Waaahhhh. Waaaaaaah.
Oh, the sound of babies crying in the middle of the night.
Surprisingly, this sound has not been heard very often at the White House.
You see. Only 12 babies have been born in the executive mansion in its 218-year history. Only one was the child of a sitting president.
Esther Cleveland, daughter of Grover and Frances Cleveland, was born September 9, 1893, in that White House. Her father, a bachelor when he became president in 1885, married her mother in 1886, during his first term as president. He lost his re-election bid in 1888, then won his second term in 1892.
That is the only president who had a baby there.
So. The other eleven? Well. One child was born to two of Thomas Jefferson’s slaves. The other children born in the White House were either the grandchildren of the sitting president or the children of other family members who were serving on the White House or presidential staff. They don’t do it much now, but in the early decades of the White House, it was common for the families of the presidents’ staff to live there.
And. Here are the other 11:
•James Madison Randolph, January 17, 1806, grandson of President Thomas Jefferson.
•The child of Jefferson’s slaves, Fanny and Eddy (a White House Historical Association fact sheet on slavery gives his name as Edy and their last name as Fossett), who were part of the household staff, Dec. 1806. No name or gender is known for this child, who only lived a few years.
•Mary Louisa Adams, December 2, 1828, granddaughter of John Quincy Adams.
•Four children born between 1829 and 1834 to Andrew Jackson’s secretary, Andrew Jackson Donelson, and his wife, Emily, the nephew and niece of Jackson’s late wife, Rachel. Emily Donelson was a White House hostess during the Jackson administration.
•Rebecca Van Buren, March 1840, granddaughter of Martin Van Buren. She and her mother were both ill after her birth, and Rebecca died that September, the first person to die in the White House.
•Sally Walker, March 15, 1846, and Joseph Walker, December 9, 1847, children of James K. Polk’s nephew, Joseph Knox Walker, and his wife Augusta. Joseph Walker served as secretary to the president.
•Francis Bowes Sayre Jr., January 17, 1915, son of Jesse and Francis Bowes Sayre and grandson of Woodrow and Ellen Wilson.
We’ve got a big baby there now, I should add.
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“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
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“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
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“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt
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Babies born in the White House. Oh. That.
