Hannah Van Buren 1783–1819

Born Kinderhook, New York Honorary First Lady

Hannah Hoes, who was raised in a Dutch-American family, married her first cousin Martin Van Buren in 1807. Shortly before her thirty-sixth birthday in 1819, Van Buren contracted tuberculosis and died, leaving her husband to raise their five children. Inconsolable at the loss of his childhood sweetheart, Martin Van Buren never married again. He probably carried this miniature portrait on his person for the rest of his life.

National Park Service, Martin Van Buren National Historic Site