Report by: Jaron
5th Grade
Bennion Elementary
Taylorsville, Utah

Mrs. Hansen


Jaron

Introduction
When President Warren G. Harding died by a heart attack, three men rushed to vice-president Coolidge's door. They told Calvin's father that Calvin was now President. John Coolidge told his son the news and then swore his son into the presidency. Then they both went back to sleep for a couple of hours. This is how President Coolidge became president.

Here is the rest of his life story:
Calvin Coolidge was born on Independence Day, 1872. He was born at Plymouth Notch, Vermont. He was born in a five-room, story and a half cottage attached to the post office and general store. His mother had brown hair with a hint of gold in it. His father owned the general store and he had a farm. The neighbors elected Calvin's father as state legislature.
At the age of three, he learned how to ride horseback. That same year, his sister, Abigail, was born.
At age five, Calvin entered Plymouth public school. He didn't learn as fast as his other classmates.
He did lots of chores around the house, including: getting syrup from trees, split firewood, mended fences, drove cattle out into the pasture, planted seeds in the spring, sheared the sheep, and to get vegetables from the fields.
When Coolidge was 12, his mother died. When he was 13, he went to Black River Academy, a private school. At the private school, Calvin Coolidge studied history, mathematics, literature, Latin, and Greek with 125 other students. On weekends, he would visit his family at Plymouth Notch.
When he grew into a teenager, his freckles faded and his red hair turned a sandy color. He didn't like to participate in sports a lot. He also had a sense of humor.
When Calvin was 17 or 18, his sister, Abigail, died, probably due to a burst appendix. Calvin stayed by her bedside until she died.
Calvin graduated that same year, along with eight other students. He wanted to go to college, but he got sick. The next year, Calvin was able to go. Just before he left, he was able to witness his father's marriage to a Plymouth Notch school teacher, Carrie A. Brown.
At Amherst, Massachusetts, Calvin Coolidge went to college. He rented a boardinghouse room near the campus.
Calvin was shy, so he had trouble making friends. His grades also struggled, even though he studied hard. Then in his junior year, his grades started to improve.
Coolidge favored his philosophy professor Charles E. Garman. He taught Calvin of the importance and dignity of work.
As his grades improved, he tried to get more friends. He entered a "Plug Hat Race" in his junior year, which was a race where you had to wear a high silk hat. Coolidge lost. He gradually gained a reputation as a wit. In his senior year, some members of the Phi Gamma Delta social fraternity asked Calvin if he would like to be a part of the fraternity. He answered, "Yes."
His college years ended when he graduated cum laude (with honors) in the spring, 1895.
Coolidge wanted to be of some use to the world, and he decided that becoming a lawyer would be the best way to do it. In September 1895, the law firm of Hammond and Field in Northampton, Massachusetts, hired him as a clerk. He read law books during the days, and during the night, he read history books and improved his writing skills. He even won first place in a national essay contest and got a gold medal worth $150. Then Calvin's boss read about the contest in the newspaper and asked Coolidge why he hadn't told them. Calvin answered, "didn't know you would be interested."
Around Northampton, Coolidge earned himself a reputation of an "odd stick," due to his shyness, but he was also an excellent law student. On June 29, 1897, when he was 25, he took his Massachusetts bar examination and passed.
Then he continued to work as a clerk for seven more months, then he started his own law office. While he was building up clients, he took part in a Republican group. They were so impressed by him they named Coolidge to the city committee. In December 1898 he was elected as a city councilman. His law work grew, and he was doing fine as a lawyer and councilman. Then in 1900, he was elected as an attorney, which he held for two years, and then he served as a clerk for the courts of Hampshire County and the chairman of the Northampton Republican organization.
Calvin lived at Robert Weirs boardinghouse. He fell in love with a teacher at an institute for the deaf nearby. Soon after, he asked her to marry him, and she said "yes." After their brief honeymoon, Calvin Coolidge wanted to get a job on the school board, but lost. A year later, Calvin and Grace Goodhue Coolidge, his wife, celebrated the birth of a son they called John.
In 1906, the Republican leaders in Northampton nominated him as the candidate for the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He won the election by 264 votes. The next year, he arrived in Boston. He worked carefully, and won next year's election. That term, he supported 6-day weekdays instead of seven, safer work conditions, and the right for women to vote. In 1908 Calvin went home, and had another son, Calvin Jr. In 1909, Coolidge ran for mayor. He called on the people as individuals, which helped him win the election by 165 votes.
Mayor Coolidge helped Northampton by lowering taxes, cutting the town's debt in half, expanding police and fire department forces, raised teachers' salaries, and improved the streets and sidewalks.
After his second term as a mayor, he became a senator. Then Calvin became the chairman of a Special Conciliation Committee. He helped end the textile mills strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. On his second term, he extended the New Haven trolley line to Northampton and other cities. When Calvin Coolidge was 41, he became the president of the senate. After two terms of that position, he became lieutenant governor. World War I started then. In 1910, Coolidge was elected as Massachusetts governor. In November of 1918, World War I ended. In the summer of the Boston Police Strike took place. That was where police were complaining about poor work conditions and walked off the job. At night there was chaos in the town. Calvin pulled it all together at the end. As a result of the Boston Police strike, Coolidge suddenly emerged as a national hero. Then the Republicans chose him for a presidential candidate. He was losing until the Republicans decided to nominate Warren G. Harding instead. Calvin was shocked, because he didn't want to be the vice-president. He won that election anyway.
On August 2, 1923, President Harding died of a heart attack and Coolidge was made president. He was sworn in by his father, and they had made the papers that Calvin had to sign. The oath was taken under the most modern source of light there was in the house, a kerosene lamp. He ran the country well, and he fired 3 of his cabinet members for an illegal doing of the "Teapot Dome" scandal.
While he was running for a second term for president, his son, Calvin Jr., died at the age of 16 from a poisoned blister on his toe. Calvin won the election and his vice president was Charles G. Dawes. Calvin was running against John W. Davis, Democrat, and Robert L. Follette from the Progressive party.
During his second term, he just let the country prosper. In the election of 1928 Coolidge chose not to run for president. No one knew why, because Calvin wouldn't tell them. Herbert Hoover became president in 1928.
Calvin Coolidge bought an estate called "The Beaches." He bought it because it was peaceful there.
He was weakening every day. One day he was going up to shave, and he died of a quick heart attack in 1933. He was buried where Abigail (his sister), Victoria (his mother), and Calvin Jr. were buried, in Plymouth Notch.
Calvin Coolidge was a great president, even though he isn't well known. He will always be remembered for his witty sense of humor and his unique way of running the country.