First Pets: Four-Legged or Feathered Friends of President Grover Cleveland

The White House welcomes presidential pets, but for President Grover Cleveland, maybe the government should have supplied a farm, too.

An 1894 article from the Chicago Daily Tribune about Cleveland's pets called the president and first lady Frances Cleveland animal lovers, adding, “Scattered through the broad demesne belonging to the Chief Magistrate are myriads of hares running wild in the grounds and furnishing rare sport for the foxhounds and dachshounds [sic] belonging to Mrs. Cleveland.”

Vote Now: Who Was the Greatest American President?

Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the U.S. He was one of two Democrats elected to the presidency during the Republican political domination that took place between the 1860s through the 1930s. Unfortunately for Cleveland, his second term was marked by a national depression which went on to ruin the name of the Democratic Party, and led way to the Fourth Party System and the birth of the Progressive Era.

While his presidency ended on negative terms, Cleveland's character remained intact through the troubles of his second term. He went on to be a trustee for Princeton University and continued to write and speak on political matters.

Biographer Allan Nevins wrote: “In Grover Cleveland the greatness lies in typical rather than unusual qualities. He had no endowments that thousands of men do not have. He possessed honesty, courage, firmness, independence, and common sense. But he possessed them to a degree other men did not.”

Latest: Tell Us About Your Pets! Which Do You Have?

Grover and Frances Cleveland had five children together: Ruth, Esther, Marion, Richard and Francis. Their home was not just for the two-legged beings, though. In all, the family owned 15 different breeds of animals, according to the Presidential Pet Museum:

• A poodle belonging to Frances Cleveland
• Ducks
• Shawineck game chickens
• Kittens
• Quail
• White rats
• Foxhounds
• Grover Cleveland's prized fawn
• A Cocker spaniel
• A Collie
• A St. Bernard
• Dachshunds
• Canaries and mockingbirds belonging to Frances Cleveland
• Ponies
• Imported fish

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