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*W. •- _ v. ' . v ' . - •• • >- • <-;.i W-v'.". >***« r •« :UR " • ' . ; • ' . - • • V SIX WIDOWS OF PRESIDENTS By Floelle Youngblood Bonner (Reprinted From The National, Republic, October, 1933) Living, within the boundaries of the United States are six women who, perhaps, have more in common than any other half dozen women in the world--Mrs. Bgnjamin Harbison, Mrs. <irpver Cleveland-Preston, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Mrs. William Howard Taft, Mrs. Woodrow Wilson $nd Mrs. Calvin Coolidge---the widows of former presidents. At no other time in the history of this country have there been so many widows of chief executives. Three times before, five women haVe held this place. Sixty-three years ago there were living Mrs. Tyler, Mrs. Polk, Mrs. Fillmore, Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Johnson, Half a century later when ex-President Wilson died ,in February, 1924, Mrs. Harrison, Mr?. Mrs. Grov6r Cleveland-Preston, Mis. Roosevelt, Mrs. Harding arid Mrs. Wilson formed the quintet. When Mrs. William Howard Taft was added "to the circle, Florence King Hardin? had passed out of the group and the number was still five. The recent sudden and tragic death of Calvm Coolidge added the youthful and lovely Grace Coolidge to the list. It would seem that there would be a bond of love and sympathy between these women who had in most instances travelled the same paths, lived in the same house, walked thorug'i the same stately halls and over the same green lawns, enjoyed the pleasures of the First Lady and suffered the same criticism from those "who have not been shown tTie proper deference due his or her position." Fortunate is the woman who can come out of four or eight years in the White House with the love and admiration of the American people. The lives of some of these women were closely interwoven. It was Mrs. Harrison's husband, President Benjamin Harrison, who appointed William Howard Taft to the position of Solicitor General of the United States in 1890. Shortly afterwards Harrison made Theodore Roosevelt United States Civil Service Commissioner. These positions brought both families to Washington, one from Ohio, and the other from New York, where acquaintanceship developed into friendship. When Mr. Roosevelt became President, one of his first selections was Taft for the portfolio of Secretary of War, and later he practically chose Taft for his successor as Chief Executive. The two families attended the same church, historic St. John's, just across LaFayette Square from the White House, where the daughters, Helen Taft and Edith Roosevelt, were confirmed as members of the church, and the boys, Charlie Taft and Quentin Roosevelt, belonged to the same Sunday school class; yet the two wives never became intimate. If Helen Herron Taft and Edith Carew Roosevelt had become friends in their early Washington days the political history of this country might have been vastly different and there might have been no Bull Moose party. These two women, more than any of the others, have been constantly in the public eye for more than forty years. It is also a coincidence that they are both the same age, having been born in 1861, and both were married the same year. The widow of the man who helped these men along their political pathways married Mr. Harrison three yeans after his retirement from public office; however, she was familiar •with the duties attendant ujjon the wife of the President of the United States, having for two years been a guest in the White House, where she assisted her aunt, the first Mrs. Harrison, in her social affairs. She now lives quietly in New York with her daughter, Elizabeth, who married the nephew of James G. Blaine, the man who was her father's Secretary of State. Mrs. Taft was another who had become familiar with the White House before she became a President's wife As the daughter of Judge Herron, the law partner of Rutherford B. Haye®, she had spent many happy days as the guest of Mrs. Hayes, and she was not averse to returning to the mansion as its mistress. Mis. Taft had a grasp of political situations equal, and sometimes superior to her husband and to his advisors. Frequently during a conversation Between him and some of his friends on the important matters of the day, she would interrupt with, "Gentlemen, I have been thinking with-you on that subject, and it seems to me that the situation should be met in this way-- Nearly abrays they toase that her point of view was correct. Mrs. Taft founded the Cincinnati Orchestra, being a musician as well gs a lover of art. When her husband was given, by President Harding, the highest legal position ins the United States, Mrs. Taft established, a permanent home in