First Ladies of the United States: Margaret Taylor

Margaret Mackall Smith “Peggy” Taylor served as First Lady from 1849 to 1850 as the wife of the 12th President, Zachary Taylor. Due to ill health, she left, however, much of the official hostess duties to her daughter Betty Taylor...

From 1849 to 1857, three very different women from separate regions of the country served successively as first lady during the presidential administrations of their husbands. Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor (1788–1852) was the wife of career soldier and Louisiana plantation owner Zachary Taylor (1784–1850), who died just sixteen months after taking office. Abigail Powers Fillmore (1798–1853), a former schoolteacher, was married to New York lawyer and former Congressman Millard Fillmore (1800–1874), Taylor's vice president and successor. Jane Means Appleton Pierce (1806–1863), a New Hampshire gentlewoman, was wedded to attorney and former US Senator Franklin Pierce (1804–1869), who served one full term as president...

Margaret Mackall Smith was born on September 21, 1788, to Walter and Ann Mackall Smith, wealthy planters in Calvert County, Maryland. When she was 21, she traveled to Kentucky to visit a married sister, and there she met army lieutenant Zachary Taylor. They were married the following year, on June 21, 1810, in a log house.