May 22, 2019 • 12 mins
Did you know that former president James Polk had his final resting place moved twice? It's true! And almost a third time even. Let's go listen to some short stuff.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, there, everybody, and welcome to short stuff. I'm Josh,
there's Chuck, there's Jerry, And like I said, this is
short stuff, So let's get to it about James K. Polk.
That's right, James K. Polk, eleventh President of the United States,
former Governor of Tennessee, former Speaker of the House and
House Representative of the state of Tennessee. Former member of
(00:26):
the Senate or was he he clerked for the Senate.
He did clerk for the Senate. That's where he where
he got his start, which was pretty impressive because he
was still in law school, I think. But he made
such a name for himself that they basically said, come
on as our as the Tennessee State Senate mascot, buddy,
and we're gonna we're gonna raise you up from there. Yeah.
So Polk was born in North Carolina, although he um,
(00:51):
you know, I think people in Tennessee have a lot
of respecting reverence for him. But he was born in
North Carolina or North Kakaaki as we call it. And
when he was ten, they moved to Tennessee what this
article calls the Tennessee Frontier. Yeah, well, I mean it
was at the time why not if you were a
white European settler and his dad, uh, Sammy Polke, Samuel Polk,
(01:17):
his paw, Chuck, we're talking Tennessee, that's right, his paw.
He built a two story house in eighteen sixteen in Colombia,
and that's where James lived for a while as young adult,
and it now serves as the James K. Polk Museum
Home and Museum Presidential Museum. Yeah. So that's like just
a bit of the background of this interesting story about
(01:39):
the fact that James Polk has been exhumed and moved
a couple of times since his death. Yes, this, this
short stuff just got interesting. Even though this article, I'm
sure you noticed, did not say anything about his death
or where he was buried. There's clearly a paragraph or
two missing, I think. So I went back and I
was like, it's there under this, like what's going on here? Um,
(02:02):
But nope, it's not there. So so basically, James Polk
he became the eleventh president of the United States after
John Tyler Um, who was the first president not elected
I believe, to become president. He succeeded William Henry Harrison,
who died after a month. You know that famous Simpsons song,
there's William Henry Harrison. I died in thirty days. Um. Well,
(02:24):
that that's what happened, and John Tyler succeeded him. Well, Um,
James Polk soundly beat uh Taylor Tyler Um. And he
beat him basically saying like, look, I've got some campaign
promises I'm going to handle. I'm going to take care
of these things in one term and then I'm going
to go. And I'm young, and and no one's ever
elected a president this young. No. I think he was
(02:47):
forty nine when he was elected or something like that,
so at the time he was definitely the youngest, although
you'd think in like the eighteen forties or eighteen fifties
that was like old school, but I guess not. But
he was elected and he did what he said he
was going to do. He um established the Naval Academy.
He um oversaw the very first US postal stamp created, right,
(03:12):
and everyone's like, what's that? And he's like, just watch everybody.
Um and then he uh signed into law of the Smithsonian,
which makes me a big fan of him. He also
did something pretty big. He established the Independent Treasury System,
which was the predecessor Chuck to the Federal Reserve. And
at the time you might think, well, federal Reserve, you know,
(03:33):
boo or yeah, or whatever however you feel about it.
It was very much needed at this time because back
then stay owned or private banks would routinely just not
trade you gold and silver for the paper that you
came to trade back in. They would say, we don't
have it, sorry, and this would cause panics over and
over again. So they set up a bank to the banks,
(03:54):
the Independent Treasury System, And that was a big one
that he did because it took a lot of political
clout to overwhelm him the state's interests at the time.
Who are who are run by these these influential bankers
who didn't want a federal system above them. So those
were some big ones. He also started the Mexican American War,
which is definitely a mark against him, that's right. But
(04:15):
through all, I mean, he got a lot. A lot
happened in those four years, and like you said, true
to his word, he said, four years, I'm out, and
uh I went back to Tennessee and then I think
let's take a break now and then we'll talk about
how he died and started bouncing around after that. So
(05:01):
Polk died of what they think now is cholera. Um,
he got sick. They kind of denied it was cholera,
but he was surrounded by people with cholera. But they
were like, no, you don't have cholera. And he was like,
I'm pretty sure I have cholera because everyone around me
has cholera. And they said, no, it's not cholera, not you, James.
