Trivia

His daughter, Ruth Cleveland (1891-1903) was the source of the name of the Baby Ruth candy bar, not the Babe Ruth of baseball fame.

During his second term in office it was discovered that he had developed a sarcoma on his upper jaw. Not wanting to make it public, he had surgery aboard a ship, tied to a chair which was tied to the mast. He was operated on for 41 minutes and had a major portion of his right upper jaw removed and replaced with a rubber prosthetic. He spent the next several months teaching himself to talk again and returned to his office having fully recovered.

Daughter Esther was the first (and, to date, the only) child to be born inside the White House (1893).

His son Francis (1903-1995) lived to age 92 which was 158 years after his father's birth.

President of the United States, 1885-1889 and 1893-1897.

He was the first U.S. president to serve non-consecutive terms. He was president from 1885-1889 and then re-elected to office after Benjamin Harrison's single term and served again from 1893 to 1897. Donald Trump became the second president to serve non-consecutive terms when he was elected a second time in 2024.

Pictured on the 22¢ US postage stamp in the Presidential Series, issued 22 November 1938.

Pictured on a US 12¢ regular-issue postage stamp issued 20 March 1923.

First US president to be photographed by a motion picture camera. It was on the occasion of William McKinley's inauguration on 4th March 1897, and thus records Cleveland's final minutes as president.

Children: Ruth (3 October 1891 - 6 January 1904); Esther (9 September 1893 - 1980); Marion (7 July 1895 - 1977); Richard Folsom (28 October 1897 - 1974); Francis Grover (18 July 1903 - 1995)

Was named guardian of his future wife, Frances, upon the death of her father, his law partner, Oscar Folsom. Frances later became the youngest First Lady in history (21).

Mayor of Buffalo, New York [1882]

Admitted to the New York State bar [May 1859]

Known as "Big Steve" during his tenure as Sheriff of Erie County, New York [1870 - 1873]

Quit school at the age of 14 to help out his family.

The 5th of nine children.

Named after Stephen Grover, whose church Stephen's father, the Rev. Richard Falley Cleveland, had taken over.

First and only president to be married in the White House.

A staunch enemy of bloated government, Cleveland vetoed more bills than all the previous 21 presidents combined.

Sixth cousin once removed of President Ulysses S Grant.

His failure to get a nomination from his party for a third term was due in large part to his inability to understand the impact of the industrial revolution as the country was moving into the 20th century. Cleveland was seen as such a laid-back man that those around him feared he wouldn't be able to keep up with the rapid changes that were propelling the United States forward. After his second term he left the office in disgrace, but in time his administration came to be seen as one of the most effective of the 19th century.

When he was elected to his second term as president, it was not clear whether he was only the 22nd president or also the 24th president because the two terms he served were non-consecutive. A special act of Congress resolved the issue by officially designating him as both the 22nd and 24th president of the United States.

Governor of New York (1883-1885).

During his time as governor of New York, the press gave him the nickname "Ugly Honest" because he had a reputation for always telling the unvarnished truth.

As sheriff of Erie County (Buffalo), New York, he personally oversaw all of the hangings carried out. This led to his nickname "The Buffalo Hangman".

One of only three men to win the popular vote for president three times. Like Andrew Jackson before him, Cleveland lost one of his three presidential bids by coming up short in the Electoral College (in 1888, when he was up for re-election; Jackson had lost his first bid for the presidency in 1824, losing the Electoral College vote to John Quincy Adams). The other man to win the popular vote for the presidency more than twice was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who also won the Electoral College vote in all four of his presidential bids (1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944).

His portrait first graced the $20 Federal Reserve Note issued by the Federal Reserve System, Series 1914, and also Series 1918, at a time when the design and portrait on U.S. currency were frequently changed. These were the old large-sized "horse-blanket" notes, and when U.S. currency was downsized to its present dimensions, Cleveland was replaced by Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. However, he was switched to the $1,000 bill, both the Gold Certificate and Federal Reserve Note of Series 1928, and the Federal Reserve Note Series 1934. The $1,000 bill was officially discontinued by the Federal Reserve System in 1969.

At his death, he left an estate valued at $250,000.

The personal desk he used while President of the United States ended up in the collection of law firm Semmes, Bowen, and Semmes in Baltimore, Maryland because his son, Richard F. Cleveland, an attorney and partner at the firm, died while an emeritus partner (still working part time) at the firm in 1974.

He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2013 for his historical services.

He is the only US president to have been born in New Jersey.

While Cleveland was the first president to serve non-consecutive terms, his second vice president, Adlai Stevenson, became the first vice president to run for a second non-consecutive time, as the vice presidential running mate of William Jennings Bryan on the 1900 Democratic ticket. Bryan and Stevenson lost the election.

His concession/farewell speeches in 1888/89, had no suggestion that he would ever come back to the presidency again. It came as a large surprise a few years later when he ran for president, got nominated on a major party ticket and won the election.

Has three living grandchildren (via son, Richard Cleveland) as of December 2021.

He is one of only two bachelors elected president, along with James Buchanan.