Grover Cleveland, Democrat twice elected President of the United States, b. 1837. Read his obituary in the New York Times. He died when Teddy Roosevelt was president in 1908. The most interesting thing I read in the obituary was that, according to his friends, Cleveland died leaving a wife and four young children with not very much money.

“When Mr. Cleveland left the White House the last time, and for many years thereafter,” said one of his intimates yesterday, “he had, together with his wife, about $10,000 a year. His income often worried him exceedingly, especially as he saw his family growing up about him, and knew their future was not as well provided for as he could wish. He would not accept anything from his friends; he was extremely proud on that score, but those who know him best knew that his circumstances worried him not a little.”

Can you imagine an ex-president in this day and time becoming impoverished–or even “worried about his income”? Apparently, presidential retirement is much more lucrative than it used to be. I’ve read stories of Grant feverishly finishing his memoirs on his deathbed in order to provide for his family or his widow when he was gone.

Wilfred Owen, World War I poet, b. 1893. He was a friend of Siegfried Sassoon. Unfortunately, while Sassoon survived the war, Owen died seven days before the end of WW I in November, 1918.