President James Knox Polk was born on November 2, 1849 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. James Polk lived with nine other siblings and his father who was a businessman, land surveyor and planter. When James was ten years old him and his family joined the Tennessee frontier in his family's beat up wagon to join his grandfather. luckily James's family prospered by owning thousands of acres of land and with over fifty slaves working for his family on the frontier. As a child James was often very sick and couldn't play the ruff and tough games as well as the other kids on the frontier. By the time he was seventeen James had to get surgery because of the stones he had in his bladder. The only thing he had for the pain was a bottle of brandy. .
Also throughout his childhood James was home schooled but after his home schooled in 1813 he was enrolled at Zion church then at some academy somewhere in Murfreesboro Tennessee. Polk graduated from the university of North Carolina with his honors in 1818 and studied law in Nashville and got admitted to the bar in 1820. During the time he was studying law he was elected to the Tennessee house of representatives from 1823 to 1825. A year before Polk's term for house of representatives was up he married Sarah Childress January 1, 1824. Polk's wife was an odd woman. She banned hard liquor from the white house while being first lady and avoided dances, horse races and the theater but she was a popular hostess and very charming,.
The citizens of Tennessee voted Polk for house of representatives in 1825 and was a speaker for the house and served a seven year term. It is said that Polk was Andrew Jackson's protege seeing how Jackson was a democrat as well as Polk and was from Tennessee. Polk supported plan to have a decentralized banking system rather than the bank of united states. From there Polk gained the nickname "young hickory" just like his mentor Jackson, "old hickory", for his toughness.