William Henry Harrison
By: Michael Hendrick
William Henry Harrison was a President to remember. He has achieved many great titles, made great achievements, and taught us to never give up even when the chances are bleach.
William Henry Harrison was born on February 9, 1773. He was born into a prominent political family at the Charles City County in Virginia. He grew up as the youngest of seven children under his mother, (Elizabeth Bassett) and father (Benjamin Harrison V). His father, Benjamin Harrison V, was a Virginia planter who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–1777). His father also was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
At the age of 14, William went to attended Hampden-Sydney College where he studied medicine under Dr. Benjamin Rush. Harrison’s goal was to become a physician, but did not receive a degree. For due to his father's death in 1791, Harrison left without money for further schooling and so, at the age of 18, he was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Army.
He was sent to the Northwest Territory, where he spent much of his life and later be remembered for. Harrison served as aide-de-camp to General “Mad Anthony” Wayne. It was from this wise general that would teach William how to successfully command an army on the American frontier. Harrison took part in Wayne's decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794, which brought the Northwest Indian War to a positive end. Harrison resigned from the Army in 1798. After resigning from his military state, William Henry Harrison become Secretary of the Northwest Territory, and acted as governor when Governor Arthur St. Clair was absent.
Harrison was the Northern Whig candidate for President in 1836, but lost the election to Martin Van Buren. He was the candidate again (and again faced Van Buren, now the incumbent President) in the 1840 election, basing his campaign heavily on his heroic military record and the weak U.S. economy brought on by the Panic of 1837.After winning, William Henry Harrison became the 9th President of the United States.
During his oath of office on March 4, 1841, an extremely cold and wet day but he faced the weather without his overcoat and delivered the longest inaugural address in American history. His speech took nearly two hours to read, so Henry caught a cold, which then developed into pneumonia and pleurisy.
He died a month later, at 12:30 a.m., on April 4, 1841, of right lower lobe pneumonia, jaundice, and overwhelming septicemia, becoming the first American president to die in office. William Henry Harrison served the shortest term of any American president: only 30 days, 11 hours and 30 minutes.
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