Weird History: 13

Behind Every Good Man

President Woodrow Wilson on October 2, 1919, suffered a severe stroke where he was incapacitated and bedridden.

Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, the president’s wife, did more than just take control of the president’s recovery, she also took control of the presidency. She would bring important papers to Woodrow, explaining them to him, but what she was really doing was making presidential decisions in his place. For the next six weeks she was the true power in the White House.

She has been labeled the “secret president” and even the “first female president of the United States. Mrs. Wilson was criticized and ridiculed by many as the “presidentress” who was running a “petticoat government.”

On a side note: Every U.S. President with a beard has been a Republican. They are Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, and Benjamin Harrison.