Eliza Johnson

First Lady

• Born: October 4, 1810
• Birthplace: Leesburg, Tennessee
• Died: January 15, 1876
• Place of death: Greeneville, Tennessee

President:Andrew Johnson 1865-1869

Overview

Eliza McCardle Johnson became First Lady in 1865 when her husband, Andrew Johnson, assumed the presidency after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Born into poverty in east Tennessee, Eliza helped lift her family into the prosperous middle class, but much of her life was spent as an invalid. Although she lived in the White House during her husband’s term, she appeared in public only four times. Her story carries as much tragedy as it does triumph.

Early Life

Born in Greene County, Tennessee, on October 4, 1810, Eliza was the only child of Sarah Phillips McCardle and John McCardle, a Scotsman who was an innkeeper at Warrensburg and later a cobbler at Greeneville. John died while Eliza was a child, and she and her mother made quilts for a living. Although poor, Eliza received a basic education at Rhea Academy.

A modest, retiring girl, Eliza first met Andrew Johnson in September, 1826. Legend tells that she was the first person he spoke to when he arrived in Greeneville and that she told her friends to mark Andrew as her future husband. Johnson moved briefly to Rutledge, Tennessee, but he returned to Greeneville in the spring of 1827. A brunette with hazel eyes, sixteen-year-old Eliza married eighteen-year-old Andrew on May 17, 1827, in Warrensburg. Mordecai Lincoln, a cousin of Abraham Lincoln, performed the ceremony. Of all the presidential couples, the Andrew Johnsons were the youngest to wed.

Marriage and Family

The newlyweds rented a house with two twelve-foot-square rooms on Main Street in Greeneville. Andrew used the front room for his tailoring business, while the couple lived in the rear. Andrew had taught himself to read, but Eliza encouraged him to gain more education. Though she was a devoted Methodist, she never convinced Andrew to attend church regularly with her.

Eliza bore their first child, Martha, on October 25, 1828, and their son Charles on February 19, 1830. Andrew’s shop became a popular gathering place for working men to discuss politics, and in 1829 Andrew was elected as town alderman. As he prospered, the couple bought a brick house across the street in 1831. There, Eliza had two more children: Mary on May 8, 1832, and Robert on February 22, 1834. By 1837, Andrew employed several tailors and purchased his first slaves, eventually owning as many as nine.

Elected state representative in 1835, Andrew left for Nashville, the capital, leaving Eliza as manager. When Andrew became a U.S. congressman in 1843, Eliza oversaw the family, house, tailor shop, real estate holdings, and a farm. In 1851 the Johnsons purchased a larger brick house, which was filled by their family, along with Eliza’s and Andrew’s mothers. Mary married Daniel Stover in April, 1852, moving to his farm, and Eliza had her fifth child on August 5, 1852, Andrew, Jr., nicknamed Frank. After Frank’s birth, Eliza showed increasing signs of tuberculosis, which would make her an invalid for the remainder of her life.

Elected governor of Tennessee in 1853, Andrew lived mostly in Nashville. Martha helped her ailing mother until she married attorney David Patterson in December, 1855. In 1857 Andrew was elected U.S. senator. In early 1860 Eliza, Frank, and Robert visited Andrew briefly in Washington, D.C., to give him support in his efforts to preserve the Union. In April, 1861, Andrew returned to Tennessee, encountering violent anti-Union mobs along the way. Eliza remained firm in her antisecession support. Some observers felt that Andrew drew more counsel on his public policies from Eliza and Martha than from anyone else.

By June, however, Tennessee had seceded from the Union. Andrew returned to Washington. Their sons Robert and Charles joined the Union military, as did Daniel Stover. David Patterson, now a judge, was imprisoned by authorities of the Confederate States of America (CSA). Eliza and Frank joined Martha’s family at the Patterson farm, as the Johnson house and slaves were seized by the Confederates. Eliza remained there for months, reviled as a Unionist, especially when Andrew became military governor of Tennessee in February. In October, the CSA authorities suddenly gave Eliza thirty-six hours to leave Confederate territory. She managed to move her children and grandchildren through enemy lines to Nashville, arriving there on October 12.

Although Eliza had reached Andrew, her tuberculosis made her so ill that she traveled to a resort in Indiana, seeking relief. Eliza returned to Nashville in better health, but a heavy blow fell in April, 1863, when Charles died after a fall from his horse. To add to her worries, Frank was showing signs of tuberculosis, as was Robert, who had become an alcoholic. Andrew was elected vice president of the United States in November, 1864; in December, Daniel Stover died of consumption, the name used to refer to tuberculosis and its effects. When Andrew left for his inauguration in March, 1865, Eliza remained in Nashville with the widowed Mary and her children, hoping to return to Greeneville soon.

