VILLAGE OF FAYETTEVILLE – The direct descendant of a former president is scheduled to spend the day in Fayetteville on Sept. 18.
New Hampshire resident George Cleveland—the nearly 70-year-old grandson of Grover Cleveland—will be making his first-ever visit to the village to learn about the place where his grandfather spent much of his childhood.
Arrangements have been made for George to privately tour the house at 109 Academy St., where the former president had once resided, as well as the Stickley Museum and the Matilda Joslyn Gage home.
That Saturday at 2 p.m., he will partake in an open-to-the-public interview with presidential historian Larry Cook at the Fayetteville Free Library on Orchard Street.
George is also set to make an appearance at the Fayetteville Festival, which takes place the same day as his upcoming visit.
Considering he was born in the early 1950s, decades after Grover passed away in 1908, George never had a chance to meet his famous grandfather, who was 60 when wife Frances Folsom gave birth to George’s father Richard.
Nevertheless, the resemblance between the two is made clear by the mustache alone.
A Fayetteville resident from 1841 to 1850, Stephen Grover Cleveland spent his last 18 months in the village clerking in McViccar’s, a store that sold materials for horse riding, cloth used to make dresses, and other dry goods.
According to Manlius Town Historian Barbara Rivette, McViccar’s was located in the district now called Limestone Plaza.
Cleveland was later known for being the only United States president to have served two non-consecutive terms in office.
He was also responsible for signing the law that made Labor Day a federal holiday.
Prior to his presidency, he fulfilled the roles of Erie County sheriff and governor of New York.
Rivette said President Cleveland’s contemporaries viewed him as a shy man of “great dignity” who did his best to stay productive.
“If he had lived today, everyone would’ve said he was a workaholic,” Rivette said.
Cleveland’s ceremonial visit to Fayetteville during one of his presidential terms marked the only return he had made since relocating to Clinton, New York, in 1850.
Fayetteville mayor Mark Olson said community members should remain attentive to the release of further details about George Cleveland’s Sept. 18 visit.
Larry Cook, his interviewer that afternoon, is the author of the books Presidential Coincidences, Amazing Facts and Collectibles and Symbols of Patriotism: First Ladies and Daughters of the American Revolution. He has also amassed a collection of over 8,000 pieces of presidential memorabilia.