Washington, and fill- ,ed it with art treasures gathered in her many travels. To her alone belongs the honor of being both a First Lady and the wife of a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. When President Grover Cleveland was Governor of New York the young and ambitious Theodore Roosevelt was a member of the legislature. Although there was a great difference in age and political o&lefs between the two men, still they became fast friends. Both were sportsmen, loved fishing and the great outdoors. The spontaneous remark of Cleveland, made upon the receipt of a birthday telegram from the younger man, "I like that fellow Roosevelt," may have had something to do with the feeling between the two women. They have mudh in common. Their memory stores are filled with the activities of their husbands, interesting pranks of their children and associations covering nearly half a century. At- any rate these two have become closer than any of the others, one a Democrat, the other a Republican, and it i3 said that Mrs. Cleveland-Preston is the only othre ex-first lady who ever visits Mrs. Roosevelt at Oyster Bay. Frances Folsom, the only White House bride of a President, was married to Grover Cleveland amorg cartloads of blossoms which had transformed the Blue Room into a mar- Ola vhurtn Ox Bnp* land customs with which Mrs. Wilson was imbued, since she is a member of the Episcopal Churcn, it was her request that Mr. Wilson be laid to rest in the National Cathedral, where his shrine would ever be revered, having in mind the creation, of an American "Westminster Abbey." Each Sunday when in Washington one may find her in her accustomed place in Bethlehem Chapel near the tomb of the war President. Standing alone and apart from this group of six is Grace Goodhue Coolidge, a woman of a younger generation who lacks by twenty years the age and experience of the other five, but whose real charm and graciousness have won for her the title of "Best loved wife and mother." Washington liked Mrs. Coolidge and Mrs. Coolidge likes people, so it is no smali wonder that everyone calls her with affection and tenderness, "Grace Coolidge." She is typically a college woman,, being an alumra of the University of Vermont. Upon graduation she cast about for some definite field of 'activity, and decided upon n less crowded profession than regular teaching, so after some specialized study she became an instructor in the Clark School for the Deaf and Dumb at Northhampton- It was this work' that brought her the gold medal which the National Institute „of: Soeial Science bestowed. Grace Goodhue did not teach very long, for she had met the young city solicitor, Calvin Coolidge, and the brown-haired, sweet-faced, sunnytempered" little girl of whom Lou Henry Hoover wrote in the official Girl Scout magazine, thoSe tiny childish fingers were busy helping her mother set the table or dry the dishes riage bowre, with a limited number of j began helping her lawyer husband .And txcurfions to distant points at lass than tc ON *nd Aftmr Novmbmi I Stk .Northland Greyhound Lines announce reduced one-way bua fere* between ill local-service points in Wisconsin, Minnesota .and northern Illinois. fwo cents per mile for short *«rips and hundreds of much Jpwer excursion fares to distent points. Some excursion round -trips nearly 1« per mile. Tickets good every day, every bus, wi*b Usual liberal stop-over and return privileges. friends in attendance. A little bit of gossip says that during her first reiception her mother urged that the (President go into the drawing room i to see that everything was "gointf off all right." So together they slipped into the room and watched for a few minutes. Then he said with pride "She'll do." How well she did istattested by her great popularity among her own peopl#*as well as the foreign j diplomats and visitors. ^ | After the death of Mr. Cleveland, while still a young woman,' she mariried Thomas J. Preston, Jr., a profes- |sor at Princeton University, Even ' though remarried she still has the | franking privileges which have been i granted since the days of Martha j Washington to widows of the Presidents, and the signature of "Frances j F .Cleveland-Preston" in the upper .right hand corner of the envelope insures that letter of reaching its destination without postage. Mrs. Cool- , idge has not yet been granted the franking privileges and must pay the postage on her letters. We like to think of Mrs. Theodore I Roosevelt as a "Dowager-queen in Ajmerican life" in this land where every wife is a queen and every home a I castle. As the First Lady of thiee i decades ago she established herself j firmly in the hearts of the American j people by ably meeting every official . demand, as well as exterding courj tesies to all in a semi-official