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50 free Grover Cleveland trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Grover Cleveland is the answer to one of the most famous presidential trivia questions: who served two non-consecutive terms? But there is a lot more to him than the 22-and-24 footnote. He was a Buffalo sheriff who personally hanged two men, a reforming mayor and governor who took on Tammany Hall, a bachelor president who married a 21-year-old in the Blue Room, and a hard-money Democrat who vetoed more bills in one term than all his predecessors combined. This quiz runs through the 1884 mudslinging ("Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?"), the Texas Seed Bill veto, the Dawes Act, the lost election of 1888, the comeback of 1892, the Panic of 1893, the Pullman Strike and the secret cancer operation performed on a friend's yacht off Long Island. It finishes with Princeton, a candy-bar legend and the $1,000 bill. Fifty sourced questions from easy to hard, each with an explanation that adds one more detail.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Cleveland was the first president to serve which kind of terms?
Non-consecutive
He was the 22nd president from 1885 to 1889 and the 24th from 1893 to 1897, with Benjamin Harrison in between; Donald Trump became the second in 2025.
Q 02Which two numbers does Cleveland hold in the presidential sequence?
22nd and 24th
Because of the double count, he got two separate Presidential $1 coins in 2012.
Q 03In which state was Cleveland born?
New Jersey
He was born in Caldwell in 1837, the fifth of nine children of a Presbyterian minister.
Q 04What was Cleveland's actual first name, which he dropped in adult life?
Stephen
He was named for the first pastor of the Caldwell church where his father preached.
Q 05Cleveland's early career was built in which city?
Buffalo
He went there in 1855 for a clerical job from his cousin and was admitted to the New York bar in 1859.
Q 06How did Cleveland avoid serving in the Civil War after the 1863 Conscription Act?
He paid a substitute $150
Polish immigrant George Brinski took his place; hiring a substitute was legal under the act.
Q 07What grim duty did Cleveland perform personally as sheriff of Erie County?
Hanging two murderers
He could have paid a deputy $10 to do it; he executed Patrick Morrissey in 1872 and John Gaffney in 1873 himself.
Q 08Cleveland was elected mayor in which year?
1881
Democrats ran him as an honest man against a slate of machine hacks; he took office in January 1882.
Q 09As mayor, Cleveland made his name vetoing a padded contract for what?
Street cleaning
The council had chosen the highest bidder at $422,000; he called it "a most bare-faced, impudent, and shameless scheme".
Q 10Which future president worked with Governor Cleveland as assembly minority leader?
Theodore Roosevelt
Their municipal reform bills gave Cleveland national recognition and cost him the support of Tammany Hall.
Q 11As governor, Cleveland vetoed a bill cutting fares on whose elevated trains?
Jay Gould's
He thought the five-cent fare violated the Contract Clause; the papers praised the veto and Roosevelt reversed himself.
Q 12Reform Republicans who backed Cleveland in 1884 were known by what name?
Mugwumps
Carl Schurz and Henry Ward Beecher were among them; they cared more about morality than party.
Q 13Whom did Cleveland narrowly defeat in the 1884 presidential election?
James G. Blaine
Democrats chanted "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine".
Q 21How many times did Cleveland use the veto in his first term alone?
414
That was more than four times as many as any previous president; most were private Civil War pension bills.
Q 22Cleveland's most famous veto rejected seed aid for drought-hit farmers in which state?
Texas
His message argued "though the people support the government, the government should not support the people."
Q 23On the great monetary question of the 1880s, Cleveland stood firmly for what?
The gold standard
His hard-money stance split him from the agrarian wing, which seized the party and nominated Bryan in 1896.
Q 14What was Cleveland's 1884 campaign slogan?
"A public office is a public trust"
William C. Hudson coined it; Cleveland's reputation against corruption was the Democrats' strongest asset.
Q 15What did Republicans chant at rallies in 1884 about Cleveland's alleged child?
"Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?"
He told supporters to "Above all, tell the truth"; after he won, Democrats answered "Gone to the White House. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Q 16A Republican's slur calling Democrats the party of what helped Cleveland win New York?
"Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion"
Samuel D. Burchard's phrase offended Irish Catholic voters on the eve of the election; Cleveland took the state by 1,200 votes.
Q 17By how many votes did Cleveland carry New York in 1884?
About 1,200
He won all four swing states and the electoral vote 219–182, with a popular margin of a quarter of a percent.
Q 18Who was Cleveland's first-term vice president?
Thomas A. Hendricks
Hendricks died in 1885; Thurman was the running mate in 1888 and Stevenson in 1892.
Q 19Which 1887 act signed by Cleveland made railroads the first federally regulated industry?
Interstate Commerce Act
It created the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first federal regulatory body of its kind.
Q 20Which act signed by Cleveland broke Native American tribal lands into allotments?
Dawes Act
Native Americans ceded about two-thirds of their 1887 land base, roughly 100 million acres, by 1934.
Q 24Cleveland was the second president to marry in office and the only one to marry where?
In the White House
The Blue Room ceremony took place on June 2, 1886; he was 49 and the bride was 21.
Q 25What was the name of Cleveland's bride, still the youngest First Lady ever?
Frances Folsom
She was the daughter of his late law partner; Cleveland had been executor of the estate and overseen her upbringing.
Q 26How old was Cleveland's bride at their 1886 wedding?
21
She had been a student at Wells College when she visited the White House in 1885.
Q 27Which candy bar did its maker claim was named for Cleveland's daughter?
Baby Ruth
Ruth Cleveland died of diphtheria in 1904, aged 12, five days after her diagnosis.
Q 28Which British philosopher was Cleveland's granddaughter?
Philippa Foot
Foot, who lived from 1920 to 2010, was born to Cleveland's daughter Esther.
Q 29Whom did Cleveland appoint Chief Justice in 1888?
Melville Fuller
The Senate spent months examining the little-known nominee before confirming him 41 to 20.
Q 30In 1888 Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the presidency to whom?
Benjamin Harrison
He took 48.6 percent to Harrison's 47.8 but lost the Electoral College 233–168, including his home state of New York.