Harrison Ruffin Tyler dies at 96; he was the last living grandchild of President John Tyler

Associated Press

CHARLES CITY, Va. — Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the last living grandson of U.S. President John Tyler born 83 years after his grandfather left the White House in 1845, died. He was 96.

Tyler died May 25; the cause of his death was not immediately released. John Tyler was 63 years old when Harrison Tyler’s father, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr., was born. And Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928 when his father was 75 years old and his presidential grandfather had been dead for more than 60 years.

Harrison Tyler was known for preserving his grandfather’s plantation and nearby Civil War fort. In a statement, Annique Dunning, the executive director of Sherwood Forest, a national landmark of President Tyler’s residence, said the president’s grandson, whose brother died in 2020, was a “beloved father and grandfather, he will be missed immeasurably by those who survive him.”

“He will be remembered for his considerable charm, generosity and unfailing good humor by all who knew him,” Dunning said.

Over the course of his life, Harrison Tyler preserved Sherwood Forest, his grandfather’s plantation that enslaved dozens of people, including 43 people in 1860, just before the Civil War began. He also helped restore and maintain Fort Pocahontas, a Union fort during the Civil War.

President Tyler was a Democrat nicknamed the “Accidental President” after unexpectedly assuming the presidency when President William Henry Harrison died in office. Tyler was the first vice president to gain control of the White House in the wake of a death.

The University of Virginia’s Miller Center described the president as “the last gasp of the Old Virginia aristocracy in the White House.” He had married twice and had 15 children, including Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr.

The time between the president’s birth and his grandson’s death spans 235 years.