🧁 William Howard Taft: Lost over 75 pounds in a year by cutting out all sugar, starch, dairy and processed foods, but abandoned the diet a year later and gained 50 pounds back, per a biography.
🗞️ Warren Harding: His own newspaper buried his marriage announcement on the second page.
🚜 Rutherford B. Hayes: Thousands of pages of letters and diary entries are digitized in his presidential library.
An early letter to mom about post-college plans: "If I could have a good farm I would love to be a farmer."
💍 Ulysses S. Grant: Got engaged in 1844, but fought in the Mexican-American War and didn't get married until 1848.
⚡ Benjamin Harrison: Served when electric lighting was first installed in the White House, but refused to operate the switches for fear of electrocution.
👀 James A. Garfield: An 1860 newspaper's description of him as a state lawmaker: "Senator Garfield is robust and healthy; about six feet high, light hair and whiskers, which latter are inclined to be curly. His head is unusually large; his forehead is very prominent …"
🪖 William McKinley: Enlisted as a private in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry when the Civil War began, serving under the command of fellow future President Rutherford B. Hayes.
Want more prez facts? Check out Monday's events at the Ohio History Center.