But I think he died. That's kind of widely believed
(05:25):
to be his cause of death today. Well, the first
place he was interred was the Nashville City Cemetery with
the cholera victims. Yeah, it was a legal thing. It
wasn't called the Nashville City Cemetery back then, but the
way I saw it, it it was basically like if you
died from infectious disease, infectious disease, you had to be
buried there as close to the groundwater as possible. Yeah. So, um,
(05:49):
that's the first place that he's buried. We need like
a ding or something here because he's been interred one time.
I think Jerry could manage a ding. Let's let's hope Jerry. So, um,
he's he's buried there in again the Nashville City Cemetery
like a common caller victim. And somebody said, whoa, this
is no place for a beloved president Um to to
(06:12):
be buried. We need to we need to show some
respect and also more closely follow them the wishes of
his will. Yeah, because he said that he wanted to
be buried at Polk Place, which was his mansion where
he and his wife lived. Um, And they they moved
him there. They actually built him like a pretty sweet
(06:34):
little memorial on the front in the front yard. You
can see drawings of it, and it's like, there's the house,
there's the memorial, like right there in the little front yard.
It was pretty cute. Yeah. And his wife Sarah, thank
you for for remembering her name. I was like frantically
searching for it and couldn't find it. Yeah, his wife Sarah,
I guess you know, she was like, well, let me
(06:56):
just live for another I don't know, forty two years.
I read that. I was like, is that a miss Brent.
It could be in this article, but it's not. Yeah, exactly,
according to this article, he never died. He's right behind you, so,
oh my god. Um, So yeah, she lived another forty
two years, which is outstanding, great, great long life. And
(07:19):
once she finally died, there was a bit of an
argument over the ownership of Polk Place and kind of
like where they should be ultimately in their uh whatever,
what they thought was their final resting place. But everyone
else is like, but where should their real final resting
place be? Right? Well, I think they would technically be there,
(07:40):
but he in his will had had left the stipulation
that the state of Tennessee could take Polk Place and
own it as long as a Polk would be allowed
to live there forever. And Um, Tennessee said, that's an
im perpetuity, which is illegal. So this clause as part
of your will is null and void, which left it
(08:02):
open to his errors to do with what they wished
with this place, um, which was turned around and sell
it to a developer because he didn't have any children. Um.
These were all relatives who didn't give a spit about
what happened to this to his beloved home. Yeah, I
can't believe that was sold by developers in and they
demolished it. They demolished it, and this was like this
(08:24):
they were Tennessee was thinking of turning this into the
governor's mansion and preserving this, and they said, no, get
rid of it. So they actually disinterred him. So the
state of Tennessee disinterned he and Sarah and moved their
remains to the state capital. And you'd think, okay, that
would be the end of the story. The guy's been
buried to two times now, no, one to three times.
(08:45):
He's been buried three times. Let him rest in peace, right,
but it's not buried buried? And then was it three times? Yeah,
he was buried in the city since twice buried? Yeah, right,
I know. It kind of concerned me too. It's like
trying to understand economics. Yeah, that's the old saying. Uh buried,
never mind buried thrice, but moved only twice. That's it.
(09:06):
So they, like you said, they moved into the capitol
and uh, you know, a place of great reverence and
respect where people can can go see. Although he is
sort of in the shadow of these two, he doesn't
have the kind of monuments that Jackson and Johnson have. No,
and that's why there's some people in the Tennessee State government,
(09:27):
specifically a guy named um oh what's that that State
senators Joe Joey Hensley, which is number one, not a
senator's name if you ask me a number two, not
a Tennessee senator's name. But there you have it, Joey
Hensley right exactly. Um he I could see him on
like Jersey Shore or something like that. He's like bright orange.