mannerjMrs. Roosevelt's tastes were similar I to those of her husband. She enjoye J horseback riding, and together they | made frequent trips over the country I roads adjacent to Washington, with the Secret Service men having a hard time to "keep pace." Although she has remained almost j in seclusion since the death of the ("strenuous American" her fine influjence and ideals well lived have been i seen in the successes of her children. The greatest sorrow that could come to any mother has come to her, | in the death and burial of her young- I est born on foreign soil, but her pride in the fact that he had followed in the 'steps of his patriotic father and gave i his all for the land which has given jher family so much, has in a small way softened her grief and left lier 'not bitter. She enjoys the unique position of keeping herself in the background whjle the activities of her family keep her in the foreground. Her hold upon her children is best understood by a remark made b> ner step-daughjter, Alice Roosevelt Long-worth, who ; once said, "When I wanted to let off steam I'd call up Motfter at Oyster Bay and talk to her," knowing that she would get sympathetic Understanding. The ovation received by Mrs. Roosevelt when she stepped into the political arena last fall and introduced the presidential candidate, Herbe** Hoover, for re-election, showed the position she holds in the hearts of the American people. * Grover Cleveland, the first Democratic President since James Buchanan, as trustee of Princeton, voted in 1892 «to make Woodrow Wilson president of that institution, thus playing no small part in the political career of the only other Democratic President up to the present time. There is* some similarity between the two in that both were fearless in handling situations in the face of opposition. When President Wilson's health gave way in the middle of his second term with his various tasks unfinished Edith Boiling Wilson, the gracious woman from the state of the "Mother of Presidents," stepped beside her husband and guided the destinies of the nation. - She accompanied him to the Versailles Peace Conference, and sine* then she has made many trips to Geneva, the home of the World Pear* Conference. _ She takes keen interest in world affairs and home politics, keeping in close contart with the Democratic Party. She is still the handsome woman she was when mistress of the executive mansion, active m things musical and artistic. Mrs. Wilson is independently wealthy in her own name, so she declined the five thousand dollars annual gift tendered by Congress as is cuctomary upon the death of a President <?r ex- Presidert Before Mr. Wilson died he desired that Ray Stannard Baker write the history of his administration and during the past years, Mrs. Wilson has spent a great deal of time assisting him with her huband's war documents. climb the hills of fame toward the White House. Her father-in-law. Col. John Coolidge, said just before he "She hai always Wen helpful to Cal. He was fortunate in getting such a fine girl for a wife. People take to her because she is so attractive, kindhearted and thoughtful." Add to these qualities sincerity and' the kind of sentiment which made her keep her first doll all these years, and one understands why Washington loved her, and why thousands went to the train to see her leave, calling so insistently "We want Grace" un&l she had to appear on the rear platform and wave' a good-bye. Prior to her departure from Washington she was presented with a brooch containing two hundred diamonds, the central stone weighing two and a half carats, by residents of the city as a "tribute to her graciousness as a White House hostess." Mrs. Coolidge is real. She is natural in all situations, with a simple faith in God and humanity. Mr. Coolidge himself said, "A. man who has the companionship of a lovely and gracious woman enjoys the supreme blessing that life can give, and no citizen of the United States knows the truth of that statement better than 1." A long sentence for him, but then he was talking about Grace. Fron; the tiffte +hat Frances Cleveland entered the White House in 18§6 to the day in 1929 when Grace Coolidge left it was forty-three years. Forty-three years of changes, progressive changes in science, medicine, art. in two daries of European be^n made different. Modern inventions have superceded the old style of transportation, and have revolutionized methods of kitchen and factory work- Yet, not once has the pablic wavered in its loyalty and admiration for thes^ sjx American women. Say you read It in THE PLAINDEALER.. SIOCBH T.AKI T * m and Mrs. John BTomgren were business callers at McHenry Saturday. Mr. and Mrs. Earl Converse were business callers at Barrington Monday. Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Foss and daugh ter, Vivian, of Libertyville were Sunday dinner, and afternoon guests at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Berg. Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Williams and son, James Howard, of Crystal Lake spent Sunday at the home of Mrs. Clara Smith. Mr. and Mrs. Peter Anderson and children of Cary and Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Lusk and daughter, Betty Lou, of Maple Park were Sunday dinner and supper guests at the home of Mr- and Mrs. John l^lomgren in honor of MrsL Blomgren's birthday anniversary. Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Esping were callers at Crystal Lake Sunday. Mr: and Mrs. Earle D. Lyon and daughters, Suzanna and Sally Jane, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Meirhoff and daughter, Jean, and Mrs. Fred C. Holste of Wilmette were callers Sunday at the home of Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Brooks. , \ Will^rd Darrell and Harry Matthews attended an agency meeting of the Life and Casualty Co., at the country home of the president of the TV TT -4. J C* * U H company, Mr. M. A. Kern, near Ar- The United States has engaged ^ Hei hts last Friday eveinng. o wars. The geographical boun- „ ' , _ , ' , countries W« . M™' E"? Rug* FMk, daughter, Jacqueline, of Park Rdige srpent Saturday at the home of Mr. ard Mrs. W. E. Brooks. Mr. and Mrs- Elmer Esping were callers at Woodstock Friday. Mrs. Esping attended a teachers meeting. Aladdin Mantle /exactly as \ \ ILLUSTRATED/ e':;p White Liqht rf C&&H whertydor purchases at this store amount to but *10t flURM'fiURRY/ • Ask Us At Once /or Derails. TRATl Agent for popular magazine subscriptions. New and renewal. Mayme Buss. 24- John J. Vycital Phone 98-M Green Street McHenry BUY YOUR GROCERIES^ l ores WGrid's Selling jSSSSESSSBfSkJm Now i* the time to put in your winter tuppfy of food*. These pment low prices will sove you money and such well known brands offer only the best of quality. You'll thank us and thank yourself this winter when you think of what you saved--stock up now. EIGHT O'CLOCK COFFEE BEVERAGES MAXWELL HOUSE COFFEE 27c 1-LB. CAN Red Circle Cottee Bokar Coffee • • Hills Bros. Coffei CAN wv ««• We 1-LB. BAG 15 3-LB. BAG 45c MISCELLANEOUS FOODS GOLD MEDAL FLOUR b£ 99C 5-lb. Bag 23c 24!i-lb. QC|» SUNNYFIELD FI.OUR Bag oOC 5-lb. Bag 19c OOLOMCOAL Softasllk Cake Flour Calumet ** OZ >KG. -- BAKINQ POWDEH • • BAKING CMOCOCATt „ Hershey's . . • PANCAKE FLOUR Virginia Sweet . Virginia Sweet w Malt-O-Meal . . HAND PICKED NAVY BEANS Oft Blue Rose Rice • 1-L8 TIN 25c 25c C A1VN E D F O O D S MAM,. OVEN_ Heinz Beans BAKE9 3 25c Peas . . 2 s&l 25c Heinz Soups 2?*** 25c Heinz«<t"*t° Spaghetti 2 25c PRUDENCE Corned Beef Hash FANCY QUAWTY 210-02 PKOS. 16-02. 1<L> JOG 1'"' 2 LBS 9c Bologna Sausage , w 19c ROB€«Tt EXCEL PURE Pork Sausage Meat 23c ROBERTS EXCEL BRAUNSCHWEIGER STYLE Smoked Liver Sausage " 17c GROCERY GOODS GRANDMOTHER'S WHITE OR BRAN RAISIN BREAD 2^15e Fig Bars 0NEl%c%fw# . 2 tw. 25c UNEEOA BAKERS Raisin Fruit Biscuits " 29c Favorites 11-02 29c PKQ. Pumpkin CALIFORNIA QUARTERED Bartlett Pears *( HAMILTON'S FANCY Sauer Kraut. . RED PITTED Cherries riNt roftPiEs • • ONA BRAND Tomatoes . "<& 21c 3&I3 25c * "S«2H 15c 2^123c S,' 1 Oc 3 can! 25C THREE DIAMONDS FANCY Imported Crab Meat 'U7 25c Cinnamon Rolls, pkg. of 6 _l..:_^.....10c Karo Syrup, 10-lb. pail, dark, 49c -- light, 53c Milcher Herring, keg 99c--Sliced Herring 5-lb. pail 75c Swift Thuringer Cervelat Sausage, lb. ...15c Brown Sugar Bulk .3 lbs. 19c Powdered Sugar, bulk .. ._3 lbs. 20c T. & T. Pumpkin Spice, pkg. / 9c Rajah Brand Vanila, 1-oz. bottle 10c 2 ox. bottle 19c Grandmother's Bread, sliced, new sized loaf . _ 5c FRUITS AND VEGETABLES Valencia Oranges, 150-176's, dz. 32o 200-216's d*. 25c Jonathan Apples, small size .5 lbs. 25c Hubbardson Apples, per bush«i basket $1-50 Cranberriea.._„2 lbs, 21c Emperor Grapes 3 lbs. 23c Celery . ; / , / •• 3 stalks 10c Onions Bag 23c Fresh Green Beans .... . j2 qts. l3fc Florida Cucumbers - , 3 for 10c CAULIFLOWER, lar^e head, each l^- HIRES ROOT BEER OR Edelweiss Ovaltine . . • N-oz. 9Se • • 8TL8. PlUt BOTTLE DEPOSIT APPETIZERS .AND SAUCES ; HEINZ TOMATO KETCHUP 14-02, 19e BTL. Dill . iw.m CHEESE AW JMJJES FANCY WISCONSIN BRICK CHEESE 15c LB. LAKE SMORt Pure Honey • - . 49c ANN PAGE RASPBERRY OR STRAWBERRY Preserves . • , 1 ^ $1.00 HOUSEHOLD NEEDS BIRD'S-EYE MATCHES 6 25c AMERICAN Family Soap . Camay Soap AMERICAN FAMILY Soap Flakes QUICK AflHOW Soap Chips SCOURING CLEANSER Sunbrite oRrrlilulun clAeNaOn spa pwo»t s A&P FOOD STORES NO Mil* ' Wax-Rite FLOOH WAX • COTTONSOFT Seminole Rival Dog Food II MM 49c fcAKK* I7C Pkg. 15c • ti.oz. 9K+ • wcos. | CAM 17c *KSS17e . SS»E $MU>SSC NORTHLAND GREYHOUND -Sin* -