Honoring Their Fathers
Near the end of her life, Grace Coolidge encouraged her son John to donate the Coolidge family homestead in Plymouth Notch to the State of Vermont. He complied and worked throughout his life to expand the historic site. Calvin and Grace’s son enjoyed a successful career in business. At the same time, he worked to honor his father’s legacy. (Because both Calvin Coolidge’s father and son were named John Coolidge, I hope the following isn’t confusing.)
The President Calvin Coolidge Historic Site includes the president’s birthplace, his childhood home (where he became president in the wee hours of the morning of August 3, 1923), the church where his family worshiped, his father’s store, and even the homes of relatives and friends. In 1960 Calvin and Grace’s son John reopened the cheese factory that his grandfather had helped to found in 1890.
This is exactly what President Calvin Coolidge’s father wanted. When someone asked John Coolidge Sr. what kind of memorial should be erected to honor his son Calvin, Mr. Coolidge said that the town should be preserved. After John (Calvin and Grace’s son) and his wife Florence gave the family homestead to the state, they continued to donate again and again, often purchasing buildings themselves. They also donated land and artifacts. The 551-acre site now has 25 buildings. All are as they were when Coolidge was president.
President Coolidge honored his father; and his son, John, honored him. The following photos show Calvin Coolidge doing chores on his father’s farm while he was serving as president of the United States.
Calvin and Grace Coolidge’s son John was named for his grandfather John Coolidge. He grew up in Northampton, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., and visited his grandfather in Plymouth Notch as a child. He spent his adulthood in Connecticut, but visited Plymouth Notch each summer. When visitors to the site saw him in the village and asked him questions, he would answer without telling them that he was the president’s son. Though he was usually a man of few words, he would talk and talk about his father.
John Coolidge remembered being at military camp in Massachusetts on August 3, 1923, and hearing the captain tell him at breakfast: “Your father is president of the United States.” John said that he was surprised but that nothing changed.
Speaking of his brother’s death at age 16, John Coolidge said that his father was tenderhearted but rarely showed how he felt. He said that when his brother’s casket left the White House, his father broke down.
John Coolidge married Florence Trumbull, whose father was governor of Connecticut. They met on a train while John was on his way to Washington, D.C., for his father’s inauguration in 1925.
In 1998 John Coolidge sold the cheese factory to the State of Vermont with the stipulation that it remain open as long as the building remains standing. That same year, he moved to Plymouth Notch. He lived there until his death in 2000. His father had died at the age of 60. John Coolidge lived to be 93. He had outlived his wife and his two children.
On every president’s birthday, the current president of the United States sends a red, white, and blue wreath to be placed on his grave. Every year John Coolidge was present at the commemoration of his father’s birth in the cemetery at Plymouth Notch. During the summer of 1999, he attended as usual, but for the first time was unable to walk up the stone steps to the grave. He watched the ceremony from his car.
Today grandchildren of John Coolidge continue to support the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation their grandfather and other Coolidge fans founded in 1960. John Coolidge’s granddaughter, Jennifer Coolidge Harville, gives talks around the country about her famous great-grandfather, Calvin Coolidge, and great-grandmother, Grace Coolidge.
Grandchildren are the crown of old men,
And the glory of sons is their fathers.
Proverbs 17:6
Honor your father and mother
(which is the first commandment with a promise),
so that it may be well with you,
and that you may live long on the earth.
Ephesians 6:2-3
To read Charlene’s entire series on Calvin Coolidge, click here.