Buried: State Capitol, Nashville, Tennessee
Eleventh President - 1845-1849
Born: November 2, 1795, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina
Died: June 15, 1849, in Nashville, Tennessee
Age at death: 53
Cause of death: Undetermined, possibly cholera
Final words: “I love you, Sarah, for all eternity,
I love you.”
Admission to State Capitol: Free
Despite being one of the younger presidents, Democrat James Polk was eager to fulfill his promise to retire at the end of his first term. A workaholic, he spent much of his presidency consumed by the war with Mexico. He wrote in his diary of the prospect, “I am sure I shall be a happier man in my retirement than I have been during the four years I have filled the highest office in the gift of my countrymen.”
Polk purchased a Nashville home, which he dubbed Polk Place and set about organizing his political papers and remodeling the home to his tastes. He had been retired from the presidency for only three months when he went on a tour of the southern states. He made the mistake of stopping in New Orleans, where a cholera epidemic had recently broken out. Polk became sick shortly thereafter. He quickly grew weaker and died on June 15, 1849, at the age of fifty-three. The prevailing feeling at the time was that the arduous duties of the presidency may have weakened Polk’s constitution, leaving him vulnerable to infection and unable to fight off the disease.
James Polk was immediately buried in a common cemetery with thirty-two other victims of the cholera epidemic. Local officials believed that the quick disposal of bodies would prevent spread of the disease. Polk was later given the honors accorded a former president and was laid to rest at Polk Place.
Polk’s wife Sarah lived at Polk Place for forty-two more years. A proper Victorian widow, she wore black the entire time. When she died in 1891, she was buried alongside him. Despite Polk’s specific instructions that their home should be given to the state of Tennessee, Polk Place was demolished after Sarah’s death. The bodies of James and Sarah Polk were moved to the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville in 1893.
Polk’s third and final resting place
Touring James K. Polk’s Tomb at the Tennessee State Capitol
James K. Polk’s grave is located on the grounds of the state capitol building in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The capitol is open 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The grounds are also open on weekends. Limited street parking is available in the area. There is no admission fee.
From I-40: Exit on Broadway (exit 209A from I-40W; exit 209B from I-40E), going toward downtown. Turn left on Fifth Avenue and go three blocks. The museum is on the left between Union and Deaderick Streets.
Sarah Polk, who lived forty-two years after her husband’s death, was buried beside him in 1891. The bodies of James and Sarah Polk were moved to the state capitol grounds two years later.
For additional information
Tennessee State Capitol
Charlotte Avenue and 7th Avenue, North
Nashville, TN 37243
Phone: (615) 741-2692
www.tnmuseum.org
“On his deathbed, Polk sought baptism into the Methodist Church…”
—Richard Norton Smith
For many men, retirement provides a whole new lease on life. In Polk’s case, it was a very short lease indeed. Never blessed with robust health, in the spring of 1849, the former president came down with a debilitating illness. “My bowels were affected and the shaking of the Boat had become inconvenient to me,” he acknowledged outside Memphis, where one doctor ruled out cholera. In fact, some believe Polk was afflicted with chronic diarrhea, a frequent complaint in the unsanitary nineteenth century. On his deathbed, Polk sought baptism into the Methodist Church—thus defying his mother, who had arrived, minister in tow, in hope of making her dying son a Presbyterian.
A personal note: As it happens, my Harvard roommate is a Polk descendant. I won’t lower the intellectual or other standards of the present volume by quoting our ribald exchanges concerning the final hours of his distinguished ancestor; suffice it to say I learned as a sophomore where sophomoric humor gets its name.
—RNS
Polk’s grave on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol