October 2, 2019 (Wednesday)
Today I am writing about William Henry Harrison, 9th president of the USA, unique because his was the shortest tenure of all the presidents, only one month, and he was the first president to die while in office.
William Henry Harrison (1773-1841)
“He took the oath of office on Thursday, March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day. He braved the cold weather and chose not to wear an overcoat or a hat, rode on horseback to the ceremony rather than in the closed carriage that had been offered him, and delivered the longest inaugural address in American history at 8,445 words. It took him nearly two hours to read, although his friend and fellow Whig Daniel Webster had edited it for length. He became the first head of state to have his photograph taken, then rode through the streets in the inaugural parade and attended three inaugural balls that evening.” (Quoted from Wikipedia).
He became ill on March 26, 1841 and his condition worsened until his death on April 4.
He was elected president and John Tyler was elected vice-president at the same time. The pair had run under the slogan, “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too,” title of the first campaign song ever in American politics. The slogan made reference to a battle with Native American tribes. Harrison, then governor of Indiana, led his troops and won the battle. Tyler became the first person to become president without being elected to that office.
Harrison was inaugurated March 4, 1841, and died 31 days later. He was 68 years old. Until Ronald Reagan, he was the oldest person ever inaugurated as president. His home state was Virginia, but his career took him to several states before election as president. He was a son of Founding Father Benjamin Harrison V and the paternal grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States. He was the last president born as a British subject in the Thirteen Colonies before the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775. He died of either typhoid, pneumonia or paratyphoid fever.
Space limitations of this brief blog has prevented coverage of Harrison’s success in the military and in government. He has an outstanding record. If interested, then I suggest you read the Wikipedia article about him, his family and his career. It is quite interesting.
I have written a few blogs about presidents and plan to write a blog about them each Tuesday. I have chosen to write about those which seem significant, unique, interesting or unusual to me for one reason or another. I have already written several in advance and they will appear at least through August 27, with several more in mind. They are not intended to be exhaustive biographies but more like one-sided conversations.