Climbing the right branch
The story of a President and a First Lady
In a prior Silent Sod post, I mentioned that I had recently read the account of a man named Major Archibald Butt, who was a victim on the Titanic and served as a military aide to both Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. After finishing the first volume of this enormous three volume set by author George Behe, I made a visit to the childhood home of William Howard Taft in April 2024 and picked up a book about his wife, Helen Herron Taft, who most commonly went by her nickname “Nellie.”1
Nellie was the daughter of a lawyer named John W. Herron. She grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and during her teenage years made a visit to the White House to visit President Rutherford B. Hayes with her father.2
Nellie’s visit to the White House had a strong impact on her hopes for the trajectory of her life. She decided that she would marry a man who would become president. She later met and married William Howard Taft, who worked as a judge and himself dreamed of obtaining a seat on the Supreme Court. Whenever Taft mentioned his excitement about possibilities for advancement in his judicial career, Nellie was noted to become very tense. She believed Taft was going down the wrong career path and that his true calling was to be president.
Inspired by the book about Nellie, my sister and I made a visit to a house in Cincinnati that the Taft couple moved into for a few years after their marriage. The house has a beautiful view over the Ohio River and Cincinnati. I could imagine Nellie looking out of the windows, pondering the happenings of her husband’s career, hoping for the break that would be soon to come when he accepted a post in the Philippines that would eventually lead to his upward movement to the presidency. He would obtain the position of Secretary of War to President Theodore Roosevelt and go on to clinch the Republican nomination for president in 1908.
Sarah and I also made a visit to the Taft Art Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. This was President Taft’s half brother's home, and President Taft accepted the Republican nomination from this porch. On the day Taft accepted his nomination, Nellie would have been able to see the house that she grew up in across the street. I could picture Nellie looking out to her childhood home as she realized that her long held dream of being married to a president was within reach.
Taft admittedly did not thrive as a president because it was not what he wanted to do. He did play an important role in trust busting and pushing through the Sixteenth Amendment, which allowed the federal government to collect its largest source of revenue, income taxes. The amendment overturned a previous decision by the Supreme Court, Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co., that made it impossible to collect a national income tax.3 Taft lost after one term in 1912 to Woodrow Wilson, to which he admitted a sense of relief.
Taft eventually had his dream come true when President Warren Harding appointed him for a seat on the Supreme Court. After declining offers in previous times at the advice of Nellie, he finally got to do what he wanted. He enjoyed walking to his job at the Supreme Court and was able to lose the weight he had tried to for many years.4
Of note, Taft’s funeral was attended by members of all races in Washington D.C. even though the city was segregated at the time due to policies put in place by Woodrow Wilson. Nellie ensured that his cherished judge’s robe was placed into his coffin, seemingly a nod to her acceptance that Taft had found himself in his rightful branch, the judicial branch.5
Anthony, Carl Sferrazza. February 21, 2006. Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era. William Morrow Paperbacks. 1.
Anthony, Carl Sferrazza. February 21, 2006. Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era. William Morrow Paperbacks. 32.
Findlaw Staff, July 29, 2022, Income Tax Under the Sixteenth Amendment, Findlaw, https://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment16.html
Anthony, Carl Sferrazza. February 21, 2006. Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era. William Morrow Paperbacks. 374-376
Anthony, Carl Sferrazza. February 21, 2006. Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era. William Morrow Paperbacks. 389-390.
Love that we were able to visit these sites together.