Julia Gardiner Tyler - Later Life and Death

Later Life and Death

The Tylers retired to Sherwood Forest, where they lived tranquilly until the Civil War. Although a northerner by birth, Mrs. Tyler soon grew accustomed to owning slaves and enjoying the leisurely routines of daily life as the wife a wealthy plantation owner. Defending slavery as a humane and even enlightened institution, she soon became an ardent supporter of the principles of the South.

After her husband's death in 1862, Julia moved north to Staten Island, where her sympathy for the Confederates strained relations with her family (her home there was almost burned down by enraged Union veterans when it was discovered that she was flying a Confederate flag on the property). She resided at the Gardiner-Tyler House from 1868 to 1874. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The depression that followed the Panic of 1873 depleted her fortunes. She sought solace in Roman Catholicism, to which she had converted in 1872. She returned to Virginia to live with the aid of her grown children and, in her last years, a federal pension provided to all presidential widows.

She suffered a stroke while in Richmond and, on July 10, 1889, died there, aged 69. She was buried next to the president at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

In Bay Shore, Gardiner's Park, a wide expanse of virgin land with trails leading to the South Shore, Gardiner Lane, a wealthy residential street, and Gardiner Manor Elementary School are all named after her family. In 2009, the United States Mint honored the former First Lady with the issuance of a 24 karat gold coin. The papers of the Tyler family, including Julia Gardiner Tyler, are held by the Special Collections Research Center at the College of William and Mary.