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The Preamble
Margaret Taylor, From Army Wife to Reluctant First Lady
00:32:05
She survived the frontier, war, and unimaginable loss, and when Margaret “Peggy” Taylor finally reached the White House, she had no interest in being First Lady.
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- [00:00]
Sharon McMahon
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- [01:38]
Sharon McMahon
Hello friends.
- [01:38]
Narrator
Welcome.
- [01:39]
Sharon McMahon
I'm so glad you're here with me today because we're moving from the political power player that was Sarah Polk to our next First Lady. A true frontier woman, Margaret or Peggy Taylor spent her life on the edges of the nation, traveling to its most remote outposts. She was far more comfortable roughing it alongside American soldiers than hosting a glittering society ball in Washington, and that difference shaped everything about her time as first lady. I'm Sharon McMahon, and this is the Preamble Podcast. Now back to our story.
- [02:16]
Narrator
Margaret Smith was born In September of 1788 in Maryland, just a few months after Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the Constitution. Her father was a celebrated Revolutionary War veteran and ran a successful tobacco plantation in the Chesapeake Bay region. We don't have very much information about Margaret's early years, but we do know that she was raised, you guessed it, in a wealthy household and likely rubbed elbows with the other children of wealthy Virginia families. In fact, one of the few records we do have from Margaret's younger years indicates that she had a friendship with a girl named Nellie Custis. And that name may not ring a bell to you, but Nellie, short for Eleanor, was the youngest granddaughter of Martha Washington. Martha was widowed, remember? And so George Washington was her step grandfather and president. While she was growing up, Nellie lived at Mount Vernon and was under Martha's care. Nellie and Margaret Smith's other social acquaintances usually referred to her as Peggy. Peggy, it always seems, is an unusual nickname to get from Margaret. Nellie from Eleanor. Yeah, okay, we get it. But Peggy from Margaret? Where does the P even come from? I will tell you. By the way, nicknames were used in Europe before surnames last names were permanently adopted. They were an easier way to identify someone when there were multiple people with the same name, which, as we've learned throughout this series, was super common. How many times have we seen both sons and daughters named after their parents? Just try shouting John or Sarah in an 18th century household of 12, and more than one will likely come running. So some English derived nicknames make perfect sense because they're just shortened versions of the full name, like Dave for David and Pete for Peter. But others are less understandable. How does Charles become Chuck or Richard become Dick or Margaret become Peggy? Most often these types of nicknames come from a combination of finding common phonetics or rhymes and letter swapping. Way back in the 1500s, there was a phonetic fad for rhyming M names with P, which is how we ultimately go from Margaret to Peggy. Just bear with me here is quite the evolution. Margaret was shortened to Marge. Okay, makes sense. And then to Mag or Maggie. And then the vowel A was swapped for an E to get Meg or Maggie. Do you see where I'm going with this? And then the M in Meggie was swapped out for a P and you might get Peg or Peggy. And while I'm not advocating for comparing Thursnadius to our pets, it's a similar sort of evolution, right? Your dog has a name, but do you call your dog that name? No. Over the years, you develop your own rhyming shorthand until the nickname names dripped further and further away from the original name and they barely resemble it at all. I can think of so many examples of that. Like, even with my own pets, like, how did. How did you get that nickname well, it took a year and a half of morphing nicknames, and that's basically what happened in this scenario. Peggy became a nickname for Margaret through the use of just the way etymology evolves over time. She was the youngest of seven children, and when her parents died, first her mother when she was 10, and then her father when she was 16, Margaret moved out of their Maryland plantation and into the home of her older sister Mary Ann in Louisville, Kentucky. Marianne was married to Samuel Chew, the son of another well off Virginia family. Chew like chew and swallow. You can move a gal to the frontier, but she's still going to mingle with her hometown connections. And that is just what Peggy Smith did when she was 21. Peggy was introduced to a man named Lt. Zachary Taylor by a family friend back east. Zachary Taylor also had ties to the Virginia Maryland area, but his family had joined the westward migration when he was a young boy, which perhaps this appeals to Peggy. He was a little rustic, a little stoic, and he was wearing a uniform. Peggy and Zachary married the following year and spent the first 12 or so months living on a Kentucky farm. But by their second year, Zachary Taylor had been promoted to captain and Peggy was packing up their homes. For the next 30 to 40 years, she would live the nomadic life of an army wife. In 1811, Zachary Taylor was sent to the Indiana territory to assume control of Fort Knox. At the time, it was the most deserted, but then Governor William Henry Harrison recognized its strategic placement and had Taylor bring it up to snuff as conflict between native tribes intensified in the lead up to the War of 1812. From there, Zachary, Peggy and their young children moved to a new part of Indiana, where Taylor was tasked with defending Fort Harrison during the war. But from there, Taylor's posts were all over the place, literally. The nation was doing everything it could to expand its land acquisition. And the Taylor spent time in some incredibly remote places everywhere, from the dense forests and of Minnesota and Wisconsin, which was literally the frontier at the time, to the swamplands of Louisiana and Florida. And you know what they found every time they moved to a new location?
