Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born in Ohio in 1822 a couple months after his father died of typhus. Two of his siblings died before he was born and when he was two, his brother drowned while ice skating. As a result, his mother became very protective of her two remaining children.

Rud (as he was called) was 7 before she allowed him to play with other children and 9 before she let him play sports. He was very close with his older sister Fanny who was a tomboy and superb rifle shot. They loved hunting, fishing, rowing, sailing, swimming, skating, riding, and reading. They would share irreverent jokes and puns their pious mother didn’t approve of. (Throughout his life, he never officially joined a church, although he attended services regularly.) George Washington was his hero and he would memorize patriotic speeches of famous Americans.

In addition to his mother, Rud was also raised by his well-off bachelor uncle Sardis who was like a father to him. His mother’s cousin and two lodgers also lived with the family. When he was 8, the schoolmaster flogged the students and once threw a knife into a wall just above the head of a boy who was whispering near him.

He kept a journal throughout his life. When he was 11, he witnessed an old man cut his own throat during a Fourth of July celebration and was so horrified, he thought he’d never again desire the glories of the battlefield.

At 13, he began attending Norwalk Seminary, then later Webb’s Preparatory School in Connecticut. He started attending Kenyon College when he was 16. He liked to use “werry” in place of “very”. While ice skating, he came close to drowning in eight feet of water when the ice cracked under him (just how his brother died) but he was pulled out by others. He initially disliked the faculty. (When his sister urged him to like his teachers, he replied , “I do like them – a great ways off.”)

Hunting was against college rules, but Rud would hunt and cook game in his room anyway. There was a religious revival in Kenyon in 1839 in which the entire student body was converted except 10 holdouts. Rud was one of the holdouts. He loved debating in school and was drawn towards politics. He studied diligently and was named valedictorian, but remained a fun-loving, light-hearted young man.

He would ridicule his own voracious appetite: “A fly in a pot of honey, a pig in the clover, a toad in a gutter, – O pshaw, out with it, – Hayes at the dinner table!” He constantly teased his mother and sister in his letters to them. His mother was a member of a temperance society and Rud joked that he had enough self-control to avoid becoming a teetotaler.

His sister Fanny, after giving birth to her second child, became mentally deranged, as a result of postpartum psychosis and was admitted to an asylum for several months. When she got out, she was happy to see her brother again and they resumed making fun of each other like always.

After graduation, he studied law under a mentor for a year before going to Harvard Law School. A longtime Whig, he wanted Clay to win the 1844 election, but bet on Polk, so if his man lost, he’d still have the consolation of winning some money from the bet.

He started practicing law in Lower Sandusky (later renamed Fremont) where his uncle lived. It was a small town, so there wasn’t much competition. It was a good place for a new lawyer to get started. Although he regarded the Mexican War as one of Polk’s blunders, he rejoiced at the victories of Zachary Taylor, a fellow Whig. He observed that the main purpose of the war – to add more slave territory to the union – was increasing anti-slavery sentiment.

His mother and sister were urging him to marry, but he delayed a few years. His sister joked that he already had a wrinkle on his brow and should marry before he became an old bachelor. His mother introduced him to Lucy Webb, who was almost 16. She was nine years younger than him. His sister said she was too young for him, but he replied that “Youth, however, is a defect that she is fast getting away from and may perhaps be entirely rid of before I shall want her.” The fact she was too young to marry had the added benefit of allowing him to delay marriage a bit longer.

Hayes joined the temperance movement (although he wasn’t in favor of total abstinence) and campaigned for Taylor. His friend took him on a tour of Texas. When he returned, a cholera epidemic was raging, killing some people on his boat, as well as one of the women he was courting in Ohio. Once the cholera subsided, he moved to Cincinnati to expand his law practice.

