I have a befitting trivia question for my readers on this Presidents’ Day, 2025. How many presidents have we had throughout the history of the United States? There might be some variation to the viable answer, depending on whether or not you count terms independently, but most folks would agree there have been a grand total of 47 presidencies since the formal establishment of the United States of America as a nation. But numbers tend to get a little murkier when you consider the 14 men who actually served in executive presidential equivalent roles predating George Washington’s tenure, along with other “iffy” situations throughout the last two and a half centuries. Here are a handful of forgotten names of those who once acted as U.S. President.
Peyton Randolph
As I mentioned, there is a list comprising the names of 14 men who preceded George Washington in his official role as the first President of the United States. You’ll find it in the rightly named “Hall of Presidents Before Washington,” located in the lobby of the Westin Hotel in Annapolis, Maryland. One of the names here is Peyton Randolph. Born in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1721, Randolph served as the “president” of the First and Third Continental Congress back in 1774.
Thomas Mifflin
Born in 1744, Thomas Mifflin was one of several Founding Fathers from the State of Pennsylvania. Playing an active and crucial role during and after the American Revolution, Mifflin was a signer of the United States Constitution and served as his state’s first governor between 1790 and 1799. He was also Pennsylvania’s last “president”—alternately known as Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
John Hanson
Born in Maryland back in 1721, John Hanson is the one most often regarded as the “forgotten first president” before George Washington. Elected to the Continental Congress as a delegate in 1779, Hanson was actively involved in the American Revolution, even going on to sign the Articles of Confederation in 1781. Later that year, he was elected to the titular role of “President of the Confederation Congress.” Given how there was no true executive branch under the Articles of Confederation, however, this role cannot be deemed the equivalent of the official United States President.
David Rice Atchison
Did you know that we once had a president serve a daylong term? It was in 1849, a day before Zachary Taylor officially took the oath of office, refusing to be inaugurated on a Sunday. This resulted in David Rice Atchison acting as President Pro Tempore, to step into the role for the day.
Appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1843, at age 36, David Rice Atchison was once the youngest senator from Missouri. He served six terms as President Pro Tem and was also U.S. Vice President from April 18, 1853, until December 4, 1854, owing to the death of William R. King—the Vice President of Franklin Pierce.
Jefferson Davis
During that dark time in American History known as the American Civil War, 11 southern states seceded from the Union, going on to form a separate nation—the Confederate States of America. Leading that nation was Mississippi-born Jefferson Davis, who served as its first and only president between the years 1862 and 1865, following an interim lasting from 1861 to 1862. As the Confederate States dissolved following the Union’s defeat, so did the role of president that Davis held—now regarded as null and never legitimate.
There you have it—five forgotten presidents in American History. Of course, the validity of whether any of these names can rightfully be declared by such a status remains highly debatable. But it just goes to show that Executive Power and title aren’t always so clearly defined.