- [08:33]
Sharon McMahon
Nothing.
- [08:35]
Narrator
Of course, there was nature and a lot of it. But there were no cities or settlements, no roads, no hotels, no bustling mess halls or kitchens. They were often building their own lodgings from the ground up. Even though the Taylors were a wealthy military family, there was no glamping happening. No glamping. This was the army. They occupied crowded tents or constructed crude cabins that were nothing more than four walls and a fire pit. They were experts at Roughing it. I mean, it goes without saying that this was completely off the grid, right? So this was not cute, tiny home, off the grid. I have satellite Internet situation. No, like, was like, okay, we live in a tent in the swamp with absolutely no connection to the rest of humanity. From all accounts, Peggy hardly embraced this life. She learned how to shoot a gun and became an expert at making do with what they had. She gave her children a foundational education and attended to the needs of her husband and. And the other army officers. It was really an all hands on deck kind of wilderness experience. I think it's important to point out that Peggy chose this place. Zachary Taylor was schlepping all over the place for the army, of course, but he was a very wealthy man. He owned land and properties in Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi. And working that land were over 200 enslaved laborers. Peggy could have settled on one of these plantations to raise their children and live a comfortable life by her standards, never wanting for a soft bed and meals eaten off of fine china. But she chose to travel with her husband and live under extreme conditions. And despite these conditions, she worked hard to cultivate community in each new location. Peggy, along with her fellow military wives, raised chickens, planted vegetable gardens, and constructed dairy rooms to provide fresh butter and milk for the encampments. During one post assignment, Peggy even oversaw the establishment of a wine cellar for the fort and served the wine at parties with the families of the other officers or to guess who came to visit. While in Florida, she served as a nurse in the army hospital and tended to sick or wounded soldiers. Later in his life, Zachary bragged, my wife was as much of a soldier as I was. And that certainly continues to speak to today's military families. Military service is not just the commitment of the enlisted individual. Right. It is a commitment of the entire family. I also need to point out that Peggy did this while she was raising six children. Six. Zachary and Peggy had five girls and one boy, most of them born at remote army posts. It was actually an extremely risky thing to carry out a pregnancy and give birth to a child in such rustic settings. We all know the stories of how many children died, how many pregnancies ended sadly. We know the statistics, so the risks were very real. Small grapes often dotted makeshift army post cemeteries and were a reminder that many children did not survive either their births or their childhoods.
- [12:12]
Sharon McMahon
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- [14:34]
Narrator
In 1820, while the Taylors were stationed in Louisiana, they lost two of their daughters, three year old Octavia and one year old Margaret, from what Zachary called a violent bilious fever. Peggy also suffered from the same sickness and even though she recovered, her health became more fragile. When they were old enough, Peggy and Zachary's remaining four children were sent back east to boarding schools where they could learn in less hazardous environments. Peggy sometimes went years without seeing her children as she continued to travel from post to post with her husband. Imagine going years without seeing your children voluntarily in 1838, Zachary was promoted to colonel and given a two year leave. You would think they might use that time to set themselves up in one of their big old houses and stay put for a while, but no, no. They used the time to travel and visit their children, who were now grown, and other relatives. Eventually, they made their way to Washington D.C. where they scored an invite to the White House connected with resident president Martin Van Buren, who of course became president after my favorite, least favorite president, Andrew Jackson. Zachary's leave ended in 1840 and he was posted to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. With Zachary's promotion, Peggy would have been entitled to occupy a spacious home that had been built in the fort, but she turned it down. Instead, the Taylors purchased a small cottage surrounded by mossy oak trees and a view of the Mississippi River. And that was it for Peggy. She finally felt at home. The next time Zachary traveled, she chose to stay at home in her cottage in Baton Rouge. In 1845, Zachary was called to command troops that were stationed near the Rio Grande in the Mexican American War. This assignment reconnected him with a man he hadn't seen for years. A man who was connected to the painful memory of his daughter's death a decade earlier. In 1834, Zachary and Peggy's second daughter, Sarah Knox, who went by the nickname Knoxy, followed in her mother's footsteps and accepted an engagement proposal from a young lieutenant. That lieutenant, fresh out of West Point, was Jefferson Davis, the future President of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis is most often talked about in the context of his errors. He was so fervently in support of the institution of enslavement that he was elevated as the political leader of the Confederacy. But in 1834, he was 26, stationed under Zachary Taylor and in love with