Harry Truman is another person (like John Tyler or Chester Alan Arthur for example) who never expected to be President and who no one else ever expected to be President. He had poor eyesight, didn't come from a rich family, was a failure as a small business owner and even his wife's mother said that he would never amount to anything. But he ( Read more... )

Chester Alan Arthur has such an interesting story. Dismissed as a political hack and a backroom crony of New York Senator Roscoe Conkling (leader of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party), Arthur had never run for office until he was put on a ticket as James Garfield's running mate in the 1880 Presidential election. That was done to appease ( Read more... )

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you who have some Irish ancestry. Apparently there were 23 Presidents who had some Irish ancestry, some of whom will surprise you. For three of these (Taft, Harding and Truman), I have been unable to locate which ancestor of theirs lived in Ireland. Here is the list:


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The potus_geeks library (my personal collection of books about the Presidents) has grown to over a thousand volumes, though I would be less than truthful if I said that read every word in every volume. They are organized on shelves in a small room that's supposed to be a small bedroom, starting with generic volumes about all of the presidents, and then going ( Read more... )

Although he is better known for being a political "gentleman boss", a "spoilsman", and a President who surprised his critics by bringing about civil service reforms, Chester Alan Arthur was the son of an abolitionist preacher father, and as a young lawyer in New York, he made a name for himself by acting in civil rights cases.


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When William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became President. McKinley's closest advisor, Ohio Senator Mark Hanna, thought that this was a double tragedy. Hanna had tried to keep Roosevelt off the ticket with McKinley. At the 1900 Republican convention, he said "Why, everybody's gone crazy! What is the matter with all of you ( Read more... )

Well that went fast! 2023 that is. It seems as if it was only yesterday that we were ringing in the new year, and the news cycles were full of the same thing they were full of at the end of the year: criticism of every political candidate and every political party. Granted there were some new things that occured this year: one major party having ( Read more... )

2023 wasn't my most prolific year when it came to reading. It was a year of personal transition that intruded into reading time. Still, there were 10 books that were read and reviewed in this community, some new, some old ones that I've been meaning to get to. Here's a look back at the books we read and reviewed in this community.

( Ten Books Read and Reviewed in 2023 )

Chester Alan Arthur was a widower when he became president in September of 1881. His wife Ellen (known as "Nell") had died in January of 1880. Arthur was elected Vice-President in November of that year, and became president upon the death of James Garfield.


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On November 19, 1831 (192 years ago today) James Abram Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, was born in Moreland Hills, Ohio. He was the youngest of five children born to Abram and Eliza Garfield. His father, who was known locally as a wrestler, died when Garfield was 18 months old. The future president was raised by his mother, who ( Read more... )