His hair stands up like a mile high. Anyway, Senator
(09:49):
Joey Hensley is like, look, man, I I I have
been up here for fourteen years working in the in
the Tennessee legislature, and I can tell you James Polk
is not getting his reverence. Yeah, people don't know he's
buried there. They barely mentioned him on the tour. He's
literally in the shadows of um Jackson and Johnson statues.
Like you said, we got to do something better. Let's
(10:12):
move this guy to his presidential library at his father's
house in Columbia, Tennessee. Yeah, this is a couple of
years ago, in two thousand seventeen, and a lot of
hoops have to be jumped through to move a dead
president's body. Believe it or not. Um. It did pass
the State Senate in March, which was just you know,
like kind of like the first stop to getting this done. Uh.
(10:34):
The governor has to approve it, the House has to
approve it, a local judge, and then most importantly in
this case, the Tennessee Historical Commission has to approve it. Um.
And that's the one that said no, I don't think
you should do that. Yeah, and his his um family
UH is kind of divided about it. Some people are like, yeah,
(10:55):
of course this would be a great place for him,
it's his presidential library, and other people like who right?
But then I and I didn't understand why anybody would
be opposed to moving him if he's not getting his
due in the capital. But the opposition's position seems to
be that he wanted to be buried at Polk Place
in Nashville. Right, Polk Place isn't around anymore, So he's
(11:18):
still buried in Nashville and at the Capitol. Get that
so um. I saw also in two thousand and eighteen,
the issue was brought back up again and it got
voted down by one vote by the state Senate this time.
So he's not going anywhere. It doesn't look like he's
going anywhere. Uh. So you know, if you're ever in Nashville,
go eat some hot chicken. Maybe go cut a record
(11:40):
at Jack White's little Recording booth. Don't forget to pick
up a molda rama while you're there. Pick up a
molda rama and go uh if you want to pay
your respects to James Polk Short stuff out. Stuff You
Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio's How
Stuff Works from more podcast. For my heart Radio, visit
(12:01):
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. H m hm
Hey, there, everybody, and welcome to short stuff. I'm Josh,
there's Chuck, there's Jerry, And like I said, this is
short stuff, So let's get to it about James K. Polk.
That's right, James K. Polk, eleventh President of the United States,
former Governor of Tennessee, former Speaker of the House and
House Representative of the state of Tennessee. Former member of
(00:26):
the Senate or was he he clerked for the Senate.
He did clerk for the Senate. That's where he where
he got his start, which was pretty impressive because he
was still in law school, I think. But he made
such a name for himself that they basically said, come
on as our as the Tennessee State Senate mascot, buddy,
and we're gonna we're gonna raise you up from there. Yeah.
So Polk was born in North Carolina, although he um,
(00:51):
you know, I think people in Tennessee have a lot
of respecting reverence for him. But he was born in
North Carolina or North Kakaaki as we call it. And
when he was ten, they moved to Tennessee what this
article calls the Tennessee Frontier. Yeah, well, I mean it
was at the time why not if you were a
white European settler and his dad, uh, Sammy Polke, Samuel Polk,
(01:17):
his paw, Chuck, we're talking Tennessee, that's right, his paw.
He built a two story house in eighteen sixteen in Colombia,
and that's where James lived for a while as young adult,
and it now serves as the James K. Polk Museum
Home and Museum Presidential Museum. Yeah. So that's like just
a bit of the background of this interesting story about
(01:39):
the fact that James Polk has been exhumed and moved
a couple of times since his death. Yes, this, this
short stuff just got interesting. Even though this article, I'm
sure you noticed, did not say anything about his death
or where he was buried. There's clearly a paragraph or
two missing, I think. So I went back and I
was like, it's there under this, like what's going on here? Um,
(02:02):
But nope, it's not there. So so basically, James Polk
he became the eleventh president of the United States after
John Tyler Um, who was the first president not elected
I believe, to become president. He succeeded William Henry Harrison,
who died after a month. You know that famous Simpsons song,
there's William Henry Harrison. I died in thirty days. Um. Well,
(02:24):
that that's what happened, and John Tyler succeeded him. Well, Um,
James Polk soundly beat uh Taylor Tyler Um. And he
beat him basically saying like, look, I've got some campaign
promises I'm going to handle. I'm going to take care
of these things in one term and then I'm going
to go. And I'm young, and and no one's ever
elected a president this young. No. I think he was
(02:47):
forty nine when he was elected or something like that,
so at the time he was definitely the youngest, although
you'd think in like the eighteen forties or eighteen fifties
that was like old school, but I guess not. But
he was elected and he did what he said he
was going to do. He um established the Naval Academy.
