Despite serving as speaker of the House of Representatives and governor of Tennessee, James Polk was considered a “dark horse” candidate when he won the election of 1844. When the new telegraph system announced his presidential nomination, many people thought it had malfunctioned. But for Polk there was no mistake. Beginning with his election to Tennessee’s legislature at age 28, politics was his life’s focus.

Polk was 10 when his family moved to Tennessee. For Polk, who suffered from ill health, frontier living was difficult. At 17, with only liquor to anesthetize him, Polk underwent an operation to help relieve abdominal pain. Polk’s health improved and he went on to become, as he described himself, “the hardest working person” in the country.

Polk successfully took the U.S. to war with Mexico, gaining over half a million square miles of land. He also presided over the opening of the U.S. Naval Academy and the Smithsonian Institution, and the groundbreaking for the Washington Monument.

Having promised to serve only one term, Polk retired with his wife Sarah to the Tennessee home they called Polk Place. In his diary, he wrote, “I feel exceedingly relieved that I am now free from all public cares.” Polk died on June 15, 1849, just three months after leaving office.