These Little Known Facts about 40 of America’s Presidents Snatched Our Powdered Wigs

These Little Known Facts about 40 of America’s Presidents Snatched Our Powdered Wigs

Larry Holzwarth - January 31, 2019

These Little Known Facts about 40 of America’s Presidents Snatched Our Powdered Wigs
Sheep grazed on the White House lawn (and the National Mall) as a cost saving measure during the Wilson Administration. Library of Congress

27. Woodrow Wilson was not a man known for frivolity

Woodrow Wilson was a serious, sober man of letters, educated at Davidson and Princeton, a student of history and political science. In the late 1970s and since he was been berated as both a racist and having possessed anti-Semitic views, despite having appointed Louis Brandeis, an active Zionist, to the Supreme Court, overcoming strong opposition. Wilson was also thrifty. Rather than retain groundskeepers to trim the White House lawns, Wilson had a flock of sheep kept on the property which at one point numbered four dozen head, as an economical means of keeping the grass short. The wool from the sheep was sold and the proceeds donated to the American Red Cross.

Advertisement