16th U.S. President

Abraham Lincoln  was born on  February 12, 1809, and he was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 15, 1865.  A well known actor, John Wilkes Booth and a Confederate spy from Maryland, assassinated Abraham Lincoln, Booth crept up from behind and at about 10:13 pm, aimed at the back of Lincoln’s head and fired at point-blank range, wounding the President critically. Major Henry Rathbone momentarily grappled with Booth, but Booth stabbed him and escaped.  Strange facts about Abraham Lincoln, that he grew a beard  because of a letter from a 11-year old girl, telling him he should grow a beard because he had a thin face, and women will like him and he will become the president.  Abe (as he was fondly called) Lincoln, was suffering from melancholy, a type of clinical depression. Lincoln’s sexual orientation was also the topic of debate among scholars. Lincoln had four children from his wife, Mary Todd. But C.A. Tripp, his psychologist observed, that Lincoln had distant relationship with women, more than his relationship with number of men in his life. One instance in Lincoln’s life, was when he met Joshua Fry Speed in 1837, in Springfield, Illinois, they lived together for four years, sharing the same bed, and developed a “special friendship” until his tragic death in 1865. Captain David Derickson, was Lincoln’s bodyguard and constant companion, they also shared the same bed, during the absences of Lincoln’s wife, Mary. It was the subject of gossips.  He had pets, two goats whom he named Nanny and Nanko, Jack the Turkey, two dogs named Fido and Jip, a horse and rabbit.

Andrew Johnson 17th President of the United States

Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the United States (1865 to 1869)was born on December 29, 1808. As Vice President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincolnafter he was assassinated.  The inauguration of Andrew Johnson as Abraham Lincoln’s vice-president in 1865 was inflict damaged slightly by his strange behavior, and the fact that Johnson was incredibly drunk, his reason of drinking whiskey to medicate his “Typhoid fever” that time.

Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American Civil War.    Johnson’s administration was ranked very poor in historical ranking by the scholars, especially among the three.  Strange facts about Johnson ,during a Congressional recess, Johnson died from a stroke  near Elizabethon, Tennessee, on July 31, 1875. He was buried with his body wrapped around in an American flag,  just outside Greeneville and a copy of the U.S. Constitution placed under his head, according to his wishes.  His pets are the white mice he fed found in his bedroom.

Ulysses S. Grant 18th President of the United States

Ulysses S. Grant, was the 18th President of the United States (1869 to 1877), was born on April 27, 1822. He palyed a dominant role in the second half of the Civil war. Strange facts about Grant, while he was still the President, he was issued speeding ticket for $20 dollars fine riding his horse too fast down at Washington street. He was also the first President to run against a woman candidate, Virginia Woodhull in 1872, and  Ulysses S. Grant was also known as ‘Unconditional Surrender Grant’. Grant died of throat cancer on July 23, 1885 at the age of 63 in Mount McGregor. He owns pet horses Jennie, Julia, Mary and St. Louis, his two ponies Billy Button and Reb, a giant breed of dog Newfoundland named Faithful, and Butcher Boy, Cincinnatus, Egypt, and Jeff Davis his wartime mount.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes 19th U.S. President

Rutherford Birchard Hayes the 19th President of the United States (1877 -1881) was born on October 4, 1822.  – January 17, 1893). He oversaw the end of Reconstruction as a President,  and the United States’ entry into the Second Industrial Revolution.  Hayes and his wife, Lucy, were known for their policy of keeping the White House an alcohol-free, giving rise to her nickname “Lemonade Lucy“. The first reception at the Hayes White House included wine, but the President was dismayed  seeing his ambassadors, cabinet members with drunken behavior and since then, alcohol was not served again in the Hayes White House. Critics charged Hayes with parsimony, but Hayes spent more money, from his personal budget after the ban, ordering that any savings from eliminating alcohol be used on more lavish entertainment.  Lucy Hayes died in 1889, and this made Hayes very sad.  Hayes died of complications of a heart attack at his home on January 17, 1893 and his final words were; “I know that I’m going where Lucy is.”   He had lot of pets such as a Cocker Spaniel dog named Dot,   Hector the Newfoundland dog ,  Duke the English Mastiff dog breed,  Grim the Greyhound dog,  Otis the Miniature Schnauzer dog, Juno, Jet and Shep the Hunting dogs, two Siamese cats Piccolomini  and Miss Pussy, the first Siamese cat in the United States.

  James Abraham Garfield 20th President of the United States