How The Presidents Died
George Washington's death was the result of a severe cold contracted
while riding around his farm in a rain and sleet storm on Dec. 10, 1799.
The cold increased and was followed by a chill, which brought on acute
laryngitis. He died at the age of 68, on Dec. 14, 1799.
John Adams died from old age, having reached his ninety-first milestone.
Though active mentally, he was nearly blind and unable to hold a pen
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steadily enough to write. He passed away without pain on July 4, 1826.
Thomas Jefferson died at the age of eighty-three, a few hours before
Adams, on July 4, 1826. His disease was chronic diarrhoea, superinduced
by old age, and his physician said the too free use of the waters of the
white sulphur springs.
James Madison also died of old age, and peacefully, on June 28, 1836.
His faculties were undimmed to the last. He was eighty-five.
James Monroe's demise, which occurred in the seventy-third year of his
age, on July 4, 1831, was assigned to enfeebled health.
John Quincy Adams was stricken with paralysis on Feb. 21, 1848, while
addressing the Speaker of the House of Representatives, being at the
time a member of Congress. He died in the rotunda of the Capitol. He was
eighty-one years of age.
Andrew Jackson died on June 8, 1845, seventy-eight years old. He
suffered from consumption and finally dropsy, which made its appearance
about six months before his death.
Martin Van Buren died on July 24, 1862, from a violent attack of asthma,
followed by catarrhal affections of the throat and lungs. He was eighty
years of age.
William Henry Harrison's death was caused by pleurisy, the result of a
cold, which he caught on the day of his inauguration. This was
accompanied with severe diarrhoea, which would not yield to medical
treatment. He died on April 4, 1841, a month after his inauguration. He
was sixty-eight years of age.
John Tyler died on Jan. 17, 1862, at the age of seventy-two. Cause of
death, bilious colic.
James K. Polk was stricken with a slight attack of cholera in the spring
of 1849, while on a boat going up the Mississippi River. Though
temporarily relieved, he had a relapse on his return home and died on
June 15, 1849, aged fifty-four years.
Zachary Taylor was the second President to die in office. He is said to
have partaken immoderately of ice water and iced milk, and then later of
a large quantity of cherries. The result was an attack of cholera
morbus. He was sixty-six years old.
Millard Fillmore died from a stroke of paralysis on March 8, 1874, in
his seventy-fourth year.
Franklin Pierce's death was due to abdominal dropsy, and occurred on
Oct. 8, l869, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.
James Buchanan's death occurred on June 1, 1868, and was caused by
rheumatic gout. He was seventy-seven years of age.
Abraham Lincoln was shot by J. Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater,
Washington, D. C., on April 14, 1865, and died the following day, aged
fifty-six.
Andrew Johnson died from a stroke of paralysis July 31, 1875, aged
sixty-seven.
U. S. Grant died of cancer of the tongue, at Mt. McGregor, N. Y., July
3, 1885.
James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2. 1881. Died
Sept. 19, 1881.
Chester A. Arthur, who succeeded Garfield, died suddenly of apoplexy in
New York City, Nov. 18, 1886.
Rutherford B. Hayes died Jan. 17, 1803, the result of a severe cold
contracted in Cleveland, Ohio.
Benjamin Harrison died March 13, 1901. Cause of death, pneumonia.
William McKinley was assassinated Sept. 14, 1901.
Grover Cleveland died on June 24, 1908, of debility, aged 71.