Happy Fathers Day to all of you Founding Fathers fans. You know that two of our most famous Founding Fathers had no children of their own. What? They weren’t really Fathers. Well, no, not in that sense. But they were Founding Fathers, and are esteemed as such.

Who are they, you ask? George Washington, known as the Father of our Country, and James Madison, the Father of the Constitution. They had no children of their own.

Martha had 4 children with her previous husband, Daniel Parke Custis, but only 2 of them lived to adulthood.

James Madison married Dorothy (Dolley) Payne Todd. The Todds had two sons, only one survived the yellow-fever epidemic in Philadelphia which also took her lawyer husband.

George and James were instrumental in raising the children that were brought into the marriages. Both of them honored their own Fathers.

I’m sure they felt a little like Mark Twain who said: “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years!”