Rutherford B. Hayes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vermont

Hayes' father Rutherford was born in 1787 in Brattleboro, Vermont and his mother Sophia was born in 1792 in Wilmington, Vermont.

Answer: True

Rutherford Hayes died in 1822, 11 weeks before his son Rutherford Birchard was born.

Answer: Harvard

Hayes graduated from Harvard Law School in 1845. Among his teachers at Harvard were Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story and legal scholar Simon Greenleaf.

Answer: 23rd

Hayes served in the 23rd Ohio from June 1861 to June 1865. He rose to the rank of breveted major general by the end of the war.

Answer: Philippines

Hayes was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for service in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. Hayes slipped through enemy lines to get help for his unit.

Answer: US Senator from Ohio

Hayes was city solicitor for Cincinnati from 1858-61, US Representative for Ohio from 1865-67 and Ohio Governor from 1868-72 and again from 1876-77.

Answer: James Blaine

After Grant declined to run for a third term, Blaine, a congressman from Maine and former Speaker of the House, missed winning the nomination on the first ballot by 27 ballots. Blaine would lead every ballot till the seventh, when the stop Blaine movement rallied behind Hayes, gaining him the nomination with only six votes to spare.

Answer: Governor of New York

Tilden served as governor of New York from 1874 to 1876.

Answer: Oregon

The single electoral vote from Oregon was challenged because the Republican elector was a postmaster and was ineligible to serve as an elector. Democrats in Oregon attempted to replace the elector with a Democrat. The issue was eventually sent to Washington to be settled.

Answer: David Davis

David, a friend and teacher in Illinois of Abraham Lincoln, was an independent member of the US Supreme Court, having been appointed to the court by Lincoln. The commission was comprised of five US Senators (three Republican, two Democrats), five US Congressmen (three Democrats, two Republicans) and five US Supreme Court justices (2 Democrat, 2 Republicans and the independent Davis).

However, for some reason, Democrats in the Illinois legislature elected Davis to the US Senate and he resigned from the commission. Since there were no more Democrats on the Supreme Court, a nominal Republican named Joseph Bradley was named to the commission instead. Along a straight party line vote of 8-7, all the contested electorial votes were awarded to Hayes, giving him an 185-184 electorial college victory over Tilden.

Answer: Joseph E. Johnston

Johnston's name was withdrawn when Hayes was told that Johnston's nomination would never clear the Senate. Hayes then nominated David Key of Tennessee as postmaster general, to fulfill the promise.

Answer: Russia

Wine was served at the White House in 1877 when Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovitch of Russia visited the White House.

Answer: France

France owned the rights to land in what is now Panama and work eventually began in 1882. The French investors eventually gave up the idea when their funds dried up. The American building of the canal in the early 20th century followed the same general route as the French effort.

Answer: William Wheeler

Wheeler was from Malone, New York and served two seperate terms in the US House before becoming Hayes' vice-president. Wheeler died in 1887.

Answer: 22 years

Hayes died at home at Spiegel Grove in 1893 and Hayes was laid to rest at Oakwood Cemetary next to his wife Lucy, who had died in 1889. In 1915, they were exhumed and reburied at Spiegel Grove.