Autographs
Grover & Francis Cleveland Signed Autograph Book Page Two Days Before he Left Office Ending of His First Term
GROVER and FRANCES CLEVELAND. (1837-1908) President (1885-1889, and 1893-1897) Wife and First Lady.
Signed Autograph Book Page Signed and Dated, “Grover Cleveland - 2 March 1889” as President, and “Frances F. Cleveland, March 1889” as First Lady, Choice Extremely Fine. The book measuring about 5” x 8” with a highly ornate and decorative embossed outer cover displaying a castle at the top of the hill and a stream running through the woods, past a church and farm, with fox and deer in the forest, gilt highlights; watered silk endpapers. The only and sole page with autographs is the first, and that has Grover Cleveland first, dated 2 March 1889, with Frances F. Cleveland, March 1889 below. This would have been two days before he left office at the end of his first term. Front free endpaper is detached and could be removed. The two signatures of the President and First Lady are written in rich deep brown on a crisp, clean page.
Grover Cleveland (1837-1908; President 1885-1889 and 1893-1897) is the only President to have served two non-consecutive terms as president, even though he was the winner of the popular vote in 1888 as well as 1884 and 1892. Born in New Jersey, the family moved to several New York towns during his childhood, as his father was a minister, but most of his childhood was spent in Fayetteville.

He moved to Buffalo, NY as a young man (1855) where his uncle had a clerical job for him. He later took a clerkship with a Buffalo law firm and began reading the law. He was admitted to the bar in Buffalo in 1859, and became involved in Democratic politics in short order. He ran for District Attorney in 1865 (and lost), but won the election as Erie County Sheriff in 1870. In 1881 he was elected Mayor of Buffalo, where he made his reputation fighting the corrupt political machines entrenched in Buffalo at the time.

His willingness to fight for the interests of the people got him attention of the Democratic party, and in 1882 he was nominated (and won) for governor of New York, where he continued his campaign against needles spending and corruption. This made him a natural candidate for the 1884 Presidential election, and corruption politics was an issue on the national, as well as state and local levels.

Cleveland was a bachelor when he first took the oath of office as President, but shortly after, he met Frances Folsom, the daughter of a friend who was a student at Wells College. They began communicating, and in June 1886, were married in the Blue Room. When Cleveland’s bid for a second term failed, Frances told the White House staff to take good care of things for them, because they would be back in four years. And they were. He declined the Democratic nomination in 1896, choosing instead to retire to his estate in Princeton, NJ.