It was on this day in 1850 that that the 12th President of the United States, Zachary Taylor, died at the White House. As the story goes, he had eaten cherries at a Fourth of July celebration and fell ill with an intestinal disease. I’m marking the anniversary of President Taylor’s death due to the distinguished Canadian lives and careers of his descendants. His great-grandson, Zachary Taylor Wood, is buried here in Kingston at our famous Cataraqui Cemetery. Mr. Taylor Wood served in Canada's military and then joined the Northwest Mounted Police as an Inspector under the command of Sam Steele. Wood was to become Assistant Commissioner of the RCMP and then served as Commissioner of the Yukon. And Wood's brother, Charles, was one of the early graduates of Royal Military College here in Kingston. Charles served in the Boer War for Canada and was killed in action and is buried in South Africa. So, the 12^th U.S. President’s legacy of public service continued on right here in the Dominion of Canada. caption id="attachment_570951" align="aligncenter" width="516" President Zachary Taylor/caption Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.