Julia Gardiner met President John Tyler at 20 when she went to Washington. His first wife died in 1842 and he started courting his second wife Julia Gardiner who was 30 years younger; she had many suitors and her family was not in favor of the union. In 1844 during a presidential excursion on the naval frigate Princeton, a large gun exploded and killed Julia's father as well as the Secretary of State. Her family agreed to the marriage and they were married quietly in New York City.