He didn’t get much business at first, but occupied himself by exercising at a gymnasium, attending lectures, watching plays, reading books, attending the Episcopal Church, and joining the Odd Fellows and the Cincinnati Literary Society. He met Ralph Waldo Emerson at the literary society and was not impressed, although later in life he would call himself a worshipper of Emerson. He also visited Lucy Webb at Wesleyan, although she didn’t remember him at first. He saw other women and helped his uncle settle a property dispute case.

At a wedding, he was a groomsman and Lucy a bridesmaid. When the cake was cut, Hayes discovered a gold ring in his slice and gave it to Lucy, telling her he would be hers if she found that agreeable, but she didn’t take him seriously.

They eventually got engaged on his “lucky” Friday the 13th of June 1851. Earlier in the day, Hayes saw a woman about to be trampled by a runaway horse. He saved her by pushing her into a doorway and, being the proper Victorian, he also apologized for grabbing her so unceremoniously.

Hayes and Lucy married about a year and a half later. They hid nothing from each other. She had access to his diary and would sometimes write in it herself. She convinced him to give up drinking completely, to attend church with her, and to become more anti-slavery (her family had freed their slaves when she was a child and they had stayed on as servants). Hayes’ uncle Sardis didn’t allow any black people under his roof, so whenever Hayes visited his uncle, Lucy would stay at home because her servant and friend Winnie Monroe wasn’t welcome. Their first son was born in 1853. They bought a house by borrowing money from Hayes’ mother and uncle.

He had a couple high-profile murder cases as a lawyer. He saved a woman from the gallows by having her declared insane. He began defending runaway slaves, including the high-profile Rosetta Armstead case in which a slaveholder freed Rosetta in front of witnesses, then later changed his mind and declared her a runaway slave. Hayes won her freedom.

His sister Fanny died on July 16, 1856 after giving birth to twins who also didn’t survive. Ruddy was devastated and envied those who believed in an afterlife.

After the Whig party disbanded, Hayes eventually aligned with the new anti-slavery Republican party. He campaigned for Fremont who lost to Buchanan.

He was elected to city solicitor of Cincinnati and once won $250,000 for the city from a railroad. The increased pay allowed him and Lucy to pay off their mortgage and make an addition to their house.

Hayes first met Abraham Lincoln during the famous McCormick reaper patent case in 1855. They renewed their acquaintance when Lincoln was in Cincinnati in 1859 after the Lincoln-Douglas debates had made him a celebrity.

When the Civil War broke out, Hayes joined as a major in the 23rd Regiment of the Ohio Volunteers and got his brother-in-law Joe Webb appointed the regiment’s surgeon. He thought army life was fun. After a few skirmishes in western Virginia, he was made judge advocate and later lieutenant colonel. He employed some runaway slaves as cooks and servants in the 23rd and urged his uncle Sardis to find work for some runaway slaves he sent to Ohio.

In September 1862, Hayes and the 23rd spearheaded the assault on Turner’s Gap. A musket ball hit his arm just above the elbow, fracturing his bone, leaving a gaping hole, and bruising his ribs. He had to sit down and drifted in and out of consciousness while the battle raged around him. Believing that he was about to die, he struck up a conversation with a wounded Confederate soldier, giving him messages to deliver to his family and friends.

The Battle of South Mountain was a Union victory, although 130 of Hayes’ men were killed. By his 40th birthday, Hayes was promoted to colonel after he recovered from his wound. In May 1863, while his family was visiting him at Camp White, his eighteen-month-old son Joe suddenly sickened and died.

The 23rd led another assault taking Cloyd’s Mountain, then Hayes pushed on to destroy the bridge at New River. When he ordered his men to take cover, one soldier refused to obey as long as Hayes himself was exposed. An exploding shell fatally wounded the soldier. The men administering first aid were shocked to discover the soldier was a woman.

On the day they destroyed the Virginia Central Railroad, Hayes and General Crook felt lucky because Hayes had spied the new moon over his right shoulder and Crook had found a four-leaf clover.

