DEATH IN THE WHITE HOUSE

All families suffer various trials and tribulations, and the First Family is not immune from the same tragedies that happen in other families. Probably the worst experience a parent must face is the death of a child. If the death strikes a child of the First Family, they must suffer the tragedy in the full view of the public. They do not have the time to stop and grieve and recover. This unthinkable grief has struck several First Families.

John Adams was the first President to lose a child while in office. His oldest child was once considered the most outstanding of the entire family. In a coldly reserved family, Charles Adams was an outstanding personality. Engaging, witty and more personable than the other members of his family, Charles became a successful lawyer. Unfortunately, Charles became an alcoholic. He died of alcoholism on November 30, 1800, just as it was becoming clear that President Adams had lost his bid for re-election. President John Adams took his defeat hard. His departure for Massachusetts the night before his successor’s inauguration is well known. How much harder must this period have been for him when you consider he was also dealing with the tragic loss of his oldest son who supposedly had everything to live for?

His successor also faced the loss of a child while in office. Thomas Jefferson, whose wife had died many years earlier, surrounded himself with family. His two daughters and their children lived with him at his home, Monticello, in Virginia and at the White House. One of his daughters acted as his official hostess for a time. His daughter Mary “Polly” Jefferson Eppes died in April 1804, shortly after giving birth to her second child. She was only 25 years old at the time. Thomas Jefferson continued to raise her children at the White House, and later at Monticello.

Although not yet President, Franklin Pierce was President-elect and preparing to move to Washington when his only surviving child, Benny, died. Benny was not yet 12 years old when he died in a train accident. The family was traveling to Boston to shop in preparation for their move to Washington the following month. The train jumped the tracks and rolled down the embankment. Only one passenger was killed. At first, Franklin thought his son was merely stunned, as he looked unharmed. But something had fallen on his head and killed him instantly.

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