Presidential House Visit: The Other Springfield

Zachary Taylor looks like a man born to live a rough life in photographs, but looks can be deceiving. Taylor was born in Virginia to a prominent family somewhat distantly related to James Madison. His father moved the family to Kentucky when young Zachary was only 8 months old. But Springfield, the plantation house where Zachary Taylor spent his boyhood is a far cry from the cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born a few decades later. It is a surprisingly large brick house that would have been quite the anomaly on the Kentucky frontier. Indeed, Zachary Taylor made an excellent living throughout his life. He owned multiple plantations and was our last president to own slaves. 


All this could make it seem like the "Old Rough and Ready" was a persona cooked up to win votes, but that is also not the truth. Taylor chose to live the life of a soldier. In it he found his calling, and although he did not have to live in the same conditions as his men, he did. This earned him the respect of his subordinates, and helped make him a successful general. 

Zachary Taylor Monument

Springfield is privately owned and therefore not open to the public, but I don't think it really reflects the man Taylor became. The nearby cemetery that bears his name, and also happens to be where he is buried, tells a lot more about our twelfth president than his boyhood home. It contains two gravesites: one slipshod and temporary, the other permanent and certainly better to look at. There is also a monument that looks over the rest of the military cemetery, which is beautiful in its simplicity. Taylor could have been buried in the capital, but was instead buried on the land that belonged to his family outside Louisville, Kentucky. Taylor was first and foremost a military man, and having his final resting place be among the fallen soldiers of his nation is both fitting and what he would have wanted. His chosen career became his chosen lifestyle, and finally his lasting legacy. 

Original Gravesite of Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor's Final Gravesite