He um oversaw the very first US postal stamp created, right,
(03:12):
and everyone's like, what's that? And he's like, just watch everybody.
Um and then he uh signed into law of the Smithsonian,
which makes me a big fan of him. He also
did something pretty big. He established the Independent Treasury System,
which was the predecessor Chuck to the Federal Reserve. And
at the time you might think, well, federal Reserve, you know,
(03:33):
boo or yeah, or whatever however you feel about it.
It was very much needed at this time because back
then stay owned or private banks would routinely just not
trade you gold and silver for the paper that you
came to trade back in. They would say, we don't
have it, sorry, and this would cause panics over and
over again. So they set up a bank to the banks,
(03:54):
the Independent Treasury System, And that was a big one
that he did because it took a lot of political
clout to overwhelm him the state's interests at the time.
Who are who are run by these these influential bankers
who didn't want a federal system above them. So those
were some big ones. He also started the Mexican American War,
which is definitely a mark against him, that's right. But
(04:15):
through all, I mean, he got a lot. A lot
happened in those four years, and like you said, true
to his word, he said, four years, I'm out, and
uh I went back to Tennessee and then I think
let's take a break now and then we'll talk about
how he died and started bouncing around after that. So
(05:01):
Polk died of what they think now is cholera. Um,
he got sick. They kind of denied it was cholera,
but he was surrounded by people with cholera. But they
were like, no, you don't have cholera. And he was like,
I'm pretty sure I have cholera because everyone around me
has cholera. And they said, no, it's not cholera, not you, James.
But I think he died. That's kind of widely believed
(05:25):
to be his cause of death today. Well, the first
place he was interred was the Nashville City Cemetery with
the cholera victims. Yeah, it was a legal thing. It
wasn't called the Nashville City Cemetery back then, but the
way I saw it, it it was basically like if you
died from infectious disease, infectious disease, you had to be
buried there as close to the groundwater as possible. Yeah. So, um,
(05:49):
that's the first place that he's buried. We need like
a ding or something here because he's been interred one time.
I think Jerry could manage a ding. Let's let's hope Jerry. So, um,
he's he's buried there in again the Nashville City Cemetery
like a common caller victim. And somebody said, whoa, this
is no place for a beloved president Um to to
(06:12):
be buried. We need to we need to show some
respect and also more closely follow them the wishes of
his will. Yeah, because he said that he wanted to
be buried at Polk Place, which was his mansion where
he and his wife lived. Um, And they they moved
him there. They actually built him like a pretty sweet
(06:34):
little memorial on the front in the front yard. You
can see drawings of it, and it's like, there's the house,
there's the memorial, like right there in the little front yard.
It was pretty cute. Yeah. And his wife Sarah, thank
you for for remembering her name. I was like frantically
searching for it and couldn't find it. Yeah, his wife Sarah,
I guess you know, she was like, well, let me
(06:56):
just live for another I don't know, forty two years.
I read that. I was like, is that a miss Brent.
