250 and Counting

Tag: 1861 deaths

  • August 20, 1775: George Tucker

    Cover art for August 20, 1775: Photo of George Tucker, 1845. Photographer unknown, uploaded to Wikimedia Commons from the University of Virginia Library.

    Lots of prominent early Americans weren’t Americans to begin with. For instance, the first President of the United States who was actually born in the United States would be Martin Van Buren, our eight president.

    But while most of these folks were born on the North American continent, the subject of today’s episode was not. He was born in Bermuda. So while George Tucker was still a British citizen by birth, he didn’t come to America until he was twenty years old, making him an honest-to-goodness immigrant.

    But let’s not hold that against him. As you’ll learn today, Tucker had a long and varied career as a politician, an educator and an author.

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  • May 29, 1775: Nathan Cutler

    Cover art for May 29, 1775: Photo of Nathan Cutler, ca. 1850, photographer unknown.

    By all accounts, Nathan Cutler was an effective lawyer and legislator, as his frequent returns to the Massachusetts Legislature, and later the Maine House of Representatives, will attest.

    And when a governor of the State of Maine died, he was able to step into the role until the term of office expired.

    Cutler could have probably remained Governor, but he’d turned down positions before, so it’s entirely possible that he simply chose not to run again.

    Listen in, it’s an interesting story.

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