The President When Florida Became a State Has Two Living Grandchildren

Florida became a state on March 3, 1845 -- the last full day that John Tyler served as president. That was almost 167 years ago, but despite all that time passing, two of Tylers grandchildren are still alive.

Tyler is probably best known for being the Tyler Too of Tippecanoe and Tyler Too, though he had a tumultuous presidency that was very far from dull. With William Henry Harrison dying a month into his presidency, Tyler faced mass defections from his Cabinet and was a man without a party after he vetoed the Whig proposal to restore the Bank of the United States.

While Tyler hoped to lure Texas into the Union, his proposals and plans were often hindered by the actions of the State Department -- namely two of his secretaries of state: Abel Upshur and John C. Calhoun. Upshur, a talented legal theorist and political thinker, was killed -- along with Navy Secretary Thomas Gilmer --in a horrid accident when a cannon misfired on the USS Princeton during a cruise with Tyler and with much of Washington society present. Long Island businessman and political leader David Gardiner was also killed in the accident -- which leads me to my story.

In the Princeton accident, President Tyler helped escort Julia Gardiner, a lovely belle he was courting, off the ship. They were married a few months later (strangely enough Calhoun, who had taken Upshurs place at the State Department, helped the bride cut the cake). She was 24, while President Tyler was 54. Despite the vast difference in age, the Tylers were very happy and he even made a return to politics, winning a seat in the Confederate House of Representatives before his death in 1862. They had seven children -- including David Tyler, who served in Congress during the 1890s, and Lyon Tyler, who was president of William and Mary.

The Huffington Post ran a story late on Wednesday revealing the fact that two of Tylers grandsons are still alive. For this history major who had planned to do his senior thesis at Trinity College on Calhoun's tenure in the Tyler Cabinet (I ended up doing it on Calhoun's tenure in the Monroe Cabinet, so let me offer a belated apology to President Tyler) and did his master's thesis on Edmund Ruffin, a fan of Upshur and adviser and friend to Tyler, it's a reminder of how young our nation really is.