Introduction

The heroes of the Greatest Generation were made well known to us through Tom Brokaw’s best selling book. These were the children of the Great Generation who lived and shaped our nation from the 1870’s to the 1950’s.

They were the principal players in the Spanish American War, The Philippine Insurrection, World War I, The Roaring Twenties, Prohibition, and the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

Calvin Coolidge: His Origins and Career

Calvin Coolidge was born into this Great Generation on July 4, 1872 in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, and died on January 5, 1933 in his home, the Beaches, in Northampton, Massachusetts as the Great Depression was wreaking its havoc on our country.

He received his formal elementary school education at Plymouth Notch and graduated from Black River Academy, Ludlow, Vermont on May 23, 1890. That fall he was on his way to Amherst College when he became ill with a severe cold. He was unable to complete the entrance exams and had to return to Plymouth Notch. In late winter he resumed his preparations for Amherst’s entrance exams at Black River Academy and then went to St. Johnsbury Academy for the spring term. He did so well that the principal, Dr. Putney, gave him a certificate that allowed him to enter Amherst without entrance exams, in the fall of 1891. He graduated from Amherst on June 26, 1895.

Instead of attending a formal law school he took the option of reading law with the Northampton, Massachusetts firm of Hammond and Field from September 23, 1895 until he passed his examination and was admitted to the bar in Northampton, Massachusetts on July 2, 1897.

On December 6, 1898 he was elected to his first public office as City Councilman from Ward 2 in Northampton, Massachusetts. Subsequently he was elected City Solicitor by the City Council from January 18, 1900 to January 16, 1902. He was appointed Clerk of Courts for Hampshire County in Massachusetts on June 9, 1903, and elected Representative to the Massachusetts General Court from November 6, 1906 until November 1908.

With his election as Mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts on December 7, 1909, Coolidge began a continuous career of public service until March 4, 1929.

He was Mayor for two terms (1909 – 1911), and State Senator of Massachusetts from 1911 – 1915, serving as President of the Senate from 1913 – 1915.

On November 2, 1915, he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, serving three terms until November 5, 19l8 when he was elected Governor, serving two terms until November 3, 1920, when he was elected Vice President of the United States.

Just prior to midnight on August 2, 1923, Calvin Coolidge learned of the death of President Warren G. Harding. At 2:45 a.m. on August 3rd, by the light of a kerosene lamp, in the small sitting room of the Coolidge Homestead at Plymouth Notch, Vermont, the ceremony began. His father, a Notary Public, administered the Oath of Office and Calvin advanced from Vice President to become the Thirtieth President of the United States and finish out the rest of Harding’s first term of office.1

Coolidge decided to run for the Presidency. He was nominated as the Republican candidate on June 12, 1924, elected to office on November 4, 1924, and inaugurated on March 4, 1925. At this inauguration, Calvin placed his hand on the Bible opened to the first chapter of the Gospel of John, in memory of his first reading it at the age of six to his grandfather, Calvin Galusha Coolidge, as he lay dying. His grandfather had done the same for his grandfather many years before.(16)

He chose not to run for a second term of his own and returned to Northampton, Massachusetts on March 4, 1929 following the inauguration of Herbert Hoover.

Endnote

1 The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, New York, N.Y., 1929,1989 edition, p. 173-76. This and subsequent quotations from the Autobiography are used with the gracious permission of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, Plymouth Notch, Vermont.