Obscure American history trivia

Franklin Pierce was allegedly drunk and ran over a woman with his horse while he was POTUS.

 

In his 2018 memoir Reporter, Sy Hersh tells an interesting story about a POTUS behind the wheel.

Tom Wicker was among some reporters that traveled with LBJ to his ranch. One day, Johnson comes barreling down a country road, stops, and motions Wicker to get in. The prez drives away at a high rate of speed then comes to a stop. Johnson gets out, walks away, stops, drops his pants, takes a shit, wipes himself with leaves, gets back in the car and takes Wicker back where Johnson had found him. According to Wicker, LBJ never said a word to him during the entire trip.

It was Johnson's way of telling Wicker what he thought of a recent story Wicker had written in the NYT.

 

As Mel Brooks said "its good to be the king."

 

Wasn't he hammered for most of his presidency, in part due to the grief of his son dying on his way to the White House to become president?

I loved how they brought Jesse Bradford in as a descendent of Pierce, one of our worst and most inconsequential presidents, in The West Wing.

I also think Pierce is why presidents starting receiving a pension, since (IIRC) he was almost destitute after leaving office.

 

Yes. Pierce and his family were in a train crash that killed his son.
Jefferson was pretty much broke when he got done, too. He sold his books to the U.S. government, and that started the Library of Congress.

 

It's been written that when Harry Truman left office, all he had was his army pension. The Trumans had little in the way of assets, either, other than their house and a couple of automobiles.

 

I doubt if anyone prior to Carter cashed in on speaking appearances and book deals.

 

Jefferson was always broke, saddled with family debt.

 

It didn't help that as soon as he'd get done with a remodel of Monticello, he'd start remodeling again because he digged his own abilities as an architect.

 

Pierce’s train crash wasn’t on the way to the White House. It was after he was elected, but before he took office. The family went on a train trip.

Mrs. Pierce didn’t want her husband to run for president to begin with, and considered their son’s death to be a punishment from God because her husband won. She rarely did any entertaining as First Lady until the term was nearly over.

 

Eisenhower didn’t own a home until he was 60 years old and retired from the army because he kept moving during his army stint. Then he was elected to the presidency two years later.

 

Also, Pierce was sort of the first frat boy POTUS. He was buds with Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Hawthorne wrote the campaign biography that got him elected.
Pierce was probably a pretty capable public servant, but Hawthorne was the twitter of the day.