Julia Gardiner Tyler (May 4, 1820 – July 10, 1889), second wife of John Tyler, was First Lady of the United States from June 26, 1844, to March 4, 1845.
Early life
Born on Gardiner's Island, off the eastern tip of Long Island, New York, in 1820, the daughter of David Gardiner, prominent landowner and New York State Senator (1824-1828), and Juliana McLachlan-Gardiner, Julia was raised at East Hampton, Long Island, amid wealth and comfort. She was trained from earliest childhood for a life in society; she made her debut at 15. A lively, beautiful brunette, she at 19 shocked polite society by posing for a department store advertisement that billed her as the Rose of Long Island. A European tour with her family gave her new glimpses of social splendors.
Romance and marriage
She was introduced to President John Tyler at a White House reception early in 1842. They began seeing each other in January 1843, a few months after the death of the First Lady, Mrs. Letitia Tyler.
Julia, her sister Margaret, and her father joined a presidential excursion on the new steam frigate Princeton. David Gardiner, along with a number of others, lost his life in the explosion of a huge naval gun. Tyler comforted Julia in her grief and won her consent to a secret engagement, proposing in 1843 at the George Washington's Ball. Because of the circumstances surrounding her father's death, the couple agreed to marry with a minimum of celebration. Thus on June 26, 1844, the president slipped into New York City, where the nuptials were performed by the Reverend Benjamin T. Onderdonk, fourth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, at the Church of the Ascension. President Tyler was aged 54; Julia just 24.
The bride's sister Margaret and brother Alexander were bridesmaid and best man. Only the president's son, John Tyler III, represented the groom's family. Tyler was so concerned about maintaining secrecy that he did not confide his plans to the rest of his children. Although his sons readily accepted the sudden union, the Tyler daughters were shocked and hurt. The news was then broken to the American people, who greeted it with keen interest, much publicity, and some criticism about the couple's difference in age of 30 years. It was awkward for the eldest Tyler daughter, Mary, to adjust to a new stepmother five years younger than herself. One daughter, Letitia, never made peace with the new Mrs. Tyler.
Children
- David Gardiner Tyler (1846-1927) - lawyer, public official.
- John "Alex" Alexander Tyler (1848-1883) - engineer. Like his older brother, Alex Tyler dropped out of Washington College to join the Confederate army and, after the war, resumed his studies in Germany. There he joined the Saxon Army during the Franco-Prussian War and took part in the occupation of France in 1871. For his service he was decorated by the Prussian government. He became a mining engineer and, returning to the United States, was appointed U.S. surveyor of the Interior Department in 1879. While working in the capacity in New Mexico, he drank contaminated water and died at 35.
- Julia Gardiner Tyler-Spencer (1849-1871). In 1869 she married William H. Spencer, a debt-ridden farmer of Piffard, New York. She died from the effects of childbirth at 22 at the Spencer home, Westerly.[1]
- Lachlan Gardiner Tyler (1851-1902) - doctor. He practiced medicine in Jersey City, New Jersey, and in 1879 became a surgeon in the U.S. Navy. From 1887 he practiced in Elkhorn, West Virginia.
- Lyon Gardiner Tyler (1853-1935) - educator.
- Robert "Fitz" Fitzwalter Tyler (1856-1927) - farmer of Hanover County, Virginia.
- Pearl Tyler-Ellis (1860-1947) - At the age of 12, she converted to Roman Catholicism along with her mother. She married William M. Ellis, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and lived near Roanoke.
First Lady of the United States
After a wedding trip to Philadelphia, a White House reception, and a stay at Sherwood Forest, the estate the president had recently acquired for his retirement, the newlyweds returned to Washington. Mrs. Tyler thoroughly enjoyed the duties of First Lady. In the last month of the Tyler administration, she hosted a grand White House ball that drew 3,000 guests.
Later life and death
The Tylers retired to Sherwood Forest, where they lived tranquilly until the Civil War. Although a northerner by birth, Mrs. Tyler came to espouse the principles of the South.
After her husband's death in 1862, she moved north to Staten Island, where her sympathy for the Confederates strained relations with her family. The depression that followed the Panic of 1873 depleted her fortunes. She sought solace in Roman Catholicism, to which she had converted in 1872. She returned to Virginia to live with the aid of her grown children and, in her last years, a federal pension provided to all presidential widows.
She suffered a stroke while in Richmond and, on July 10, 1889, died there, aged 69. She was buried next to the president at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
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