While Hayes was fighting battles, friends back home nominated him for Congress and he won the election. Also, his fifth son was born. During his last battle at Cedar Creek, Hayes’ horse was killed underneath him. He fell, injuring his ankle and got knocked unconscious. Some of his men assumed he was dead and his death was reported in the press. When he regained consciousness, he escaped from the Confederates, but got hit in the head with a ball, which only gave him a shock since it had first passed through someone else. His wife Lucy helped nurse him and other soldiers back to health. He was promoted to brigadier general shortly after.

During the course of the war, he’d been wounded five times, and had four horses shot from under him. He loved the 23rd and refused promotions that would take him away from his men. They kept their marching band longer than most regiments which tricked the enemy into thinking they were a bigger division than they really were. He would often tell his men to yell like devils when they charged which intimidated the enemy into falling back.

He described the weather in Kernstown as “colder than any huckleberry pudding I know of.” Believed he was lucky. Used the word “absquatulated” meaning fled.

As a congressman, he was in favor of giving black men the vote, the Civil Rights Act, and the Reconstruction Bill. While he was in congress, his son George died of scarlet fever.

While he was campaigning for governor of Ohio, his daughter Fanny (named after his sister) was born. He was elected and urged Ohio to give the vote to black men, but the legislature was dominated by Democrats who refused. While governor, he oversaw the construction of the Ohio Deaf and Dumb Asylum (he had an uncle who was deaf, his oldest son was slightly deaf, and his daughter Fanny also had hearing problems). He supported the impeachment of President Johnson.

He won reelection, which he partly attributed to seeing the moon over his right shoulder. This time, the legislature was majority Republican and Ohio ratified the 15th Amendment giving black men the vote. With this accomplished, he naively thought civil rights were settled and he decided to not seek another term.

His wife Lucy was instrumental in establishing an orphans’ home at Xenia. Hayes disliked the death penalty and commuted the sentences of three or four people (although he had approved the execution of a deserter during the Civil War.) He helped the victims of the Chicago fire by asking for donations and making a donation himself.

After leaving the governor’s office he ran for Congress again but didn’t get elected. His eighth child Manning Force was born and died about a year later.

Hayes was elected to governor again and got the Republican nomination for president. Samuel J. Tilden got the Democratic nomination. In southern states, the Democratic party used murder to intimidate black people and keep them from voting and they didn’t count the votes of black people who did manage to vote. The Republicans gave up any hope of winning most of the southern states. However, South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana were still controlled by Republican returning boards which could throw out votes obtained through fraud and violence. The Republicans engaged in fraud of their own to counterbalance the Democrat’s fraud.

In Florida, repeaters, stuffed ballot boxes, and Democratic ballots printed with the Republican symbol to trick illiterate voters made it impossible to determine who had really won. Returns from remote areas had been altered. Tilden’s nephew tried to buy off returning board members while Farwell bought people off for the Republicans.

When the Republican boards decided the election for Hayes, as well as the state-level positions, the Democrats organized rival state governments in the three states. They ended up with two sets of electors. Who won the election depended on which electors you counted.

It was decided a commission of 5 senators, 5 representatives, and 5 Supreme Court justices would decide who won. It would be evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats except for 1 of the Supreme Court justices who was politically independent. However, the independent, David Davis, refused to serve on the commission after the Democrats tried to buy his support by making him a senator. A Republican took his place, making a Hayes win inevitable.

However, southerners filibustered to prevent the certification of the election until Republicans, including President Grant and spokesmen for Hayes (Hayes himself stayed out of it) promised troops would be withdrawn from Louisiana and South Carolina. Hayes was finally declared the winner of the election at 4:10AM on March 2, 1877, the day before Hayes was sworn into office.

Hayes traveled to Washington in the company of his family, William McKinley, William Henry Smith, and William K. Rogers. If that wasn’t enough Williams, he was welcomed by William T. Sherman when he arrived at Washington.

