A hilarious episode involving one of our fattest Presidents William H. Taft, a man of obese stature, motored from Portsmouth to Dover on his way to Poland Springs, Maine, where he apparently hoped to benefit from the town's mineral waters.
Franklin Square was packed with people, vehicles and machines. In the knowledge that President Taft was a man who would not fit into just any chair at all, American House personnel ransacked the hostelry to find a chair of generous proportions, and finally decided on a "Sleepy Hollow", a reclining chair, but in their efforts to please the President, a rare visitor, the chair was bedecked with a U.S. flag, which was tied down and secured.
Upon his arrival on the steps of the American House, where it was expected he would say a few words, Taft was conducted to the flag be-trimmed chair, but naturally, knowing flag etiquette, he refused to sit upon the banner. there was a frantic searching, but finally an armchair was located in the hotel office.
Although Taft was too large for the chair, he never the less wedged himself into it as far as he could.
The hilarity occurred when Taft, in arising to acknowledge an introduction, found the chair rising behind him, until "willing hands came to his aid, and after several vigorous yanks, the President was freed,".
From Historic Rambles about Dover by Robert A. Whitehouse c1999