bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court and public policy events in washington and around the country. by yours brought to you clay bowl or satellite provider. cable or satellite provider. presidentsnts of convened in washington for a conference held by the white house historical association. the interview someone dissented from grover cleveland and william mckinley. this is just over 15 minutes. descended from grover cleveland and william mckinley. this is just over 15 minutes. >> we are here in washington, d.c.. you work with the organization that also because you are descended from presidents. i'm related on my maternal side to grover cleveland, the

22nd and 24th united states president. side, to william mckinley. i'm the great great-nephew of william mckinley and the great great grandson of grover cleveland. >> how did those families get together? >> it was happen chance because my parents married and the two became one. >> for your parents aware of their lineage when they met? >> they had no clue. my father was a longtime history professor at you ga. -- uga. over the course of time we talked about presidential descendents. i learned so many stories about both families from those conversations that i had with him. >> the two are very different. >> they are. oneet's start with the whose family name is there. mckinley.

what you want people to know about him? everybody remembers that he was assassinated in buffalo. , howost important thing powerful of an impact his presidency gave the country. revolution, weal had expansion around the world, we had tremendous growth. enough, times, sadly these two are often forgotten. through books that are written about both, especially about mckinley, you remember karl rove's book. he's always been revered. in times past, he has often been forgotten. my hope is that through the course of time and the efforts of the white house historical association, with

education, preservation and legacy, learning about those residents. -- presidents. >> we have visited the mckinney only -- the mckinley memorial. what a structure. tell our audience the story of how they came to be. >> the william mckinley memorial , people revered him. you know the significance about the roses that they were back in the day. ohio theens of thought that it was befitting to actually come together and create a memorial for his legacy and to his memory. he's probably not in ohio's most revered united states president. he was not only a house member but also the last u.s. civil war

president. i think the legacy that that produced, in addition to the fact that he was assassinated, probably contributed to him having this wonderful memorial. it truly is. >> it's impressive. the size of the memorial itself. i understood that the first lady was involved in the building. >> that's correct. >> the first ladies memorial museum is on the same campus. would you talk a little bit about mrs. mckinley and her legacy? >> absolutely. wonderful mate, supportive wife of william. the story about her having epilepsy and the fact that mckinley was such a wonderful husband that when she had a seizure at dinner functions, he graciously would get a napkin and place it over her face.

she would recover and they would go on with dinner. children,ey lost both that's the reason why he has no direct descendents. the old of the young daughters -- both of the young daughters died in infancy. because of the death of both daughters and the assassination of william mckinley, it caused her to really want to memorialize mckinley. the white house first ladies home was actually her home. did you know that? the first ladies museum is actually her home. it's a beautiful structure. hillary clinton inaugurated that home back in the day. >> if one were to look at that. time, it had great technological change. there are a lot of parallels to

today. we are going through the digital revolution. there are challenges with immigration. for the purpose of studying history, it is to help us understand today. what would you take away from the mckinley era that people can help to understand the time we're going through? like you said, the technological advances. we were expanding at rapid speeds. money was being poured into the country for industrial expansion. i think we can learn from that. today, we can take strides and make sure that we have the infrastructure to be able to proceed and understand how important that is. i think they were doing it by happen chance and they were open to the best. sometimes that did not work out. i think we can learn from the past. we can learn from those mistakes that were made during those times.

especially during that particular time. we radically changed in the early 1900s. >> you are actually more closely related to grover cleveland. people will remember he was america's only -- president. >> they should know he had a beautiful wife. it's a great story that's been passed down through my family for many years. francis and grover were so saddened that they were beaten after the first election. she told the white house staff, take care of the china. we will be back in four years. they were back in four years. the romance that they had prior to them getting married in the white house was just a love ofry that lender the test time. she was married in the white house. beautiful down. susan was founded by george

cleveland. he is the grandson of grover. s found that actual dress. it's in the white house collection at the smithsonian. that's just a powerful display of how wonderful and elegant she was. i think people will certainly learn from history from that. >> there was an enormous age difference. how does the family process that piece of information? >> i think it was a love story that was kindled by francis his father. he was a dear friend of grover. upon his death, grover felt the need to make sure that francis was taking care of for the rest of her life. they love each other. older,definitely a lot

by like third -- by up to 30 years. he trusted him. he was the guardian for many years. even prior to mr. folsom's death. i think that she had complete trust. they left each other. they had a wonderful family. >> they really did not like life in side -- inside of the white house. how do they protect their family? >> francis would actually take the children by carriage to some of the sites off campus of the white house. they would secretly do that. or sometimes probably in the evenings when no one would be suspect. i think she was very much, she controlled how her children

would be seen. >> they built a house in the cleveland park section of washington. there andor less live use the white house as an office. >> that's exactly right. there's a ton of correspondence that exists from that time. he was a voracious reader and writer. we didn't have the archives like we do today. office, all those letters and documents were taken by him. i was talking to george much paperbout how still exists. they are trying to give those to museums and institutions to preserve. it's a lot of information. >> where are the bulk of his papers? >> princeton. >> what is their princeton

