December Comes: Take a Look at Some Presidents With December
Birthdays
THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
John Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
December
Comes: Take a Look at Some Presidents With December Birthdays
The poet A. E. Houseman penned
the
sentiments I feel when I realize how rapidly December descends upon us
and how
near Time hovers at the end of 2005.
“The
night is freezing fast.
Tomorrow
comes December;
And
winterfalls of old
Are
with me from the past.” (-A.
E. Housman, 1859-1936)
This name of the last month of
our calendar
year actually gets its name from the Latin word “decem” which means
tenth. Like
November, October, and September, the three preceding months, December
is
misnamed for the Latin words meaning numbers tenth, ninth, eighth and
seventh,
because these months held these positions in the Roman calendar until
the two
months of January and February were added in the seventh century B.C.
under
Roman Emperor Numa Pompilius. Emperor Julius Ceasar revised the Roman
calendar
again in 46 B.C. His calendar had 365 and 1/4 days and was known as the
Julian
Calendar until Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 ordered the system we know now
as
“leap year” with an extra day coming every four years in the second
month,
February. We live and work, therefore, according to the Gregorian
calender, and
rarely do we consider the old meaning of the word “December” as
deriving from
the Latin word meaning tenth.
One of my favorite columns in
the daily
newspaper to which I subscribe is “Today in History.” If your newspaper
carries
this syndicated column, perhaps you, as I, delight in seeing the list
of
important events and births that happened in December. As Poet Housman
wrote,
“And winterfalls of old/Are with me from the past.”
With December dawning the day
this issue of
Sentinel is
published, let’s look at a few significant dates in Decembers past.
Fifty years ago, on December 1, 1955,
Rosa Parks a black
seamstress in Montgomery,
Ala., refused to give up
her bus seat to a
white man. Her stance has been noted as one of the significant events
of the
Civil Rights Movement that spurred bus boycotts, marches and voting
privileges
for her race. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from
President
Clinton and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. She died October 24, 2005.
Born Rosa Louise
McCauley, she lived in fear as a child, heard the Klu Klux Klan ride
and
demonstrate in her neighborhood in Pine Level, Alabama, saw them burn
houses
and perform lynchings. She was the first woman in America
who was chosen for the
honor of lying in state in the rotunda of the nation’s capitol at her
death, an
honor usually reserved for presidents.
Three United States
Presidents thus far
had December birthdays. Martin Van Buren was born December 5, 1782 in Kinderhook, N.Y.
The eighth president of our country, he was the first chief executive
to be
born an American citizen after the United States became an
independent
nation. His term of service was from March 4, 1837 through March 3, 1841. Van
Buren died in his hometown of
Kinderhook on July
24, 1862.
The seventeenth president of the
United States,
Andrew Johnson, was born December 29, 1808 in Raleigh, N.C.
He had a rugged childhood.
His father, a handyman at a tavern, died when Andrew was 3. His mother
had to
take in washing to care for her children. Andrew did not go to school
as a
child, and was apprenticed early to a tailor where he learned the trade
and
also how to read. At age 16 he left Raleigh
and went to Greenville,
Tenn., and set up his own
tailor’s shop. At
18, he married 16-year-old Eliza McCardle. She was much better educated
than
Andrew, and taught him how to write and to read better. He began to
walk to a
school that would let him participate in student debates. His quick
mind,
booming voice, and familiarity with current events on which the teams
debated
made him a champion debater and prepared him for his career in
politics. He was
first on the town council, then mayor, next congressman, at age 45
became
governor of Tennessee,
following which he was elected for two terms to the U.S. Senate.
Johnson
remained in Congress at the outbreak of the Civil War, and in 1864, he
was
nominated from the “Union” Party as Vice-President for Abraham
Lincoln’s second
term. No one foresaw Johnson becoming president, but when President
Lincoln was
assassinated, Andrew Johnson became president, serving from April 15, 1865
through March 3, 1869.
Civil unrest
and the strong impetus on punishing the rebelling south made Johnson’s
term one
of trials and troubles. In fact, Congress tried to impeach him, but by
one vote
Johnson remained as president. The seventeenth president, with the
nickname
“Tennessee Tailor,” died July 31, 1875 in Carter Station, Tenn.
The next president with a
December birthday
was Woodrow Wilson, twenty-eighth president, born December 29, 1856 in Staunton, Va.
Son and grandson of Presbyterian ministers, at one time his father’s
church in Augusta,
Ga.,
was turned into a hospital for wounded Confederate soldiers. Educated
at Davidson
College, the College of New Jersey
and later at Princeton, he received a
degree
in law and for a short time practiced law in Atlanta, Ga.
He received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from John Hopkins
University and
began to
teach. He became president of Princeton University
in 1902. In
1910 he was elected governor of New Jersey and in 1912 was elected
president of the United
States.
His term of service was from March 4, 1913 through March 3, 1921. When he was
reelected to a second term in 1916, his slogan
had been: “Wilson
kept us out of war.” But when German warships began to sink American
ships in
the Atlantic, Wilson asked Congress to declare war
on Germany.
Following the Armistice in 1918, Wilson
worked hard on his famous “Fourteen Points” peace plan and for the
establishment of the League of Nations.
However, because the U.S. Senate would never vote to join the League of Nations, Wilson’s
dream of America
becoming a leading member was not realized. He was married first to
Ellen Axxon
of Rome, Ga.,
who died during his first term in 1914. They had three daughters. He
married
Edith Bolling Galt in December 1915. When Wilson
suffered a massive stroke on October 2, 1919, his wife Edith read government
reports, shielded him from
visitors and relayed his decisions. He finished out his second term as
an
invalid and died quietly in Washington
in 1924.
Rosa Parks, Civil Rights
proponent, and
three U.S.
Presidents had December birthdays, as well as a host of other notable
people.
But the month reminds us more of the birthday of Emmanuel, God with us,
which
we celebrate on December 25, although the exact date of His birth has
been lost
in the mists of time. The fight is on to call the season only “Happy
Holidays”
and omit any mention of Christmas, which means “birthday of Christ.” My
hope is
that we all remember the “reason for the season,” and as December comes
we will
prepare hearts to celebrate the best birthday of all time.
c2005 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published Dec. 1, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.
She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood Road,
Milledgeville,
GA
31061-2411.]
Updated September
1,
2009
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