When Georgie met Martha
Back in 1758, Martha Dandridge Curtis was only 27 when she had recently become a widow, but also a very rich woman.
That year, George Washington was also 27 years old and was already a colonel in the Virginia militia.
They met in Virginia’s high-society social scene, and he immediately started to court her.
His courtship paid off quite quickly, and they rapidly got married in January 1759, in what was known back then as a marriage of convenience.
However, they were happily married for 41 years. The marriage took place at the plantation owned by Martha, which was called “White House”.
When Johnny met Louisa
Louisa Catherine Johnson was born in London, and she met John Quincy Adams at her home in Nantes, France, in 1779.
She was only 4 years old, and he was 12. Adams was traveling then with his father, John Adams, who had diplomatic businesses in Europe.
The two of them met again in 1795 in London, and John was back then a minister to the Netherlands.
He courted her, but at the same time, he was constantly explaining to her how she would have to improve herself if she wanted to live up to his family’s standards because his father was the vice president at the time.
She ignored that and married him anyway, in 1797, and his family made it no secret that they completely disapproved of the “foreigner” in their family. Even so, they were married until John Quincy Adams died in 1848.
When Jimmy met Ann
In the summer of 1819, James Buchanan became engaged to Ann Coleman, 23, who was the daughter of a very rich iron magnate in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
He didn’t spend so much time with her during the first months of the engagement, as he was extremely busy at his law office.
There were many rumors that he only married her for the money and was seeing other women anyway.
While the rumors were untrue, Ann believed them, so she soon wrote to him saying that the engagement was off.
On December 9th she died of an overdose of laudanum, and Buchanan was devastated.
After Ann died, Buchanan vowed not to marry, and he kept his promise, being the only president of the United States that was a bachelor.
When Gracie met Calvin
Grace Anna Goodhue was watering flowers outside of the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts, when she suddenly looked up and saw a beautiful man through the open window of a boardinghouse across the street.
He was shaving, his face was covered in lather, and he was dressed in his long johns. Oh, and he was wearing a hat!
Grace immediately burst out in laughter, and the man turned to look at her.
That was the first time Grace and Calvin Coolidge had met. Two years later, they got married, and they live a beautiful and happy marriage.
When Harry met Bessie
Back in 1890, when they were both only children, Harry Truman met Bess Wallace at the Baptist Church in Independence, Missouri.
They were both there to attend Sunday school.
He was six years old, she was only five. In one of their first meetings, Truman wrote: “We made a number of new acquaintances, and I was very interested in one in particular.
We went to Sunday school, and public school from the fifth grade through high school, and graduated in the same class, so we marched down life’s road side by side.
For me, she still has those blue eyes and golden hair of yesteryear.”
