Grover Cleveland was the 22nd president and the 24th president of the U.S.A. and is always counted as 2 presidents when a listing of the presidents appears. He is the only president who served two terms that were not consecutive.
He was elected president in 1884 and was inaugurated in 1885. He ran again in 1888, won the popular vote, but lost in the Electoral College to Benjamin Harrison (grandson of President William Henry Harrison). I presume that winning the popular vote encouraged Cleveland to try again. He ran against Harrison again in 1888, and won.
Grover Cleveland, President 1885-1889; 1893-1897
In his first term he led a crusade for political reform and fiscal conservatism. He won praise for his honesty, self-reliance, and integrity. He fought political corruption, patronage, and bossism. The Vice President, Thomas Hendricks, lived only 8 months after election and Cleveland’s remaining time was without a vice president. This same situation occurred several times in our history and was finally resolved February 10, 1967 with the 25th amendment, which established lines of succession for both offices.
His second election put him in office in 1893, and as his second administration began, disaster hit the nation when the Panic of 1893 produced a severe national depression, which Cleveland was unable to reverse. Critics complained that Cleveland had little imagination and seemed overwhelmed by the nation’s economic disasters–depressions and strikes–in his second term.
Even so, his reputation for good character survived the troubles of his second term. Biographer Allan Nevins wrote, “In Grover Cleveland, the greatness lies in typical rather than unusual qualities. He had no endowments that thousands of men do not have. He possessed honesty, courage, firmness, independence, and common sense. But he possessed them to a degree other men do not.” By the end of his second term, public perception showed him to be one of the most unpopular U.S. presidents, and he was by then rejected even by most Democrats. Today, Cleveland is considered by most historians to have been a successful leader. (Quoted from Wikipedia).
Cleveland’s father was a Presbyterian minister and served a church in New Jersey, moving to Fayetville, N.Y. in 1841 when Grover was four years old. In 1850, they moved to Clinton, N.Y., where my great grandfather had been born in 1847. Clinton, New York still claims Grover Cleveland as one of their own. After 3 years, they moved on, but the minister father died soon after the move.
Grover Cleveland became a lawyer in 1859, and in 1863 was appointed an assistant district attorney. He was elected as a sheriff in 1871, and mayor of Buffalo, N.Y. in 1882, and governor of New York after that. In 1884 he was elected President of the United States. He was elected again in 1892 and his vice president was Adlai Stevenson, Sr.
On June 2, 1886, Cleveland, 49, married Frances Folsom, 21, in the White House, making her the youngest first lady in American history. The public warmed to her and she was popular. They had 5 children. After serving his second term, he retired to Princeton, New Jersey. On June 24, 1908 he suffered a heart attack and died.
An interesting fact:
The Clevelands had a 12-year-old daughter who died. The nation grieved with the first family. The “Baby Ruth” candy bar was named in her honor.