While working part-time as a tour guide at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum in Staunton, Heather Cole thought of an idea for a nonfiction book: United States presidents who born in Virginia.
“Virginia’s Presidents: A History & Guide,” published by Arcadia in January 2023, includes biographical information about the eight presidents born in the Commonwealth: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Woodrow Wilson.
But the book also serves as a travel guide for readers to visit each of the Virginia sites where the presidents were born, including Wilson’s birthplace in Staunton.
“If you didn’t know, it is a thing that people go around and visit all the presidential homes. So [at WWPL] I kept bumping into people who were checking [sites] off their list,” Cole said. “And at the time, I was like ‘it would be great to give people a guide to here is all the places you can go to visit the places that talk about [Virginia presidents].'”
Cole, who grew up near Allentown, Penn. and lived in Boston before moving to Staunton. She is editor and director of media relations for Bridgewater College. Her career as a nonfiction writer began before the book about Virginia’s presidents when she worked in a museum in Massachusetts and wrote books about local history. The focus was on New England’s lengthy history in America.
Harrison, born in Charles City County, was the ninth president of the U.S. and served for only one month before dying of a cold because he did not wear a coat while giving his inaugural speech. Harrison’s VP Tyler, the 10th president, was also born in Charles City County. Tayler, the 12th president, was born in Barboursville.
Cole visited all of the presidential sites again, including Wilson’s family home in Augusta County, Georgia and where he lived in Washington D.C. after he was president.
More U.S. presidents were born in Virginia than in any other state. In May 2024, Cole’s book “Ohio’s Presidents: A History & Guide” will be published.
“It’s a similar project,” Cole said of visiting the presidential homes and birthplaces of all seven U.S. presidents who were born in Ohio, including Ulysses S. Grant.
Rutherford B. Hayes, who served only one term and was a Republican, was elected because he promised to end Reconstruction in the South. Afterward, the Jim Crow era of U.S. history began and the Ku Klux Klan was established. Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of William Henry Harrison, was born in Ohio. James Garfield and William McKinley were both assassinated while serving in office. William Howard Taft actually wanted to become a Supreme Court Justice. His running for president against Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson split the Republican vote and allowed Wilson’s victory in 1912. Warren Harding owned a newspaper in Marion, Ohio before he became president in the 1920s.
“The press loved him because he knew how to play it,” Cole said.
“Virginia’s Presidents: A History & Guide” is available at The Book Dragon Shop in Staunton, the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library gift shop, the Food Lion on Coalter Street in Staunton and several other bookstores and gift shops across Virginia.
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Rebecca Barnabi
