Margaret Taylor

Margaret "Peggy" Mackall Taylor (née Smith; September 21, 1788 – August 14, 1852) was the first lady of the United States from 1849 to 1850 as the wife of President Zachary Taylor. She married Zachary in 1810 and lived as an army wife, accompanying her husband to his postings in the American frontier. She had six children, two of whom died in childhood while the remaining four were sent to boarding schools in the eastern United States. After a brief period of stable domestic life in the 1840s, her husband was elected President of the United States to her dismay in 1848. She managed the White House from the upstairs residence while she delegated her responsibilities as White House hostess to her daughter. She was highly reclusive throughout her tenure as first lady, which ended abruptly with her husband's death in 1850. She lived in obscurity until her death two years later. Early life and education Margaret Mackall Smith was born on September 21, 1788, in Calvert County, Maryland. Her father was Walter Smith, a prosperous Maryland planter from a prominent family and a veteran officer of the American Revolution. Her mother was Ann Mackall Smith. Smith was homeschooled, learning skills that would allow her to fulfill a domestic role. These included reading and writing, arithmetic, music, embroidery, dancing, and riding. When Smith was ten years old, her mother died. She would thereafter live with her mother's parents. As an adult, Smith was educated at a finishing school in New York City. When her father died in 1804, she moved in with her sister in Louisville, Kentucky. She met Lieutenant Zachary Taylor while in Kentucky in 1809, and after a seven month long courtship, she married him on June 21, 1810 in her sister's log house. Frontier life The Taylors lived on the American frontier, regularly moving to different camps and barracks. Margaret was one of the few military wives that accompanied their husbands into the frontier, though there were also long periods of separation when Margaret was unable to travel with Zachary. While in the frontier, they had six children: Ann Mackall in 1811, Sarah Knox in 1814, Octavia Pannill in 1816, Margaret Smith in 1819, Mary Elizabeth in 1824, and their only son Richard in 1826. She was forced to raise them in the sub-optimal conditions of military camps. When they came of school age, they were sent to the Eastern United States with relatives.