Andrew Johnson: The Kirkwood Inaugural

Andrew Johnson is one of the most unlikely US Presidents

The Unlikely POTUS

Beginning with Andrew Jackson in 1828, and into the 20th century, the White House was the home of some of the most unlikely men who ever rose to the office of President.

With rare exception, they came from undistinguished families; certainly far from wealthy, and in several cases, downright poor. Most of them had limited resources other than their own natural abilities and talents – and an intense desire to better their lot. And luck.

Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) would arguably be at the bottom of the barrel in a list of unlikely-undistinguished. His parents were uneducated menial servants in a tavern. His father died when Andrew was two. His mother remarried a man just as poor and uneducated as her first husband. In his youth, Andrew and his older brother were apprenticed out to a tailor as…