John Calvin Coolidge, soon to become the thirtieth president of the United States, was born on Independence Day 1872 in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. His father, who also went by the name John Calvin Coolidge Sr., was a hard-working farmer, storekeeper, and businessman. Coolidge Sr. took care of his son after his wife died of tuberculosis when Calvin was only twelve years old. Abigail Grace Coolidge, Calvin's younger sister, died when she was only fifteen, a few years after her mother's death. After graduating from Black River Academy, Coolidge went on to study law at Amherst College, Massachusetts, eventually passing the bar exam in 1897, which is an exam students must take before they can become lawyers. A year later, after passing the bar exam, he opened his own law firm in Northampton where he handled real estate (land and buildings) and bankruptcies. He has earned a reputation for being a hard worker and solving problems his way while staying out of court. Shortly thereafter he married Grace Anna Goodhue, a teacher at the Clarke School for the Deaf. They had two sons, one of whom was Calvin Jr., predeceased by an uncle...