William Henry Harrison

William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration as president in 1841, making his presidency the shortest in U.S. history. He was also the first U.S. president to die in office, causing a brief constitutional crisis since presidential succession was not then fully defined in the United States Constitution. Harrison was the last president born as a British subject in the Thirteen Colonies and was the paternal grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States.

"William H. Harrison" redirects here. For other people, see William Harrison and William Henry Harrison (disambiguation).

William Henry Harrison

John Tyler

Martin Van Buren

John Tyler

Beaufort Taylor Watts

Ephraim Brown

Office established

Constituency established

(1773-02-09)February 9, 1773
Charles City County, Virginia, British America

April 4, 1841(1841-04-04) (aged 68)
Washington, D.C., U.S.

Enteric fever

Harrison Tomb State Memorial

Democratic-Republican (before 1828)
Whig (from 1836)

Anna Symmes

(m. )

10, including John, 2 with Dilsia, including Marie Harrison

Benjamin Harrison V (father)

Harrison family of Virginia

Soldier
politician

United States Army
- Indiana Territory militia

1791–1798
1811
1812–1814

Major general

Legion of the United States

Army of the Northwest

Harrison was born into the Harrison family of Virginia at their homestead, Berkeley Plantation. He was a son of Benjamin Harrison V, a Founding Father of the United States. During his early military career, Harrison participated in the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers, an American military victory that ended the Northwest Indian War. Later, he led a military force against Tecumseh's confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, where he earned the nickname "Old Tippecanoe". He was promoted to major general in the Army during the War of 1812, and led American infantry and cavalry to victory at the Battle of the Thames in Upper Canada.

Harrison's political career began in 1798, with an appointment as secretary of the Northwest Territory. In 1799, he was elected as the territory's non-voting delegate in the United States House of Representatives. He became governor of the newly established Indiana Territory in 1801 and negotiated multiple treaties with American Indian tribes, with the nation acquiring millions of acres. After the War of 1812, he moved to Ohio where, in 1816, he was elected to represent the state's 1st district in the House of Representatives. In 1824, he was elected to the United States Senate, though his Senate term was cut short by his appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia in 1828.

Harrison returned to private life in North Bend, Ohio, until he was nominated as one of several Whig Party nominees for president in the 1836 United States presidential election; he was defeated by Democratic vice president Martin Van Buren. Four years later, the party nominated him again, with John Tyler as his running mate, under the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too". Harrison defeated Van Buren in the 1840 presidential election. Just three weeks after his inauguration, Harrison fell ill and died days later. After resolution of an ambiguity in the constitution regarding succession to the powers and duties of the office, Tyler became president. Harrison is often omitted in historical presidential rankings due to his brief tenure and placed significantly below average when he is included. However, he is remembered for his Indian entreaties, and also his inventive election campaign tactics.

Elizabeth Bassett (1796–1846)

John Cleves Symmes (1798–1830), who married the only surviving daughter of

Zebulon Pike

Lucy Singleton (1800–1826)

William Henry Jr. (1802–1838)

(1804–1878), father of future U.S. president Benjamin Harrison^[24]

John Scott

Benjamin (1806–1840)

Mary Symmes (1809–1842)

Carter Bassett (1811–1839)

Anna Tuthill (1813–1865)

James Findlay (1814–1817)

[25]

Curse of Tippecanoe

List of presidents of the United States

List of presidents of the United States by previous experience

List of presidents of the United States who died in office

Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps

Second Party System

Barnhart, John D.; Riker, Dorothy L. (1971). Indiana to 1816, the colonial period. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau. 154955.

OCLC

Booraem, Hendrik (2012). A Child of the Revolution: William Henry Harrison and His World, 1773–1798. Kent State University Press. 978-1-6127-7643-9.

ISBN

(2005). 1812: The War That Forged a Nation. New York: HarperCollins (Harper Perennial). ISBN 978-0-06-053113-3.

Borneman, Walter R.

Cheathem, Mark R. (2018). The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson. 9781421425986.

ISBN

Ellis, Richard J. (2020). Old Tip vs. the Sly Fox: The 1840 Election and the Making of a Partisan Nation. U of Kansas Press. 978-0-7006-2945-9.

ISBN

Graff, Henry F. (2002). The Presidents: A Reference History. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1036830795.

OCLC

Jortner, Adam (2012). The Gods of Prophetstown: The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier. Oxford University Press. 978-0-1997-6529-4.

ISBN

Peckham, Howard Henry (2000). . Carmel, IN: Patria Press. ISBN 978-1-8828-5903-0. Retrieved November 10, 2021.

William Henry Harrison: Young Tippecanoe

Peterson, Norma Lois (1989). The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. U of Kansas Press.

Pirtle, Alfred (1900). The Battle of Tippecanoe. Louisville: John P. Morton & Co./ Library Reprints. p. 158. 978-0-7222-6509-3. as read to the Filson Club.

ISBN

Shade, William G. (2013). "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too: William Henry Harrison and the rise of popular politics". In Silbey, Joel H. (ed.). A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents 1837–1861. pp. 155–72.

Skaggs, David Curtis (2014). William Henry Harrison and the Conquest of the Ohio Country: Frontier Fighting in the War of 1812. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press. 978-1-4214-0546-9.

ISBN

United States Congress. . Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

William Henry Harrison