Chester A. Arthur and General Grant

 September 27, 2024

After a wonderful breakfast at the Inn, I headed north to Fairfield, Vermont.   Because of a mistake in my hotel booking, I ended up in upstate Vermont a day earlier than intended. This was going to get in the way of the Chester A. Arthur house as they are only open on Saturdays and Sundays, and I now found myself there on Friday.  When I discovered my problem, I talked with the owner of the bed-and-breakfast who told me she knew the tour guide, and arrangements were made for a one-on-one tour on Friday when the house was not open to the public.   Jane is a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable tour guide and I learned a whole lot about Chester A. Arthur.

Arthur’s father was a Baptist preacher who started in Fairfield.   They moved a lot and most of his experiences seem to be in New York State    He was a beneficiary of the patronage and spoils system in New York City and was basically handpicked for the vice presidency by the Political Machine after about 34 ballots, as Garfield was going to need the support of New York State.   

Garfield was assassinated early in his term by a disgruntled office seeker, and Arthur decided to honor the plans of his predecessor.   Under Arthur’s administration, serious steps were taken to dismantle the patronage and spoils system, and it was Arthur who started the Civil Service Commission.

During his administration he was becoming quite ill, but kept it secret. He did not seek the nomination and died a few years later.

The house is a replica and there are almost no artifacts in it. The guy at the bed-and-breakfast told me that at one point, thieves got into the house and loaded all the antiques on a trailer and disappeared. There is a lot of information on display boards, but this is such a low-key operation by the state that there’s not even a gift shop. As a matter of fact, many of the gift shops that I have been in cover more space than the Arthur home! 

From here I headed west across Lake Champlain, and into New York State. My route took me so far north that at one point, had I turned right I would have been crossing into Canada. I took the interstate down to Wilton, New York, not far from Saratoga Springs, to the Grant Cottage.   This is where President Grant spent his final days, finishing his memoirs. It became very important that these memoirs be finished as the family was going to depend upon the proceeds for their livelihood.    Grant had been sending articles about the Civil War to a magazine, but Mark Twain took over as his publisher, I guess, and gave him a much better deal. He died about three days after finishing the book. He was miserable in his last days and died of throat cancer. The book became a best seller and is still in print today.  I bought a copy.  It is one of the most respected presidential memoirs ever written. 

I think I was expecting a log cabin, but it was a very nice house that a friend arranged for him to live in. Former presidents, even up until Truman, did not get a government pension.  One of the staff at the site was in full Costume as General Grant.    

My final stop was on the edge of Albany at a very large and old cemetery where I found the grave of President Chester A Arthur. I had been shown pictures showing the angel at the monument had been restored at some point.  there is loose change on the monument, which I guess is a tradition from somewhere.

I find myself with some time on my hands, and I am tired of going in and out of hotels, so I booked a room at the best western in Troy, right on the Hudson river, from where I will visit Cooperstown, the Erie Canal, some covered bridges and Martin Van Buren’s home .

Across the street from the hotel and right on the river is a restaurant, Dinosaur Barbecue.   I had a combination plate and an Oktoberfest beer served in a brandy snifter! Don’t judge me!  In Houston I like New York bagels, so why not get barbecue in New York?