A brief, homemade biography

From the collection of the Grover Cleveland Art Appreciation Society, this is “Grover Cleveland” by Arist Mandy Bond, acrylic on canvas board (c) 2018

Obviously, you can find a more thorough, real biography online and in many very good published biographies. The following is my quick rendition, to give you a brief outline of the man and some of the highlights that I’ll return to in coming weeks. This was written mostly* from memory, foreshadowing the things that I like. *Dates, locations and ‘facts’ have been confirmed for accuracy. Interpretation is all mine.

Stephen Grover Cleveland was born in Caldwell, New Jersey, on March 18, 1837, son of a well-to-do mother and a somewhat itinerant preacher father. In 1841, his family moved to New York, first to Fayetteville near Syracuse, then nine years later 50 miles east to Clinton, near Utica. 

Average from the start, he was a middle kid, fifth of nine children, four older siblings, four younger.  Grover was schooled at Fayetteville Academy in Fayetteville (his elementary school years) and then at Clinton Academy (his teen years) when his family moved there in 1850.  Neighbors said he was "full of fun and inclined to play pranks,” and fond of outdoor sports like fishing and hunting, his lifelong hobbies.

Like many a young man, at age 17 in 1854, five years after the California Gold Rush, he decided to follow Horace Greeley’s mythological advice and Go West in search of his fortune. (Greeley didn’t actually say it, and he was alleged to have said it about 11 years after Grover set out. History: all legend). 

Grover aimed first for the city of Cleveland, Ohio (named, incidentally, for a distant relative, General Moses Cleaveland). 

Also like many a young man, I think he chose comfort and convenience over the dysentery of the Oregon Trail.  He fell short of the west, making it not even to Cleveland, nor even out of New York State, but landing in nearby Buffalo a mere 160 miles into his journey

Grover did, however, find his fortunes in western New York. Buffalo became his home and political base for the next 30 years. His mother set him up and Grover found work as a clerk with his mother’s uncle, he met influential men around town and then worked for a law office that once boasted 13th president Millard Fillmore as partner. (More on this later as it’s a great trivia question!) (Plus: if you read the last post, you know the influence of Millard Fillmore on this project!)

Grover decided to read the law, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. The next twenty years passed fairly averagely for a white man of the era: He was a successful lawyer, legally dodged serving in the Civil War (more on that later), and enjoyed the bachelor party life in busy Buffalo (more on that later). He also, most importantly for his future, developed a reputation for hard work and honesty (more on that later, too).

During these years after the Civil War, Grover Cleveland began his political life as a ward worker for the Democratic Party in Buffalo. From private law practice and a few years as a deputy district attorney, he was in 1870 elected Sheriff of Erie County, New York. As sheriff, he himself hung a man, and then another (and perhaps a third.... more on that in a future post), and then he returned to private practice and, as his political opponents would categorize it, philandering (more on this later). 

Then, at age 44, he began a rapid political climb based on his reputation for honesty, anti-corruption and fair-dealing.

In 1881, he was elected mayor of Buffalo.  

The next year, in 1882, he elected governor of New York. 

Two years later, in 1884, at age 47, he was chosen by the Democrats to run for President. And  then in November: he won, with a big assist for the party-crossing Mugwumps (more on this later too!).

Grover Cleveland is the only person to serve as a mayor, a governor and as president.

Four years later, in the election of 1888, because of his disdain for special interests and his veto pen, the tide of popularity turned against him and, despite winning the popular vote (more on this later), the Republican candidate, Benjamin Harrison, won the Electoral College vote.  

And then four years after that, in an 1892 rematch, the nation returned to the sensible moderation of Cleveland, electing him over Harrison. “Sensible moderation” sounds like “perfectly average.” Which is my point: Grover Cleveland is America’s most average president!

Cleveland’s re-election made him the first (and only!) to serve nonconsecutive terms as chief executive. Grover was also the only Democrat elected to the White House between the Civil War and the election of 1912, when another Republican split ticket gave us Woodrow Wilson.

Extremely honest and hardworking, Cleveland said “no” to special interests. He used his veto power more times than all previous presidents combined. To combat cronyism, he championed a professional class of talented, trained federal employees (rather than political appointees). And yet, despite his reputation for honesty, he hid from public view his cancer and secret surgery at sea during his second term (more on this later!)

Grover was only the second bachelor elected president, and he remains the only president to have been married in the White House (more on this later too!)

He and wife Francis had five children together, one who died young and is the cover story for the Baby Ruth candy bar (more on that later!). He’s also alleged to have fathered a child out of wedlock, and while the historical record is unclear if he did (or if two of his married lawyer friends fathered the child), he claimed paternity and helped pay for the child’s upbringing (more on this too!). His honesty about this affair helped him win the presidency in his first campaign.

After his second term, Grover Cleveland retired to a life of fishing and because of his reputation for honesty, serving on various boards and comissions. He lived out his life in Princeton, New Jersey, with his beloved Francis. 

He died in 1908, at the age of 71. He’s buried in Princeton, N.J.

His final words were, “I have tried so hard to do right.”