(There are a few minutes left in April 4, at least in the Central Time Zone. Bad day for posting, here.)
William Henry Harrison died on April 4, 1841, 31 days after his inauguration as president of the United States.
Perhaps during the cold and rainy inauguration, perhaps from a well-wisher, Harrison caught a cold. The cold developed into pneumonia. The pneumonia killed him.
William Henry Harrison, circa 1813, painted by Rembrandt Peale. National Portrait Gallery
Harrison, a Whig, was the first president to die in office. His vice president, John Tyler, was a converted Democrat who abandoned the Whig platform as president.
Harrison won fame pushing Indians off of lands coveted by white settlers in the Northwest Territories. Harrison defeated Tecumseh’s Shawnee tribe without Tecumseh at the Battle of Tippecanoe, then beat Tecumseh in a battle with the English in which Tecumseh died in the War of 1812.
Schoolchildren of my era learned Harrison’s election slogan: “Tippecanoe, and Tyler, too!”
Congress voted Harrison’s widow a payment of $25,000 since he had died nearly penniless. This may be the first example of a president or his survivors getting a payment from the government after leaving office.
In the annals of brief presidencies, there is likely to be none shorter than Harrison’s for a long time. As you toast him today, you can honestly say he did not overstay his White House tenure. Others could have learned from his example.
This is an encore post, from 2008; new links added.
More:
Portrait from the White House.[dead link]- Rembrandt Peale portrait, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
- So Who’s President When Tippecanoe Kicks the Bucket? (laurenlinwood.wordpress.com)
- Happy Presidents’ Day (business-opportunities.biz)
- Pick the most underrated and overrated presidents! (washingtonpost.com)
- Tecumseh and the rise and fall of the Pan-Indian movement (examiner.com)
- Today in History, April 4th (hankeringforhistory.com)
- Berkeley Plantation (virginiaplantation.wordpress.com)
- Harrison was one of four Whig Party presidents. Amazingly, high school kids today don’t know what the Whig Party stood for. Of course, neither does anyone else remember it, save for three or four trivia-whiz political science professors. Actually, only two Whigs were ever elected, William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor. Both died in office; the other two Whigs who became president were their vice presidents, John Tyler succeeding Harrison, and Millard Fillmore succeeding Taylor. Four Whigs held the presidency for a total of eight years.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
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