The Birthday of Eternity

William Henry Harrison, died April 4, 1843

Harrison was the first sitting president to have his photograph (above) taken
on Inauguration Day, 1841. He died the month after this picture was taken.

William Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States (1841) and the first president to die in office. He was 68 years, 23 days old when inaugurated, the oldest president to take office until Ronald Reagan in 1981, and the last President to be born before the United States Declaration of Independence. Harrison died on his 32nd day in office of complications from pneumonia, serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history.

He had lived in retirement on his farm in North Bend, Ohio before being elected president in 1840. Having accumulated no substantial wealth during his lifetime, he subsisted on his savings, a small pension, and the income produced by his farm. Harrison cultivated corn and established a distillery to produce whiskey. After a brief time in the liquor business, he became disturbed by the effects of alcohol on its consumers, and closed the distillery. In a later address to the Hamilton County Agricultural Board in 1831, Harrison said he had sinned in making whiskey, and hoped that others would learn from his mistake and stop the production of liquors. Between 1836 and 1840, Harrison served as Clerk of Courts for Hamilton County.

Although Harrison had come from a wealthy, slaveholding Virginia family, in the 1840 presidential campaign he was promoted as a humble frontiersman in the style of the popular Andrew Jackson.

Harrison's Inauguration, March 4, 1841

He took the oath of office on March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day. He wore neither an overcoat nor hat, rode on horseback to the ceremony rather than in the closed carriage that had been offered him.

Roger B. Taney

Sworn-in by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney on the East Portico of the United States Capitol, he delivered the longest inaugural address in American history. It took him nearly two hours to read, although his friend, Daniel Webster, had edited it for length. Harrison then rode through the streets in the inaugural parade, and that evening attended three inaugural balls.

Daniel Webster

On March 26, Harrison developed a cold. According to the prevailing medical misconception of that time, it was believed that his illness was directly caused by the bad weather at his inauguration; however, Harrison's illness did not arise until more than three weeks after the event. Although the weather itself did not kill Harrison, it probably exacerbated a viral condition he had contracted. The cold worsened, rapidly turning to pneumonia and pleurisy. He sought to rest in the White House, but could not find quiet time to rest because of the steady crowd of office seekers.

Harrison's doctors tried cures, applying opium, castor oil, leeches and and Virginia snakeweed. But Harrison's condition grew worse, and he became delirious. As a last resort, a number of Native American remedies were tried, including one involving the use of live snakes. He died nine days after becoming ill, at 12:30 a.m. on April 4, 1841, of pneumonia, jaundice, and and overwhelming septicemia.

His last words were to his doctor, but assumed to be directed at John Tyler, "Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more."

Harrison's funeral took place in the Wesley Chapel in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 7, 1841. His original interment was in the public vault of the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

He was survived by his wife of 45 years, Anna Symmes Harrison, and four of their ten children. Anna outlived William Harrison by 23 years, dying at age 88 on February 25, 1864.

Harrison died nearly penniless. Congress voted to give his wife a Presidential widow's pension, a payment of $25,000, one year of Harrison's salary. (This is equivalent to over $545,000 in 2011 dollars.) She also received the right to mail letters free of charge.

Harrison's grandson, Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, was the 23rd president, from 1889 to 1893, making them the only grandparent–grandchild pair of presidents.

Harrison is the great-grandfather of the famous civil rights activist Walter Francis White. Harrison was the father of six children with one of his female slaves, Dilsia. When he ran for president he did not want "bastard slave children" around, so he gave four of his children to his brother, who sold them to a Georgia planter. Francis White, one of their descendants, was the president of the NAACP from 1931–1955.

Harrison was later re-buried in North Bend, Ohio. The William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial was erected in his honor.