William Howard Taft ~ September 15, 1857 - March 8, 1930

27th President, 1909-1913

William Howard Taft Sites visited: 

Taft was born in this house, 2038 Auburn Avenue in Cincinnati, Ohio, and lived here until he attended Yale in 1874. Both times we were in Cincinnati, the site was not open so here's what we could see from the outside.

There is a bust of Taft's oldest son, Robert Alphonso Taft (1889-1953) on the property.

Rapid City, South Dakota has a statue of every president on its street corners. I thought Taft's was odd not realizing until later that it was memorializing Taft being the first president to throw out a ceremonial first pitch. The first picture is my photo and the second is an older photo from the internet where you can see the baseball.

Taft became a Federal Circuit Judge at age 34, was Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt, and in 1909 was elected President. He ran for and lost a second term and became a Professor of Law at Yale from 1913-1921. President Harding appointed him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1921.

In 1911, President Taft signed a bill to create a Lincoln Memorial. When it was dedicated in 1922, Taft attended as Chief Justice. Here's a photo of Justice Taft, President Harding, and Robert Lincoln at the dedication.

And here's the famous Lincoln Memorial from a recent visit.

Taft served on the Supreme Court until February 3 in 1930 when he resigned due to poor health. He died a month later on March 8, 1930. 

William Howard Taft was the first president to use the Oval Office, the first president to serve on the Supreme Court, and the first to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The Cemetery has a fantastic app that will lead you to any selected grave and we found Taft's final resting place.

"The President cannot make clouds to rain and cannot make corn to grow, he cannot make business good; although when these things occur, political parties do claim some credit for the good things that have happened in this way."