Julia Gardiner Tyler,
President Tyler's second wife, born on Gardiner's island, near Easthampton, New
York, in 1820, was the eldest daughter of David Gardiner, a descendant of the
Gardiners of Gardiner's island. She was educated at the Chegary institute, New
York city, spent several months in Europe, and in the winter of 1844 accompanied
her father to Washington, D.C. A few weeks afterward he was killed by the
explosion of a gun on the wear-steamer "Princeton," which
occurred during a pleasure excursion in which he and his daughter were of the
presidential party. His body was taken to the White House, and Miss Gardiner,
being thrown in the society of the president under these peculiar circumstances,
became the object of his marked attention, which resulted in their marriage in
New York city, 26 June, 1844.
For the succeeding eight months she presided over the White House with
dignity and grace, her residence there terminating with a birth-night ball on 22
February, 1845. Mrs. Tyler retired with her husband to " Sherwood
Forest" in Virginia at the conclusion of his term, and after the civil
war resided for several years at her mother's residence on Castleton Hill,
Staten island, and subsequently in Richmond, Virginia She is a convert to Roman
Catholicism, and devoted to the charities of that church.-
