William Henry Harrison (1773-1841)
9th President of the United States (1841)
He was preceded in the Presidency by Martin Van Buren but he died after serving for just 31-days and was replaced in 1841 by his Vice-President, fellow Whig John Tyler. Harrison was the last U.S. President to be born as a British subject and he was the grandfather of the 23rd U.S. President, Benjamin Harrison. He was born at the Berkeley Plantation into a prominent family - his father was a Founding Father and Governor of Virginia. He studied medicine before pursuing a military career on the frontier. He gained national fame as the Governor of Indiana Territory from 1801 to 1813, where he negotiated numerous treaties with Native American tribes and led American forces to victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 against Tecumseh's confederation.
During the War of 1812, Harrison commanded the Army of the Northwest and achieved a decisive victory at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, where Tecumseh was killed. This military success earned him the nickname "Old Tippecanoe" and made him a national hero. After the war, Harrison served in the House of Representatives and Senate representing Ohio. He unsuccessfully ran for president in 1836 but won the 1840 election as the Whig candidate, running on the famous "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" ticket with John Tyler as his running mate. On a cold winter's day, eager to prove his robust health, he rode to the White House rather than take a carriage and refused to wear an overcoat or hat as he delivered an 8,445-word inaugural speech that lasted two hours - the longest ever given. Thirty-one days later, he died of pneumonia and he has gone down in history as the shortest serving U.S. President, which established important precedents for presidential succession. He and his wife had 9-children, all of whom lived to adulthood.