Presidency and First Ladyship

An assassin’s bullet fired on April 14, 1865, catapulted Andrew and Eliza Johnson into the White House: President Abraham Lincoln’s death on April 15 left Andrew as the new president.

In August, Eliza arrived in Washington, and the entire extended family would remain in the White House throughout Andrew’s term of office. Ever modest, Eliza chose a small bedroom in the northwest corner of the second floor. She took most of her meals in her rooms, and Andrew would visit her each morning before going to his office. Eliza’s routine seldom varied. She read newspaper and magazine articles from around the country, giving Andrew good news in the evening and bad in the morning. After Andrew’s morning visit, she would inspect the upstairs rooms, giving special attention to his quarters and wardrobe. Her grandchildren would visit her after their classes each day. Eliza never felt comfortable in the role of First Lady, saying, “It is all very well for those who like it, but I don’t like this public life at all. I often wish the time would come when we could return to where I feel we best belong.”

Eliza’s illness prevented her attending all but a few of the social functions required of the president. In August, 1866, she received Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) and other guests, and Queen Emma gave Eliza a hand-carved ivory basket that still adorns the Johnson house in Greeneville. The following February, Eliza attended two receptions. One guest commented that she was “a very amiable, unassuming woman [and] acts her part so modestly and so well as to win the affections of all who see her.” Eliza always dressed elegantly in rich fabrics; as a former tailor, Andrew took great pride in the quality of his family’s wardrobes.

When Andrew was impeached in February, 1868, Eliza never wavered in her support. She upheld Andrew in staying the course he felt best for the nation and following his conscience, regardless of the outcome. The ordeal weighed upon her, however, and Eliza told a visitor, “But for the humiliation and Mr. Johnson’s feelings, I wish they would send us back to Tennessee—if it were possible, give us our poverty and peace again, so that we might learn how to live for our children and ourselves. I have not seen a happy moment since I came to this house.” When Andrew was acquitted of charges in May, 1868, Eliza exclaimed, “I knew he’d be acquitted. I knew it.”

Eliza attended one last gala, for Andrew’s sixtieth birthday, on December 29, 1868, a ball for three hundred children of Washington dignitaries. The party was such a success that children’s balls became a regular feature of the capital’s social scene.

Legacy

Shortly after President Ulysses S. Grant’s inauguration in March, 1869, Eliza and Andrew traveled home, greeted by a large crowd in Greeneville. Mary had their house ready, the war’s damages repaired. That spring, Mary married William R. Brown and settled into a home across the street. New tragedy struck, however, when Robert committed suicide on April 22. Further trouble came when the Johnsons saw that Mary’s marriage was unhappy. Andrew wrote Brown, “Rather than have anything like [separation] happen in my family, I would sooner have everything I have sunk in the depths of Hell.” After Andrew’s death, the couple would divorce.

Eliza had longed to return to her home, but Andrew longed only to leave it again. He began making speeches around the United States and, in the fall of 1874, was once again elected senator from Tennessee. He left for Washington that winter. Andrew returned in the spring of 1875, but in July the old political warrior headed for Ohio to help in a campaign. He stopped at the Stover farm on July 28 to visit Eliza, who was staying with Mary. There, Andrew suffered a series of strokes, and he died on July 31. His funeral was attended by all of his family and virtually the whole town, except for Eliza, who was too weak to go. Andrew left no will for his estate, worth as much as $200,000, and Eliza was left once more as administrator. Too ill to attempt a settlement among the children, Eliza stayed with Mary at her farm.

Eliza passed away on January 15, 1876, and was laid to rest next to her husband on Monument Hill in Greeneville, a property Andrew had bought years before. In 1906 this land was designated a national cemetery and, in 1942, the home Eliza so longed for while First Lady became a national monument.

Bibliography

Brabson, Fay Warrington. Andrew Johnson: A Life in Pursuit of the Right Course. Durham, N.C.: Seeman Printery, 1972. Includes biographical material on Eliza Johnson.

Graf, Leroy P., and Paul Bergeron, et al., eds. The Papers of Andrew Johnson. 16 vols. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1967-2000. The full collection of Johnson’s correspondence, including some letters sent to Eliza Johnson and references to her.

Sawyer, Susan. More than Petticoats: Remarkable Tennessee Women. Helena, Mont.: Falcon, 2000. Written for a young audience, the profile of Eliza Johnson includes legends and anecdotes.

Smith, Gene. High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson. New York: William Morrow, 1977. A detailed account of the Johnsons during the months of the impeachment trial.

Thomas, Lately. The First President Johnson: The Three Lives of the Seventeenth President of the United States. New York: William Morrow, 1968. Includes insights into the relationship of Andrew and Eliza Johnson.

Trefousse, Hans L. Andrew Johnson: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989. This scholarly, full-length biography of Andrew Johnson includes insights from the Johnson papers.