President: William H. Taft

Wife: Helen Herron (1861-1943), on June 19, 1886

Kids: Robert Alphonso Taft (1889-1953); Helen Herron Taft (1891-1987); Charles Phelps Taft (1897-1983)

Pets: Wayne the cow

Bio: William Howard Taft (1857-1930), was the 27th President Of The United States and 10th chief justice of the United States. Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Sept. 15, 1857. His father, Alphonse, was a lawyer who served in President Ulysses S. Grant’s cabinet. William grew up in Cincinnati, and graduated with distinction from Yale in 1878,and then from Cincinnati Law School in 1880. He got a job as the assistant prosecuting attorney of Hamilton county, but yearned for a judicial post. In 1887, a year after marrying Helen Herron of Cincinnati, he was appointed to an Ohio superior court vacancy in 1887.

In 1890, Taft moved to Washington to fill the post of solicitor general under McKinley. He then held a succession of positions including U.S. judge for the 6th district, civil governor of the Philippines, and Secretary of War under Roosevelt.

He accepted the Republican nomination and was elected in 1908. Taft continued the agenda of Roosevelt’s administration by working diligently to break up monopolies and promote conservation. Taft also helped to create the Department of Labor, and annexed Arizona and New Mexico, the last of the 48 contiguous states.

After retirement, Taft served as professor of law at Yale University and joint chairman of the National War Labor Board during World War I. In 1921, President Harding appointed Taft to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Suffering from heart disease, Taft retired from the court on Feb. 3, 1930. A little over a month later, he died in Washington, D.C., on March 8, 1930.