It could be in this article, but it's not. Yeah, exactly,
according to this article, he never died. He's right behind you, so,
oh my god. Um, So yeah, she lived another forty
two years, which is outstanding, great, great long life. And
(07:19):
once she finally died, there was a bit of an
argument over the ownership of Polk Place and kind of
like where they should be ultimately in their uh whatever,
what they thought was their final resting place. But everyone
else is like, but where should their real final resting
place be? Right? Well, I think they would technically be there,
(07:40):
but he in his will had had left the stipulation
that the state of Tennessee could take Polk Place and
own it as long as a Polk would be allowed
to live there forever. And Um, Tennessee said, that's an
im perpetuity, which is illegal. So this clause as part
of your will is null and void, which left it
(08:02):
open to his errors to do with what they wished
with this place, um, which was turned around and sell
it to a developer because he didn't have any children. Um.
These were all relatives who didn't give a spit about
what happened to this to his beloved home. Yeah, I
can't believe that was sold by developers in and they
demolished it. They demolished it, and this was like this
(08:24):
they were Tennessee was thinking of turning this into the
governor's mansion and preserving this, and they said, no, get
rid of it. So they actually disinterred him. So the
state of Tennessee disinterned he and Sarah and moved their
remains to the state capital. And you'd think, okay, that
would be the end of the story. The guy's been
buried to two times now, no, one to three times.
(08:45):
He's been buried three times. Let him rest in peace, right,
but it's not buried buried? And then was it three times? Yeah,
he was buried in the city since twice buried? Yeah, right,
I know. It kind of concerned me too. It's like
trying to understand economics. Yeah, that's the old saying. Uh buried,
never mind buried thrice, but moved only twice. That's it.
(09:06):
So they, like you said, they moved into the capitol
and uh, you know, a place of great reverence and
respect where people can can go see. Although he is
sort of in the shadow of these two, he doesn't
have the kind of monuments that Jackson and Johnson have. No,
and that's why there's some people in the Tennessee State government,
(09:27):
specifically a guy named um oh what's that that State
senators Joe Joey Hensley, which is number one, not a
senator's name if you ask me a number two, not
a Tennessee senator's name. But there you have it, Joey
Hensley right exactly. Um he I could see him on
like Jersey Shore or something like that. He's like bright orange.
His hair stands up like a mile high. Anyway, Senator
(09:49):
Joey Hensley is like, look, man, I I I have
been up here for fourteen years working in the in
the Tennessee legislature, and I can tell you James Polk
is not getting his reverence. Yeah, people don't know he's
buried there. They barely mentioned him on the tour. He's
literally in the shadows of um Jackson and Johnson statues.
Like you said, we got to do something better. Let's
(10:12):
move this guy to his presidential library at his father's
house in Columbia, Tennessee. Yeah, this is a couple of
years ago, in two thousand seventeen, and a lot of
hoops have to be jumped through to move a dead
president's body. Believe it or not. Um. It did pass
the State Senate in March, which was just you know,
like kind of like the first stop to getting this done. Uh.
(10:34):
The governor has to approve it, the House has to
approve it, a local judge, and then most importantly in
this case, the Tennessee Historical Commission has to approve it. Um.
And that's the one that said no, I don't think
you should do that. Yeah, and his his um family
UH is kind of divided about it. Some people are like, yeah,
(10:55):
of course this would be a great place for him,
it's his presidential library, and other people like who right?
But then I and I didn't understand why anybody would
be opposed to moving him if he's not getting his
due in the capital. But the opposition's position seems to
be that he wanted to be buried at Polk Place
in Nashville. Right, Polk Place isn't around anymore, So he's
(11:18):
still buried in Nashville and at the Capitol. Get that
so um. I saw also in two thousand and eighteen,
the issue was brought back up again and it got
voted down by one vote by the state Senate this time.
So he's not going anywhere. It doesn't look like he's
going anywhere. Uh. So you know, if you're ever in Nashville,
go eat some hot chicken. Maybe go cut a record
(11:40):
at Jack White's little Recording booth. Don't forget to pick
up a molda rama while you're there. Pick up a
molda rama and go uh if you want to pay
your respects to James Polk Short stuff out. Stuff You
Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio's How
Stuff Works from more podcast. For my heart Radio, visit
(12:01):
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. H m hm
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