He appointed a southern Democrat to postmaster general in the hopes this would help heal the nation. He promised not to run for a second term and even proposed a constitutional amendment to limit presidents to a single six-year term. He made many enemies among the Republicans by not appointing anyone to his cabinet who had served in Grant’s cabinet, who had run for president against him, or who were recommended by them. He instead rewarded people who had helped make him president. Hayes also nominated Frederick Douglas, “the most distinguished and able colored man in the Nation” to be marshal for the District of Columbia.

The White House had a telephone, but since so few people had one, it was useless and he communicated mainly by telegraph. He preferred to write by hand, ignoring the newly-invented typewriter. Hayes traveled a lot, making speeches throughout the country to help political campaigns.

Hayes delayed the troop withdrawal. Democrats, who controlled the House of Representatives, vowed to cut military funding. Public opinion in the north was more concerned with the economic depression going on than the civil rights of black people. Faced with the political impracticability of continuing to use troops to uphold state governments, Hayes ultimately decided to betray the Republicans in South Carolina and Louisiana who put him into the White House by withdrawing their military protection.

The Republican governors of the two states were replaced by Democrats. Hayes got the incoming governors to promise to treat black people the same as white, promises which they didn’t keep. They immediately set about disenfranchising black people and did nothing to protect them.

Hayes next turned to civil service reform. The current system awarded civil services jobs to the political party that won the election whether they were qualified or not. Hayes wanted civil servants to be appointed based on merit and experience and for them to not lose their jobs every election. He angered his brother-in-law Dr. Joe Webb, who had saved his life during the Civil War, by not appointing him surgeon general of the Marine Hospital Service. Hayes had vowed that no one related to him by blood or marriage would be appointed to office. Dr. Webb died a few years later having never forgiven Hayes.

Hayes appointed 18 women to be postmistresses, which angered male chauvinists. He reformed the corrupt New York customhouse (dismissing future president Chester A. Arthur and others) which angered Senator Roscoe Conkling who called him “Rutherfraud”. (Hayes was hypocritical on reform, however, and made many appointments for political reasons.) When Arthur became president, he got even by dismissing Hayes’ appointees.

His civil service reform wasn’t a complete success, however, by the end of his administration, senators and congressmen could no longer control appointments, they could only suggest nominees. So he managed to improve things a little bit.

In July 1877, railroad workers went on strike due to multiple pay cuts on top of 12-hour days and unsafe working conditions. They stopped freight trains (but not passenger trains). The strike spread throughout the country and became known as The Great Strike. Dozens died in the fighting between state militias and strikers. There was looting and burning. Hayes sent in troops to keep the peace and protect property, but not to be strikebreakers who operated the trains as the train companies wanted. Federal troops didn’t kill anyone.

Newspapers blamed the strike on communists. The Marxist Workingmen’s party, just established the previous year, didn’t start the strikes, but did use them as a recruiting tool and went on to organize a nonviolent strike in St. Louis calling for an eight-hour workday and forbidding employment by children under 14.

The public was on the strikers’ side. The railroad companies improved working conditions and restored worker’s pay. Hayes thought about regulating railroads so this wouldn’t happen again, but when the economy improved, he forgot about it.

To prevent Mexican cattle rustlers from escaping justice by crossing the border, Hayes authorized the military to cross the border to punish outlaws. Mexico sent troops to the border to protest. This could have led to war. Hayes’ old colonel William S. Rosecrans wanted Hayes to annex more land from Mexico, but Hayes didn’t want to do that. The US troops worked with Mexican authorities to catch outlaws and eventually were no longer needed.

In 1855, the federal government guaranteed the Nez Percé could remain in their ancestral homeland in the Oregon area. However, when gold was discovered, white settlers trespassed onto Nez Percé land and didn’t leave. President Grant ordered the Nez Percé to leave. When Hayes took office, they were expelled to a reservation in Idaho, but some of them went on a rampage killing over a dozen white settlers. Over 300 died in the Nez Percé War, which could have been avoided if Hayes had abided by the 1855 treaty and let them stay on their land.

