Grover Cleveland's Life

Stephen Grover Cleveland was born on March 18, 1837 in Caldwell, New Jersey. His family moved to Fayetteville, New York where he was educated in a one room schoolhouse. In 1850, they moved to Clinton, New York where he attended a Liberal Institute. At age eighteen he visited an uncle in Buffalo, New York to help him on his farm in return for getting him a job in a law office. Four years later when he was twenty-two, Cleveland was admitted to the bar. He passed the bar exam and in 1863 Grover became assistant district attorney of Erie County for 2 years. His honesty and fairness led to his election as sheriff of Erie County also for two years. In 1882, Grover was elected Mayor of Buffalo. He held that job for two years until the Democrats nominated him for Governor of New York and he won. In 1884, Cleveland was nominated President of the United States against Chester Alan Arthur and Cleveland won the election. Grover Cleveland married Frances Clara Folsom on June 2, 1886 during a White House ceremony. He lost the 1888 re-election bid to Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of William Henry Harrison, ninth President of the United States. Benjamin Harrison was President for four years before he lost his re-election bid to Grover Cleveland. Cleveland is the only President so far that has served two nonconsecutive terms as President. He served one term after Harrison's term. He was not elected a second term because he did not support the expansion of the U.S. into Hawaii and Cuba. His party turned to William Jennings Bryan, who lost to William McKinley in 1896. Grover returned home to Princeton, New Jersey where he lived until he died on June 24, 1908 at age seventy-one. Note: Cleveland was President from 1885 through 1889 and the Vice President was Thomas Andrews Hendricks until Hendricks died in November, 1885. He was elected President again from 1893 through 1897 and the Vice President that time was Adlai Ewing Stevenson I.