The 12th President of the United States- Zachery Taylor died at the age of 65 on this day in 1850. “Old Rough and Ready” had a 40 year military career, he was a hero in the Mexican-American War Taylor showed little interest in politics until he ran for president. The first time he voted was when he voted for himself for president. He is the last president to have owned slaves. His time in office-16 months is the third shortest of any president. Most historians ranking of president have him ranked somewhere between 25- and 35th best president.

On July 4th of 1850 Taylor lived it up a little too much. After attending celebrations dealing with the 4th and attending the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument, Taylor consumed huge amounts of iced water, cold milk, green apples and cherries. Within days he had become severely ill with an unknown digestive ailment. He died at age 65 in the morning on July 9th. The cause of death is believed to have been gastroenteritis. He was succeeded in office by Millard Fillmore. Taylor was the second president to die in office, William Henry Harrision was the first.

There had been rumours that Taylor had been assassinated-poisoned. Finally in 1991 he was exhumed and samples of hair, fingernail and other tissues were removed and studied. No signs of poisioning were found. The analysis concluded that he had contacted acute gastroenteritis from contaminated food or drink-Washington still had open sewers at the time. Any hope that “Old Rough and Ready” would recover from his illness was snuffed out by his doctors who treated him with ipecac,calomel, opium and quininie and bled and blistered him too. He is buried in Louisville, Kentucky.

His daughter Sarah Knox Taylor was briefly married to the future President of the Confederacy-Jefferson Davis [married to him against Taylor’s wishes} soon after the marriage both Knox and Davis got malaria. Davis survived but Knox Taylor died at 19. Davis served under Taylor in the Mexican-American War. After Davis distinguished himself at the “Battle of Buena Vista” Taylor would say of Davis “My daughter was a better judge of men then I was”