Hayes, however, learned from his mistake. When Chief Moses refused to move to a reservation, Hayes sent in the army to prevent civilians from expelling them. When the Union Pacific wanted to build a railroad through a reservation, Hayes said they couldn’t do it without the Indian’s permission. He also prevented the White River massacre from escalating into war. When the Sioux (who had fled to Canada after annihilating Custer) returned to the US, Hayes prevented the army from killing them in revenge. He prosecuted a man who illegally brought settlers to Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma).

A superb contralto, Lucy enjoyed singing folk and gospel songs and invited musicians to perform at the White House. Thomas Edison demonstrated his new phonograph invention. On their 25th wedding anniversary, Hayes and Lucy renewed their wedding vows in the White House. The parties Lucy threw at the White House were not as large as the previous administration, and were marred by the presence of rats. Since Lucy preferred modesty, low cut gowns with short sleeves were the exception rather than the rule. She enjoyed being a match-maker. She encouraged Hayes to ban liquor in the White House (the secretary of state joked that at White House dinners the water flowed like wine) and the temperance society of Washington was named after her, until she attended a party that served liquor and they changed their name. She enjoyed fishing and once served a 15-pound salmon she caught at a White House dinner.

Hayes was interested in Clara Barton’s ideas, but didn’t act on them, postponing the establishment of the American Red Cross until the next president.

Both pro- and anti-reform Republicans attacked Hayes over his civil service reform attempts and in the spring of 1878, Democrats challenged his right to be president by claiming he got elected through fraud and wanted Tilden to be declared the winner of the 1876 election. Two Republican election officials in Florida and Louisiana claimed they committed fraud for Hayes in return for offices which they didn’t receive. Congress held an investigation that ended up self-destructing. The Potter Commission wasn’t able to find Hayes guilty of fraud, but they did find Tilden’s nephew guilty of bribery, which ruined Tilden’s chances for reelection.

During the midterm election of 1878, whites in the south used intimidation, violence, and outright fraud to prevent black men from voting. Hayes asked Congress not to seat the newly-elected Democrats, vowed to bring offenders to justice, and asked Congress for money to enforce the 14th and 15th amendments. However, the Democrats already controlled the House and now controlled the Senate and ignored his suggestions. The Democrats passed bills that would prevent troops from being used to ensure peaceful and fair elections in the south and Hayes vetoed them.

He helped the economy by resuming the gold standard, which lowered interest rates and stimulated economic activity. He supported prison reform. He also pardoned hundreds of people for what he considered miscarriages of justice. His most unpopular pardon was for Ezra Hervey Heywood, founder of the New England Free Love League who was found guilty of mailing obscene matter (a pamphlet called Cupid’s Yokes promoting free love.) Hayes didn’t agree with the free love movement, but didn’t consider the pamphlet obscene, so he pardoned him. (However, later a different man was found guilty of distributing the same pamphlet and Hayes didn’t pardon him, changing his mind on its being obscene.)

Although not religious, he joked that he was close to Methodism since every night he slept with someone of that persuasion. He nevertheless attended church regularly to keep first his mom, then his wife happy.

In the 1870s, anti-Chinese sentiment was on the rise since Chinese people often provided cheap labor which took jobs from white people. There were anti-Chinese riots in San Francisco. Congress passed a Chinese exclusion bill limiting immigration which Hayes vetoed. This angered Westerners who burned him in effigy. Hayes was nevertheless in favor of reducing Chinese immigration overall.

In 1878, Hayes contributed to peace in South America by arbitrating a dispute between Argentina and Paraguay over the Chaco territory.

Cadet Johnson Chesnut Whittaker, the only African American attending West Point, was attacked by masked assailants who beat him, cut his hair, slashed his ear, tied him up and left him to be found the next morning. The superintendent of West Point claimed he did it to himself to avoid a test and wanted to expel him, but Hayes made him keep Whittaker in school and replaced the racist superintendent with Oliver Otis Howard, former head of the Freedman’s Bureau and Howard University. After Hayes left office, however, Whittaker was found guilty of faking the attack on himself and was kicked out of West Point.

