Day-trip destinations: Ohio's rich presidential history features six native first ladies

Ohio, sometimes known as “The Mother of Presidents,” has also been the birthplace of six presidential wives.

So on this day dedicated to mothers, let’s take a look at the Buckeye ladies who became first ladies, and the historical sites where they’re celebrated.

Here’s one unfortunate bit of trivia: No Ohio-born first lady has occupied the White House for two full presidential terms. Two had husbands elected to just a single term. Three became widows when their husbands died in office, two by assassination. And one, Caroline Scott Harrison, is one of only three first ladies to die during their husbands’ term.

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Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison

Born in 1832 in southwestern Ohio, Caroline Harrison, like her husband, Benjamin Harrison, attended school in Oxford; she at the Oxford Female Institute, he at Miami University. A historical marker on South College Avenue in Oxford (www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=107675) today commemorates Caroline and the Female Institute.

After marriage, the Harrisons lived for a short while in North Bend before moving to Indiana. Today, their Indianapolis home is the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site (www.bhpsite.org) and offers public tours.

Caroline died of tuberculosis in 1892 at age 60.

The Harrisons’ daughter, Mary, served as White House hostess after her mother’s death.

(The other two first ladies to die in office were Letitia Tyler and Ellen Wilson.)

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Helen Herron Taft

Helen Herron Taft, known as “Nellie,” was born in Cincinnati in 1861 and met her future husband William Howard Taft at a sledding party.

The Tafts lived in Cincinnati when not traveling the world as part of his career.

Although Nellie Taft suffered a stroke near the beginning of her husband’s presidential term, her sisters helped with her with hostess duties until she recovered.

She was quite progressive for her day, becoming the first first lady to drive, to smoke cigarettes and to publish her memoirs. She is also credited with leading the drive to plant Washington D.C.’s famous Japanese cherry trees.

Although Nellie Taft never lived there, her husband’s boyhood home in Cincinnati is now the William Howard Taft National Historic Site (www.nps.gov/wiho/index.htm).

Nellie Taft died in 1943 and is buried next to her husband in Arlington National Cemetery.

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Lucretia Rudolph Garfield

Lucretia Rudolph Garfield was born in 1832 in Portage County and met her future husband, James Garfield, at Geauga Seminary. She was first lady for only six months, from the time her husband was inaugurated in March 1881 until his death in September, two months after being shot by an assassin.

She returned to the couple’s Mentor home and devoted much of the rest of her life to her husband’s memory, organizing his papers and documents and establishing what became one of the first presidential libraries. She died in 1918, 37 years after her husband.

Today the Ohio home where James and Lucretia lived is the James A. Garfield National Historic Site (www.nps.gov/jaga/).

Lucy Webb Hayes

Lucy Webb Hayes is one of the few first ladies whose birthplace has been preserved as a historical site in its own right.

Her family home in Chillicothe, where she was born in 1831 (https://bit.ly/3vWJOop), is now a museum with mementoes and information about the family and Lucy in particular.

Her later life is also explored at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums (www.rbhayes.org) in Fremont at the Spiegel Grove estate where she and her husband lived before and after his presidential term.

The first presidential wife to earn a college degree (at Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College) and the first to widely be known as the “first lady,” Lucy Hayes was reportedly an excellent hostess, although no alcohol was served at official White House functions during the Hayes term. She died in 1889 at the age of 57 and is buried next to her husband at Spiegel Grove.

Florence Kling Harding

Despite her husband’s philandering, Florence Kling Harding was, by most accounts, a devoted presidential wife until Warren G. Harding died in office in 1923.

She was born in Marion in 1860, and would become the first divorced first lady — she had eloped while a teenager and was later abandoned by her first husband.

Her father fiercely objected to her second marriage to newspaper publisherHarding. Although distraught by her husband’s affairs, she helped run his Marion newspaper and launch his political career.

Quite popular with the public and the press as first lady, Florence Harding hosted lavish White House galas and opened the house to large groups, often serving as her own tour guide.

She died a year after her husband and is buried next to him at the Harding Memorial in Marion. Their Marion home is now the site of the Harding Presidential Library and Museum (www.hardingpresidentialsites.org).

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Ida Saxton McKinley

Ida Saxton McKinley was born in 1847 in Canton, where she lived with her well-to-do parents in a Victorian mansion downtown. The house became a wedding gift to her and her new husband, William McKinley.

Their former Canton home, the Saxton-McKinley House, is preserved as part of the First Ladies National Historic Site (www.nps.gov/fila/), a monument to all presidential wives. The home has been restored to its look during the McKinleys’ occupation, and includes some of their original furniture.

Also part of the site is the historic City National Bank Building, built in 1895. The seven-story Richardson-Revival style commercial building now serves as the National First Ladies Library, with exhibits and an orientation film on the first floor; and upper floors, each named for a first lady from Ohio, containing a research library, offices and archives.

William McKinley was assassinated in 1901. Ida McKinley died in 1907. Both are buried in Canton at the McKinley National Memorial.

Steve Stephens is a freelance travel writer and photographer. Email him at sjstephensjr@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Day trip: Ohio's presidential history includes six first ladies