his commander's daughter. Listen to this letter that he wrote to Maxi in December of 1834. Your kind, dear letter. I have kissed it often and it has driven many mad notions from my brain. Neglected by you, I should be worse than nothing. How I long to lay my head upon that chest which beats in union with my own. To turn from the sickening sights of worldly duplicity and look in those eyes so eloquent of purity and love. I mean, people just do not write letters like that anymore, right? They just do not. Although Peggy and Zachary didn't really approve of this match, Noxie and Jefferson Davis married in June of 1835 and moved to Mississippi. But just three months after their wedding, both Jefferson and Noxie contracted malaria. Jefferson recovered, but Noxie did not. When she died, Jefferson Davis was devastated that he had lost her. Zachary Taylor, for his part, blamed Jefferson for his daughter's death, saying that he should have known better than to take her traveling in Mississippi during the fever season. When Davis served as colonel under Taylor during the Mexican American War ten years later, it had to have been a painful reunion for them both. While her husband was on the front lines of the war, Peggy was back in Baton Rouge. And she lived in constant fear that her husband would be killed. It marked a period of deep religious fervency for her. She had always been devout in her Episcopalian fate, but the separation from her husband amplified it. She prayed daily for Zachary's safe return. And he did return after the war. He was in his 60s and ready to retire. The Taylors thought they would spend their twilight years living quietly in their little tree lined cottage. Their life would be anything but quiet because Taylor had returned from the war as a national hero. Interestingly, while Zachary Taylor had an illustrious military career, what he did not have was a political one. In fact, he was pretty staunchly apolitical throughout the majority of his life. He didn't like politicians or political bickering, and he didn't even vote. I think we need to have like a collective. He didn't even vote. I mean, don't get me wrong, he had opinions a little from column A and a little from column B. He thought that the country needed a strong banking system. And while he supported enslaved labor for southern states, he didn't support expanding it into the new territories where it would be harder to grow plantation crops like tobacco and cotton. And because of his time at war, he did not believe in secession and more fighting as a way to solve the nation's growing rift over the practice of slavery. But the harder Zachary Taylor tried to stay out of politics, the harder his fans fought to get him into office. Political clubs for old Rough and Ready, as he had become known, sprang up in support of his candidacy. He had support from all over, from Whigs, Democrats, Northerners, and Southerners. In the end, Taylor accepted the nomination from the Whig party, but wasn't particularly interested in promoting their platform. And even though he didn't consider himself a politician, he had many mastered a critical political skill. Publicly dodging tricky questions. He let his popularity do the work for him. He didn't have to answer anything difficult. And how did Peggy feel about this turn of events? Not great, y'. All.
- [21:46]
Sharon McMahon
Not great.
- [21:47]
Narrator
In what may have been some foreshadowing on her part, she told her husband that his presidential run would shorten both of their lives. But Zachary forged ahead and even delighted in telling people on his campaign trail the folksy anecdote that his wife prayed nightly that he would lose the election. But his path to the presidency had already taken off and he won against his Democratic opponent, Lewis Cass. Fun fact. Part of that win may be owed to former President Martin Van Buren, who Taylor had connected with at the White House several years earlier. When Van Buren was president, he was a Democrat, but after he left office, he also left the party and joined a third party called the Free Soil Party. The Free Soil Party was pretty short lived and it ran on a single issue, opposing the expansion of enslaved labor into western territories. Van Buren wasn't exactly an abolitionist, but he did feel that the federal government needed to retain control over these new areas of the country. The Free Soil Party nominated him as the party leader and in the 1848 election, he ran in the presidential election against Democrat Lewis Cassidy and win Zachary Taylor. Van Buren didn't get very far though. He only took 10% of the popular vote. But the Free Soil Party was popular in New York, which led Cass to underperform in a much needed state for the Democrat. So Zachary Taylor took home the presidential win and became the very last Whig party candidate to be elected into office. Peggy was not thrilled, as I mentioned, but she did pack up and join him in the White House. By that time, she was 60 years old and the hardships of following her husband from fort to fort had taken its toll. She and Zachary had an understanding that she wouldn't be expected to take on the full duties of a White House hostess. Zachary famously said she's done enough. And he seemed satisfied to just have her in Washington with him. After her husband's inauguration ceremony, Peggy skipped the two inaugural balls and retreated to the White House's second floor with her grandchildren. While Peggy did welcome friends, family and special guests in her upstairs sitting rooms, she took very little part in formal social functions. With one big exception.
- [24:34]
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Narrator
Hank.
