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Showing posts with the label Frances Folsom Cleveland

Grover, Frank, and Baby Ruth

It’s been a while since a bachelor has been elected president of the United States.  In fact, it’s only happened twice.  The first was James Buchanan, in 1856, and the second was Stephen Grover Cleveland in 1884.  (The last bachelor to be nominated for president by a major political party was Adlai Stevenson, the unsuccessful Democratic nominee in 1952 and 1956.)  This probably accounts for why there have been so few weddings in the White House.  The first White House wedding took place during Cleveland’s first term, on June 2, 1886, when the president married Frances Folsom. Image of the Clevelands’ marriage.  The couple expressly requested there be no photographs taken. Cleveland had known Frances Folsom all her life.  She was the daughter of Oscar Folsom, his law partner and best friend.  When Mr. Folsom died in a violent carriage accident at the age of 37 in 1875, Cleveland became the executor of his partner’s estate, and took under his wing the widow Emma Folsom and h