Latest news with #JohnTyler
Boston Globe
31-05-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Harrison Ruffin Tyler, grandson of 1840s president, dies at 96
Mr. Tyler suffered a series of small strokes starting in 2012 and was later diagnosed with dementia. In recent years, his son William Bouknight Tyler oversaw the James River plantation that had been his family's ancestral home. Mr. Tyler, a retired businessman, and his older brother, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., who died at age 95 in 2020, were sons of Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr. (1853-1935), a longtime president of the College of William & Mary. Their grandfather was the U.S. president who pushed for the annexation of Texas as American expansion moved west, but he is perhaps best known for the Whig Party's memorable 1840 presidential campaign slogan, 'Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up In a remarkable instance of successive longevities and late-in-life paternities, the Tyler family produced a genealogical marvel, if not a singularity: three generations that spanned nearly the entire history of the American experience. Advertisement Successive longevities over centuries are not uncommon, although they are not easily documented in ordinary families. But that was hardly the case with the former president and his academically distinguished son. And in 2012, when the website Mental Floss reported that two grandsons of President Tyler were still alive, the news -- 'an amazing, seemingly impossible piece of American trivia,' as New York magazine put it -- went viral. Advertisement Yahoo, The Huffington Post, Fox News and Politico all rushed to publish articles. There were interviews with the grandsons, who told of other famous ancestors, including a great-grandfather, John Tyler Sr., born in 1747, who was a roommate of Thomas Jefferson at William & Mary, served in the Continental Army, became governor of Virginia and had eight children, including the future president. 'I heard too much about presidents growing up,' Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. told the Daughters of the American Revolution chapter in Dyersburg, Tennessee, in 2013. He recalled family anecdotes about Patrick Henry, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, the American Revolution, the Civil War and, especially, President John Tyler, his grandfather. Born in 1790, less than a year after Washington's first inauguration, John Tyler became the governor of Virginia, a United States representative and a senator. In the election of 1840, the Whig Party chose William Henry Harrison, a former governor of the Indiana Territory and senator from Ohio, as its presidential candidate, and John Tyler as his vice-presidential running mate. Historians say John Tyler, a lifelong slave owner and advocate of states' rights, was selected to balance the ticket and attract Southerners who feared Harrison might harbor abolitionist leanings. Harrison, known as Old Tippecanoe, had led American forces that defeated Native Americans at the Battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana in 1811. The Whigs attacked Martin Van Buren, the Democratic incumbent, with a bandwagon campaign featuring the 'Tippecanoe and Tyler Too' slogan. Harrison and John Tyler won handily and were sworn in on March 4, 1841. But Harrison died of pneumonia after only a month in office. John Tyler, the first vice president to succeed a dead president, quickly took the oath of office, moved into the White House and assumed the full powers of the presidency. Advertisement His claim to the presidency was disputed by many in Congress and never accepted by some, who referred to him as 'His Accidency.' But his forceful grasp of the office set a precedent and served as a model for successions until the issue was clarified by the 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967. John Tyler, who regarded much of the Whig platform as unconstitutional, vetoed legislation and bypassed Whig leaders, who expelled him from the party and tried, unsuccessfully, to impeach him. Most of his Cabinet resigned. His most notable achievement was his advocacy for the annexation of Texas, which became the nation's 28th state in 1845. Robert Seager II, in a 1963 biography, 'And Tyler Too,' called John Tyler 'one of America's most obscure chief executives,' adding, 'His countrymen generally remember him, if they have heard of him at all, as the rhyming end of a catchy campaign slogan.' After leaving the presidency, John Tyler retired to his Virginia plantation and withdrew from politics. When the Civil War began in 1861, he sided with the Confederacy and was elected to the Confederate legislature, but he died in 1862, at age 71, before taking office. He fathered 15 children, the most of any American president, with two wives: Letitia Christian, who died in 1842, and Julia Gardiner, a 24-year-old debutante who married him in 1844, when he was 54. The 13th child, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, who lived to 81, served as president of William & Mary, the nation's second oldest college (chartered in 1693), from 1888 to 1919. He had three children with his first wife, Anne Baker (Tucker) Tyler, who died in 1921. In 1923, he married Sue Ruffin, and they had three more children: Lyon Gardiner Jr., Harrison Ruffin and Henry, who died in infancy. Advertisement Harrison Ruffin Tyler, who was born in Virginia on Nov. 9, 1928, earned a degree in chemistry at William & Mary in 1949 and a chemical engineering degree at Virginia Tech in 1951. In 1968, he was a founder of ChemTreat, an industrial water treatment business. He retired in 2000. Mr. Tyler married Frances Payne Bouknight in 1957; she died in 2019. In addition to their son William, he is survived by their daughter, Julia Gardiner Tyler Samaniego; another son, Harrison Ruffin Tyler Jr.; and eight grandchildren. Mr. Tyler and his wife helped to restore his ancestral home, Sherwood Forest Plantation, a 1,600-acre National Historic Landmark on the James River in Charles City County, Virginia, and lived there for many years. The plantation was built around 1730 and bought by the family in 1842. In 2001, Mr. Tyler donated $5 million and 22,000 books to the College of William & Mary history department, which was renamed in his honor in 2021. In 2012, he told New York magazine that he was not much interested in modern politics. 'Oh, my family's conservative,' he said. 'I served as the chairman of the Republican Party here, but I'm sorry, I've sort of lost interest. They're killing each other, on both sides. The campaigns are just horrible. It has nothing to do with what we really need.' Advertisement This article originally appeared in
Fox News
30-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Harrison Ruffin Tyler, grandson of President John Tyler, dies at age 96
Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the grandson of John Tyler, the 10th U.S. president, has died at the age of 96. Harrison Tyler died May 25, according to a statement shared by the Sherwood Forest Plantation Foundation, which operates the Tyler family's historic home in Virginia. "A beloved father and grandfather, he will be missed immeasurably by those who survive him. His accomplishments in business changed the lives of countless employees of ChemTreat, the company he co-founded in 1968," the foundation shared in a statement on Facebook. "His love of history and his birthplace, Charles City County, VA, led him to preserve both Sherwood Forest, President Tyler's home, and Fort Pocahontas, a Civil War fortification nearby. He will be remembered for his considerable charm, generosity and unfailing good humor by all who knew him." In 2012, Harrison Tyler had a series of small strokes and developed dementia, according to the National Archives. Harrison Tyler was born Nov. 9, 1928. His grandfather, President John Tyler, was in office from 1841 to 1845. Harrison Tyler was the son of Lyon Gadiner Tyler and Sue Ruffin in Richmond, Virginia. Harrison Tyler's father was born on Aug. 24, 1853, when President Tyler was 63 years old, which explains how a grandchild of the president from almost 200 years ago would still have been alive. Harrison Tyler graduated from William and Mary, the same university where his father was the president for over 30 years, and Virginia Tech, where he studied chemical engineering. In 1968, Tyler and his business partner, William P. Simmons, opened a water treatment company called ChemTreat. After founding ChemTreat, Harrison Tyler acquired the historic plantation Sherwood Forest, which once belonged to his grandfather, and oversaw its restoration. Today, the plantation is open to the public. Harrison Tyler also paid for the preservation of Fort Pocahontas, a Civil War-era fort built by Black soldiers of the Union's U.S. Colored Troops, which is near Sherwood Forest. At William and Mary, students and other guests can attend the Harrison Ruffin Tyler Department of History, which was named in his honor after he donated books and $5 million. Harrison Tyler's wife, Frances Payne Bouknight Tyler, died in 2019, and his brother, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., died in 2020, making Harrison Tyler the last living grandchild of the 10th president. Harrison Tyler is survived by his three children and multiple grandchildren. The president's birth and his grandson's death were separated by 235 years.
New York Times
29-05-2025
- General
- New York Times
Harrison Ruffin Tyler, Grandson of the 10th President, Is Dead at 96
Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the last surviving grandson of John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States, who was born just after George Washington became president 236 years ago and who served in the White House from 1841 to 1845, died on Sunday at his home in Richmond, Va. He was 96. His death was confirmed by Annique Dunning, the executive director of Sherwood Forest Plantation, a private foundation established by the Tyler family. Mr. Tyler suffered a series of small strokes starting in 2012 and was later diagnosed with dementia. In recent years, his son William Bouknight Tyler oversaw the James River plantation that had been his family's ancestral home. Mr. Tyler, a retired businessman, and his older brother, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., who died at age 95 in 2020, were sons of Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr. (1853-1935), a longtime president of the College of William & Mary. Their grandfather was the U.S. president who pushed for the annexation of Texas as American expansion moved west, but he is perhaps best known for the Whig Party's memorable 1840 presidential campaign slogan, 'Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.' In a remarkable instance of successive longevities and late-in-life paternities, the Tyler family produced a genealogical marvel, if not a singularity: three generations that spanned nearly the entire history of the American experience. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Washington Post
29-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Harrison Ruffin Tyler, preserver of Virginia history and grandson of 10th US president, dies at 96
CHARLES CITY, Va. — Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the last living grandson of U.S. President John Tyler born 83 years after his grandfather left the White House in 1845, died. He was 96. The cause of Tyler's death on Sunday was not immediately released. John Tyler was 63 years old when Harrison Tyler's father, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr., was born. And Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928 when that father was 75 years old and the presidential grandfather had been dead for more than 60 years.
Associated Press
29-05-2025
- General
- Associated Press
Harrison Ruffin Tyler, preserver of Virginia history and grandson of 10th US president, dies at 96
CHARLES CITY, Va. (AP) — Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the last living grandson of U.S. President John Tyler born 83 years after his grandfather left the White House in 1845, died. He was 96. The cause of Tyler's death on Sunday was not immediately released. John Tyler was 63 years old when Harrison Tyler's father, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr., was born. And Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928 when that father was 75 years old and the presidential grandfather had been dead for more than 60 years. The grandson was known for preserving his grandfather's plantation and nearby Civil War fort. In a statement, Annique Dunning, the executive director of Sherwood Forest, a national landmark of President Tyler's residence, said the president's grandson, whose brother died in 2020, was a 'beloved father and grandfather, he will be missed immeasurably by those who survive him.' 'He will be remembered for his considerable charm, generosity and unfailing good humor by all who knew him,' Dunning said. Over the course of his life, Tyler preserved Sherwood Forest, his grandfather's plantation that enslaved dozens of people, including 43 people in 1860, just before the Civil War began. The grandson also helped restore and maintain Fort Pocahontas, a Union fort during the Civil War. Tyler's grandfather was a Democrat nicknamed the 'Accidental President' after unexpectedly assuming the presidency when President William Henry Harrison died in office. President Tyler was the first vice president to gain control of the White House in the wake of a death. The University of Virginia's Miller Center described the president as 'the last gasp of the Old Virginia aristocracy in the White House.' He had married twice and had 15 children, including Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr. The time between the president's birth and his grandson's death spans 235 years.
