In March of 1885, the future 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, was twelve years old and living in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. He, his father and nine-year-old sister, Abigail, were anticipating celebrating his mother’s birthday. She had often suffered from respiratory problems and was unfortunately stricken again. She took to her bed and, with her family by her side, died on March 14, her 39th birthday.
Years later, Coolidge wrote in his autobiography: “We laid her away in the blustering snows of March. The greatest grief that can come to a boy came to me. Life was never the same again.”
Five years later in March of 1890, Coolidge was a senior at the Black River Academy in Ludlow, Vermont. The school was 12 miles from Plymouth Notch and Coolidge boarded with a local family during the week. He was nearing his graduation in a few months when Abigail suddenly became quite ill. He returned home and sat beside his sister until the end. She died on March 6 from what today is suspected to have been a ruptured appendix.
Coolidge wrote of that event: “I staid (sic)beside her until she passed to join our mother. The memory of her presence and dignified devotion to the right will always abide with me.”
Coolidge had always been very close to his father, John, and the deaths of his mother and sister only intensified that relationship.
The elder Coolidge had many business interests and was involved in Vermont politics which earned him the honorary title of colonel for his service to the state. The father always supported his son both emotionally and especially financially. The colonel paid for Coolidge’s education at Amherst College and loaned him money to open his own law office in Northampton in 1897. He had also remarried to Carolyn Brown in 1891 and the future president thought she was the ideal stepmother.
For the first two decades of the 20th century, as Coolidge rose through the ranks of Massachusetts state politics, he, his wife Grace, and sons John and Calvin regularly visited his parents in Plymouth Notch. Carolyn died in 1920 and Coolidge became increasingly concerned about his aging father’s well-being. Even though he was now vice-president of the United States, Coolidge visited his father whenever his schedule permitted. He and Grace were there when they learned of the death of President Warren G. Harding in the early hours of Aug. 3, 1923. That night, Col. John Coolidge, a notary public, earned himself a permanent place in American history as the only father to ever swear in his son as president.
On July 7, 1924, the nation joined the Coolidge family in mourning the tragic and untimely death of their 16-year-old son, Calvin Coolidge Jr. He was buried in the family plot in Plymouth Notch and the colonel was able to attend the ceremony. The president wished his father would move into the White House but the colonel opted to remain in Vermont.
By the end of 1925 the colonel was in failing health. On New Year’s Day 1926, Coolidge wrote his father a letter which said:
“… I wish you were here where we could have everything made easy for you but I know you feel more content at home. Of course, we wish we could be with you. I suppose I am the most powerful man in the world but great power does not mean much except great limitations… ”
At mid-March, word was received that the colonel was near death. Coolidge and Grace boarded a train for Vermont. It stopped in Northampton to pick up son John who was a sophomore at Amherst College. Arriving at Woodstock, Vermont, they were confronted with the conditions created by a recent major snowstorm. The Secret Service arranged for specially equipped cars to make the difficult trip to Plymouth Notch. For the final few miles, they had to switch to horse drawn sleighs. But they were too late as the colonel had died on the 18th of March, the same month as had Coolidge’s mother and sister.
Unlike as he had done with his mother, sister and son, Coolidge had been unable to say a final farewell to his father. Once more the president realized the limitations of his office on his personal life. It is likely the sorrow he experienced from the deaths of his son and father played a part in his decision not to seek reelection in 1928.
Richard Szlosek lives in Northampton.