Early in his presidency, the Hayes administration had removed the Poncas to Indian Territory even though a majority didn’t want to move. It was a difficult trek and over 30 died. At the end of his presidency, Hayes admitted his error and called upon Congress to compensate the Poncas for their hardships, which they did.

Hayes kept true to his promise to not seek reelection and campaigned for Garfield who became the next president. After leaving the presidency, Hayes joined numerous associations, was appointed to numerous boards of trustees, and named a director at a bank. He was even on the board of the Fremont Methodist Episcopal church which he attended with Lucy, but still refused to join.

An assassination attempt gravely wounded Garfield. When the mockingbird that had sung in the White House died, Hayes felt the death of the bird predicted the death of Garfield and learned shortly afterward that Garfield was dead. Since the assassin had been an office seeker, Hayes used Garfield’s death as a rallying cry for civil service reform.

During retirement, his most important activity was providing education for the disadvantaged. Along with Grant, he was a trustee of the Peabody Educational Fund whose mission was to improve schools in the South. He was also president of the Slater Fund which promoted the education of black southerners (W.E.B. Du Bois was one of the beneficiaries of this fund). He unsuccessfully campaigned for the federal government to spend more on education. He was named a trustee of Ohio State University, of which he was the chief founder. He believed in practical education which prepared students for jobs and learning by doing.

He also became president of the National Prison Reform Association with Theodore Roosevelt as treasurer. He believed prison was a training school for crime and advocated complete isolation. He believed a major cause of crime was lack of education, lack of equal rights, and lack of equal opportunities. He also wanted an end to the death penalty.

In 1885, his greyhound Grymme died while standing his ground against a train. Grymme had expected the train to turn aside for him like teams of horses did.

Hayes was opposed to monopolies and found it disgusting that railroad and oil company owners made millions of dollars while their workers struggled to make ends meet. He thought millionaires should pay higher taxes and blamed crime on the rich impoverishing the poor.

When Benjamin Harrison became president, Hayes gave him advice on appointments while, unaware of his hypocrisy, also bemoaning that senators and representatives were doing the same thing.

He got a mild case of diabetes after using sugar to excess all his days. He apparently cured his diabetes with a meat diet aided by arsenic.

His wife Lucy died at the age of 57 after suffering a stroke. Hayes continued to be active, traveling the country, visiting universities, speaking on behalf of better treatment for Native Americans, African Americans, and workers, until he died a few years later after a heart attack at age 70.

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Hayes did more to advance social causes in his post-presidency than most presidents have, but how should we rate Hayes while president? He’s best known for ending Reconstruction by withdrawing troops from the south, however Congress refused to provide funding for the troops, so he really didn’t have a choice.

Dozens died in the Great Strike, but federal troops weren’t responsible and may have even saved a few lives with their presence. However, Hayes didn’t follow through with his plan to regulate railroads to prevent this from happening again. Hayes avoided war with Mexico. However, he authorized troops to pursue outlaws into Mexico which raised tensions in the first place. He had the opportunity to work with Clara Barton, but he didn’t act on it, postponing the life-saving activities of the American Red Cross.

Over 300 died in the Nez Percé War (Wikipedia puts the number closer to 200) and the forced migration of the Poncas cost over 30 lives. However, he also saved Native American lives by preventing the forced migration of Chief Moses’ people, preventing the White River Massacre from escalating into a war, and prevented the army from killing the Sioux to get revenge for Custer’s Last Stand.

Resuming the gold standard improved the economy, which likely saved lives. He pardoned hundreds of people who he didn’t think should have been jailed, saving further lives.

It’s impossible to calculate the exact number of lives and deaths he contributed to. It’s even difficult to estimate. He was responsible for hundreds of deaths due to conflicts with Native Americans, but likely saves hundreds of lives by preventing additional conflicts. Overall, I’d rank him an average president, but he’s one of the top retired presidents due to his post-presidential work promoting education for black southerners and prison reform.