connection? placenceton is the actual that grover and francis retired two. to.etired i will never forget the story. grover did not like woodrow wilson. woodrow wilson was the president at that time. he did not allow his children and woodrow wilson stood -- wilson's to play together. that's the connection. he retired to princeton. >> the cleveland children also had a daughter that became a very -- became very famous. baby ruth. we have a candy bar named after her. tell us what you know about the family stories about baby ruth? >> the actual candy company contacted the cleveland family to put the images of the baby

and francis on that. i have tons of political memorabilia the -- memorabilia that have been given away. they contacted the family to actually allow both images on the candy bar. sadly, like you said, ruth passed away. sadly, susan was pregnant with the child at the time. happened almost at the same time. she did not get a chance to say goodbye before she passed away. >> are very early childhood. >> they were afraid that the disease, diphtheria, would affect the child. she's on the candy bar in the never goes away. >> everybody thinks that candy

bar was named after babe ruth. but that was long after that time. you hear it from the candy company. they will actually say it is named for baby ruth. you see the likeness on a lot of the candy. both were beautiful. she was a beautiful child. francis was a beautiful woman. why not put that on the display? >> let's talk a little bit about you and your interest in politics. you talk about the family history around the kitchen table. when you take a serious interest in that american political country? >> probably not until junior high. my dad always talked about it. i have two other brothers. he always talked about politics. about thetalked presidency in presidential ascendance. junior high really piqued my interest and colors me to take a greater look at it. the fact that i had the legacies of both families.

i certainly wanted to research and read as much as possible. yearsly my junior high with a timeframe that i became really interested in it. neighbor -- dad showed an even greater interest. we went to a lot of historical sites. grover cleveland's grave site. i would say, i really was not as familiar with it in the early years. i think high school, college, the interest that i had met had in that caused me to have a greater interest in that. >> is a coincidence that your profession is communication? >> i have been privileged to write for some of the greater people, newt gingrich. john boehner. speaker, paulnt

ryan. very specific speeches. i don't do day-to-day stuff. it's a thrill to be able to write for them on policy things. i thoroughly enjoy it. most of my work is corporate communications. >> what is it like being part of the community of presidential descendents? is there a lot of interaction? >> i hate to say it. years ago, we attended the new york mayors presidential that theys luncheons used to have. 20-25 years ago. in the last five years, people have become more interested. i that they used to have. approached the president of the white house historical association six months ago about wanting to do, create an event for the presidential descendents. i think that is something that is not being done. hopefully going forward, we will

have more reunions. i'm in hopes that we have an annual dinner. we can have it in different locations around the country. i hope that we will. i think it is so important. you learn so much. you share experiences. you share stories about the presidential families. i love to be around people that are a lot like me. say, yourhad to perception of being a president. is it different than folks who don't have this history? how would it be different? do, thenk i really greatest word would be respect. two men gave of themselves to aspire to greater office. what a sacrifice. especially during times that

were quite strenuous for this country. i do have a greater respect for the office. for the greater respect people that occupy that office. and the sacrifices that they make each and every day. he missed family time a lot. , because of the way they had to travel back then, lost a lot of that time with his young daughters because he travel by rail. he was apart from his wife for a good bit of time. that was very traumatic because of her illness. >> thank you for visiting with us. nice to meet you. >> pleasure. the c-span bus was recently in honolulu, hawaii for the 39th stop of our 50 capital star. as wes next weekend

feature our visit to hawaii on c-span, book tv, and american history tv. exploring hawaii's history and culture as well as public policy issues facing the state. saturday on c-span at 7:00 eastern on washington journal, the director of hawaii's of planning will talk about homelessness and lack of affordable housing. on book tv on c-span2 at noon, stuart coleman on his book on book on of the life of legendary native alliance ever. a visit to the university of hawaii for the extensive book collection of daniel in a way. weekend continues on c-span. , on renewablee energy efforts in hawaii. on american history tv on c-span3, 2:00 eastern, we visit

the valley of the priest along the north shore of a wahoo -- oahu/ . 4:00 eastern, three short documentaries about hawaii. watch hawaii weekend next weekend on c-span. listen to hawaii weekend on the free c-span radio app. we are featuring the honolulu mayor saturday at 10:00 eastern. what does it mean to be american? that's this year studentcam competition question. we are asking middle and high school students to answer it by producing a short documentary about a constitutional right. national characteristic or

historic event. explain how it defines the american experience. we are awarding $100,000 in total cash prizes, including a grand prize of $5,000. this year's deadline is january 20, 2019. for more information, go to our website >> this year marks the centennial of american involvement in the first world war and here on c-span3's american history tv, we show you are silent film from 1919. first, to explain this film, edward lengel, author of the book "never in finer company." thank you for joining us on american history tv. and anjuli singh, a film historian. let me begin with your interest in "the lost battalion." where does it come from and why? edward: it is a human story of