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- [26:10]
Narrator
At the start of Zachary Taylor's term, both Peggy and Zachary Taylor attended the high profile funeral of a relative. Zachary was the second cousin of President James Madison and his widow, Washington's favorite former first lady, Dolly. Madison regularly wrote to Zachary throughout his years, reportedly signing her letters, your friend and relation, Dolly. The President delivered the eulogy. After Dolly passed away on July 12, 1849, President Taylor, along with his cabinet and all the Congressmen, lined up to see ya Fadali's coffin as it began its journey to her final resting place, with Zachary extolling her as the first lady of our land. For half a century, Zachary Taylor's presidency was riddled with arguments over enslavement and its potential expansion into the new territories acquired from Mexico. The crisis began escalating and Taylor worried about the potential for a violent secession of the Southern states. Despite his 40 year military career, war was the last thing he wanted, he said. My life has been devoted to arms, yet I look upon war at all times and under all circumstances as a national calamity to be avoided if compatible with national honor. Senators Daniel Webster and Henry Clay sponsored The Compromise of 1850, a series of laws that attempted to resolve these controversies by balancing the interests of the Southern slave states with the Northern free states. But the President initially opposed it, believing it could lead to more discord, not less. But before the Compromise of 1850 could be reworked or legislated, Zachary attended a much anticipated social event. For years, a large Society of women, including Dolly Madison, had raised funds for the construction of the Washington Monument, and July 4, 1850, was scheduled as a day of festivities to celebrate the newly dedicated grounds where the structure would be built. The legendary story goes that Zachary Taylor ate his fair share of cherries and washed them down with iced milk at the event. Then, in an attempt to settle his stomach, he drank several glasses of water. When he returned to the White House. The summer months in Washington were hot, humid, and the worst kind of weather for the city's primitive sewage systems. Whether it was bacteria in the cherries or the milk or the water, there's no way to know. But President Zachary Taylor started to feel a little off. At first, it wasn't too bad, and he continued to work through his discomfort. But a few days later, Taylor's fever had him confined to bed. Outlook not good. Five days after the Independence Day celebration, Zachary Taylor died. It was an ironic fate for a war hero who had lived through some of the most violent battles the country had seen and lived in some of the most remote places on the continent, done in by a bowl of contaminated cherries at a society picnic. Almost immediately, a conspiracy was circulated that Taylor hadn't died from gastroenteritis but was in fact poisoned because of his strong opposition to secession. Peggy was one of the firm believers in the theory of foul play, and the question of whether or not his death was planned lasted into the late 20th century. Wanting to know if Zachary Taylor, and not Abraham Lincoln, was actually the first assassinated president, the Taylor family descendants gave permission for his body to be exhumed and tested for Poisons in 1991. They found nothing in his hair follicle and fingernail samples to suggest he had ingested any high levels of arsenic or other poison. The medical examiner officially declared that Taylor's death was due to choleromorphous or acute gastroenteritis, and his corpse was reburied. Peggy could not accept the reality of her husband's sudden death. For two dates, she begged his undertakers to not take him away. They obliged the widowed Peggy by covering his body with ice to slow his decomposition. Even then, Peggy repeatedly asked him to move aside the ice so she could look at his face one more time. Eventually, on July 13, they held a simple funeral for the deceased president in the East Room. And although Peggy was told she could stay in the White House for as long as necessary while she mourned and made new accommodation plans, she left the evening of his funeral. Peggy spent the next two years traveling between the homes of her children, and while she was with her daughter Betty in Mississippi, she died suddenly on August 14, 1852. Peggy was buried beside her husband back where they had started their lives together in the state of Kentucky. Before we wrap up for today, I wanted to make one more important note. A large portion of the collected Taylor family letters and papers were taken or destroyed during the Civil War. So some of what we know from Peggy comes from the surviving papers of a surprising source. Verena Davis, the second wife of the future Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Both Peggy and Zachary mended their relationship with their former son in law of three months and Verena Jefferson's second wife was a frequent White House visitor during the Taylor's tenure there was Farina herself was never acknowledged as a former President's wife, even though Jefferson Davis was declared the President of the Confederacy. Not just because the Confederacy lost the Civil War, but also because the post war 1860 Supreme Court case Texas v. White ruled that states do not have the right to secede from the United States. The verdict meant that the former Confederate States during the Civil War had always remained part of the United States. Basically, there's no leaving the country. What do I always say? Texas cannot secede. The Confederacy never left. It's like telling the woman who births you, you're not my mom. Whatever the relationship looks like, facts stay the same. Your birth mom is your birth mom and states cannot secede from the Union. If you take anything away from today's podcast, let it be that there is no seceding from the Union or frankly, from your birth mom. I'll see you again soon.
- [33:44]
Sharon McMahon
If you'd like to submit a question, head to the preamble.com podcast. We'd love to hear from you there. And be sure to read our weekly magazine@thepreamble.com, it's free. Here is your personal invitation to join 350,000 people who still believe understanding is an act of hope. I'm your host and executive producer, Sharon McMahon. If you enjoyed this show, please like, share and subscribe. These things help podcasters out so much. Our supervising producer is Melanie Buck Parks, and our audio producer is Craig Thompson. I'll see you again soon.
- [34:20]
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- [34:48]
Narrator
See terms.