Zachary Taylor was born in Montebllo,Virginia on November 24, 1784.
President Taylor was one of six Presidents born in a log cabin. He was one of seven Presidents from Virginia.
At one time Taylor owned slaves.
Zachary Taylor was known as "Old Rough and Ready." Plain, unassuming, and downright messy, he almost never wore a proper uniform. "He wears an old oil cap," said one man, "a dusty green coat, a frightful pair of trousers and on horseback he looks like a toad."
Taylor didn't vote until he was 62. Until that time he was in the army and never was a residence because he moved so much.
President Taylor was a member of the Whig Party.
He was one of 15 Presidents who did not win the Popular Vote.
Zachary Taylor's Vice President was Millard Fillmore (1849-1850).
Taylor refused all postage due correspondence. Because of this, he didn't receive notification of his nomination for president until several days later.
Zachary Taylor's horse grazed on the White House lawn.
Visitors to the White House would take souvenir horsehairs from Whitey, Taylor's old Army horse, that he kept on the White House lawn.
Taylor chewed tobacco. He was known as a sure shot when he spit tobacco. He never missed the sawdust box in the White House.
Zachary Taylor never lived in one place long enough to register to vote. He voted for the first time when he was 62 years old. Taylor had never voted in a Presidential Election until he voted for himself in 1848.
He was the first President elected from a state west of the Mississippi (Louisiana).
Zachary was the second President to die in office.
Zachary Taylor suffered from heat stroke on July 4,1850 and died 5 days later in Washington D.C. He was 84 years and 291 days old.
His body was later exhumed because some believed he was poisoned, but this was proved to be false.
Sources:
The Presidents of the United States. 22 September 2004 <http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/>
Davis, Gibbs and Ilus. David A. Johnson. Wackiest White House Pets. New York: Scholastic Press, October 2004
James, Barber and Amy Pastan. Smithsonian Presidents and First Ladies. New York: DK Publishing, 2002
Kane, Joseph Natan. Facts about the Presidents from Washington to Johnson. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1964.
