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Julia Gardner Tyler
"The Rose of Long Island"
By
Anne Adams
The idea of a
“May and December” marriage where an older man
marries a much younger woman often attracts our
interest because we are fascinated about the
romance of the subject. And when the man is an
important political figure – even an American
president – there is an additional interest.
While there have been youthful First Ladies such
as Jacqueline Kennedy there have also been at
least two presidential wives whose husbands were
much older. One of these younger brides, Frances
Folsom, was married to Grover Cleveland in the
White House. The other, while not actually
married in the White House itself, also brought
youth and beauty to not just her older husband
but also to the Executive Mansion. However,
Julia Gardiner Tyler was more than First Lady
–she was also a society beauty, commercial
spokeswoman and mother of Tyler’s second family
of 7 children.
Julia’s father
David had made his fortune with a brewery and
New York City real estate and at one point
established a home and farm for his family on a
3000 acre island off Long Island. There on what
was logically known as Gardiner’s Island, Julia
was born in 1820 yet the family soon returned to
their East Hampton home on Long Island when the
Gardiner’s Island farm proved unprofitable.
Julia’s two brothers were sent away to school,
while Julia and her sister were educated at
home, but Julia did attend a New York finishing
school for two years. There she received a
smattering of literature and languages but also
entered a more exciting world of parties, high
fashion and young male admirers. She finished
school at age 17 and returned home.
For the next
several years Julia unsuccessfully urged her
mother to take a house in the city to let her
resume her life in society. Mrs. Gardner was
proud of her wealth and position but did not
share Julia’s intense interest in participating
in the social scene. Finally Julia found her own
way to create some excitement. .
To her
parents’ shock, Julia’s picture appeared on a
widely distributed flyer issued by a city fabric
dealer. She was pictured in an ornate gown,
leaning on the arm of an unidentified gentleman,
and carrying a placard recommending the store’s
products as being “beautiful and astonishingly
cheap.” The identifying caption labeled Julia
as the “Rose of Long Island.” In an era when the
name of a respectable lady only made the
newspaper at birth, marriage and death, Julia’s
appearance was questionable by the standards of
the time. Her parents got a second shock when
there was published on the front page of a
Brooklyn newspaper a poem about Julia,
purportedly authored by Romeo Ringdove
expressing his admiration for “The Rose of Long
Island.”
Mr. and Mrs.
Gardiner decided to remove their daughter from
further publicity and took Julia and her sister
on a European tour, hoping that after a year
abroad the unpleasant notoriety would be
forgotten.
However, upon
their return Mrs. Gardiner decided that if Julia
was still society minded then she should do it
in Washington and not New York, so the family
moved to the capital city. The small and
dark-haired Julia charmed Washington society
just as she had New York and soon she had
several high placed admirers including a Supreme
Court justice and even the President.
John Tyler’s
first wife Leticia had died in the White House
in September, 1842, leaving seven children, the
youngest an 11 year old boy still at home. Tyler
had been a widower for just a few months when he
reportedly became enamored of Julia and
according to her later account actually proposed
to her at a costume ball where she was dressed
as a Greek maiden. “I had never thought of love,
so I said, ‘no, no, no’ and shook my head with
each word, which flung the tassel of my Greek
cap into his face with every move…”
When Julia
told her mother about the president’s interest,
Mrs. Gardiner discouraged any further
involvement by taking Julia back to New York.
There she remained, but corresponding with Tyler
all through the fall and winter of 1843. Then in
February, 1844 Mr. Gardner, Julia and her sister
returned to Washington. They arrived in the city
in time to join a group of visitors to a naval
vessel where the captain had arranged a cruise
for high-ranking officials, including the
President and his cabinet.
During the
cruise down the Potomac the captain arranged the
firing of a new gun to impress the visitors then
the visitors retired to the cabin below for
refreshments. Then when several men guests asked
for another demonstration, and the gun was fired
again this time there was a dreadful explosion.
It killed several onlookers, including David
Gardiner. President Tyler, below with the other
guests, charged topside to begin organizing
rescue efforts then returned below to Julia, who
had fainted at the news of her father’s death.
The President personally carried the unconscious
Julia to safety and directed she and her sister
be removed to the White House. Julia revived in
time to become overcome by the compassionate
care that Tyler had provided. It was enough to
remove any doubts she might have had about such
a union.
After a
respectable interval Tyler wrote to Mrs.
Gardiner asking to marry Julia, and she gave her
consent provided the president provided Julia
with the “necessary comforts and elegancies of
life” to which she was accustomed.
They were
married quite privately at a New York City
church in June, 1844 with Julia’s sister and
Tyler’s son as attendants and Julia’s mother,
brothers and several other Tyler friends
present.
Tyler and
Julia spent part of their honeymoon in
remodeling the Virginia plantation Sherwood
Forest where Tyler hoped to retire after leaving
the White House. However, they returned to a
dingy and run down White House but it would
remain so because Congress would not provide
renovation funds. Still, Julia resolved to
preside over an active social season in the few
months left in Tyler’s term.
Julia’s
“reign” as she called it, added dancing parties
to the usual receptions and dinners. One
Washington contemporary wrote that Julia was the
source of some comment because she drove four
horses (finer than those of the Russian
minister) and because she received [guests]
seated, her armchair on a slightly raised
platform, in a velvet gown with three feathers
in her hair.” It was also reported that Julia
impressed even her husband’s critics, who were
charmed by the President’s lovely young wife.
Julia brought
in several young lady relatives to receive with
her and circulate in Washington society, and the
social season brought great acclaim by those
involved. At her final grand ball in February,
1845 Tyler was reported to have proclaimed,
“They cannot say that I am a president without a
party,” a reference to his previous political
difficulties.
After the
Tylers retired to Sherwood Forest Julia set
about establishing her own household, and as she
did so never letting anyone forget that she was
formerly “Mrs. President Tyler.” Except for one
Tyler daughter, Julia also gradually won the
friendship of all her step children as well as
demonstrating great interest and sympathy in the
Southern culture of her neighbors. Her first
son was born in 1845, and there followed other
children in 1848, 1849, 1851, 1853, 1856 and her
last daughter Pearl in 1860.
Pearl was two
years old and Tyler was 70 when he died in 1862
at the time serving in the Confederate House of
Representatives. During the Civil War Julia left
Virginia to take most of her children to join
her mother at her estate on Staten Island. She
returned to Sherwood briefly to hire a manager
and then returned to New York. However, while
she was gone the Virginia estate was partially
destroyed by local intruders and though it was
partially restored later Julia spent many years
attempting Federal reimbursement for the damage.
Her legal expenses and extravagant living kept
her financially limited though she received some
help with a presidential widow’s pension in
1881. She was 79 when she attended the
graduation exercises at William and Mary College
where her son was president, and then stopped at
a Richmond hotel. There in the same
establishment where her husband had died, she
followed him on July 8, 1889.
The society
beauty that had found a true and lasting love
with an American president and brought youth and
beauty to the White House as well as the life of
her husband would enter American history as a
most unique First Lady.
~*~
A native
of Kansas City , Missouri , Anne grew up in
northwestern Ohio , and holds degrees in
history: a BA from Wilmington College ,
Wilmington , Ohio (1967), and a MA from Central
Missouri State University , Warrensburg ,
Missouri (1968)
A
freelance writer since the early 1970s, she has
published in Christian and secular publications,
has taught history on the junior college level,
and has spoken at national and local writers’
conferences. Her book “Brittany, Child of Joy”,
an account of her severely retarded daughter,
was issued by Broadman Press in 1987. She also
publishes an encouragement newsletter “Rainbows
Along the Way.”
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