Some American presidents have their faces on currency , some get memorialized in film and epical monuments . Then there are the others , whose all - but - forgotten names are unceremoniously attached to center schools and commons across the country . Our 9th Chief Executive , William Henry Harrison , is firmly in the latter class , but it ’s still worth have a go at it a little more about him .
1. He turned a Native American “prophet” into an actual prophet.
Harrison served as governor of the Indiana Territory , which consisted of the next Department of State of Indiana , Illinois , Michigan , Wisconsin , and eastern Minnesota , from 1801 to 1812 . As governor , Harrison spearheaded the acquisition of land that belonged to aboriginal American tribes . This duty ratcheted up the already high tensions between tribes and the American government ’s expansion plans , which drove Harrison into a quarrel with the legendary Shawnee leaders Tecumseh and his brother , the self - proclaimed oracle Tenskwatawa .
Harrison write a letter stigmatize Tenskwatawa and dared him to “ cause the sun to stick out still - the moon to change its course of study - the river to cease to flow - or the dead to get up from their Robert Ranke Graves ” to prove his prophetical abilities . The letter reached Tenskwatawa , who said he would demonstrate his powers by darkening the sun in the summer of 1806 . A few weeks afterwards , a solar eclipse occurred , and the prophet claim his knowledge of the event provided the requisite proof of his powers .
2. He became famous for winning the Battle of Tippecanoe.
Harrison would have the last word against these tribes , though . In November 1811 , Harrison seek to use force to negociate a ataraxis treaty with a confederation of aboriginal American tribe . He march U.S. forces to the village of Prophetstown , near the Tippecanoe and Wabash rivers in Indiana , where he met his old foe . Tenskwatawa , in care of the tribal violence while Tecumseh was off , led an early - morning onrush that start Harrison and his men , but the tribal warrior were naughtily outnumber . Though the two sides abide almost adequate losses , the settlers claimed victory , and Harrison ’s report as a military champion develop . afterwards , during the War of 1812 , Harrison overcome a concretion of British and aboriginal allies in Indiana and Ohio , re - took the previously captured Detroit , and get ahead theBattle of the Thames , where Tecumseh was ultimately killed .
3. He came from, and produced, a prominent political family.
Harrison ’s Church Father , Benjamin Harrison V , signed the Declaration of Independence , served three terms as governor of Virginia , and was a member of a spectacular family that had close ties to George Washington . Harrison ’s son , John Scott Harrison , was a Congressman and fathered another Benjamin , who would go on to become the 23rd President of the U.S. in 1889 .
4. Harrison’s supporters gave away booze during his presidential campaign.
Harrison briefly return to private life after resigning as a general during the War of 1812 but later served in the Ohio State Senate , the U.S. House of Representatives , and the U.S. Senate . He run unsuccessfully for President as a Whig in 1836 and returned to the drive trail four years later . His second time around , which has since been called the first New presidential hunting expedition , develop a mythical image of Harrison as a hardscrabble mountain man . When a paper seemingly ridiculed him by say that he ’d prefer to sit in a logarithm cabin with a barrel of hard cider , Whig supporter begin call him the “ Log Cabin and Hard Cider prospect . ” They also handed out whiskey in branded nursing bottle that were shape like log cabins and other promotional novelty , include cigar tins , stitchery boxes and pennants .
Harrison actively campaigned for himself , unheard of at the time , while incumbent Martin Van Buren persist in the White House . The very first presidential political campaign slogan , “ Tippecanoe and Tyler Too , ” a character to Harrison ’s military heroism and running spouse John Tyler , ornament the various odds and ends handed out by supporters . Harrison ’s campaign rally at the land site of Tippecanoe drew an estimated 60,000 people , and numerous songs and jingles , like “ Good Hard Cider , ” “ The Gallant Old Hero , ” and “ The Log Cabin ” were save about him .
5. His inauguration speech was the longest to date.
On a wet , wintertime day in 1841 , the 68 - year old Harrison eschewed a coating , hat , or baseball mitt and dive into the foresighted inauguration oral communication ever give . His 90 - minute talk , written by himself and edited by former Senator Daniel Webster , spanned 8445 words and cover not only political but personal issue in an attempt to make the “ Log Cabin and Hard Cider ” candidate seem more presidential .
6. His tenure as president lasted 33 days.
Just three calendar week after taking office , Harrison , feel sick and complaining of weariness and anxiousness , summoned his doctor , Thomas Miller , to the White House . Miller process Harrison with the standard medications and practices of the day , include opium and enemas . Miller cover Harrison had a sinking pulsation and frigid , blue extremity , and after eight years of fury and pain , Harrison became the first American Presidentto expire in government agency . Some historiographer speculate Harrisoncaught a coldduring his interminably foresightful inauguration lecture that developed into an ultimately fatal shape of pneumonia .
7. Pneumonia may not have been what killed Harrison.
Miller list Harrison’scause of deathas pneumonia of the “ lowly lobe of the right lung … complicate by over-crowding of the liver . ” Modern scholars think the explanation may be more complicated . In those days , Washington , D.C. had no sewer organization , and the White House and its water system provision sit around bare blocking from a Reginald Marsh that obligate a depository of “ night grime , ” human body waste and wastefulness hauled in every day . Harrison likely suffered from enteric fever triggered by one of two bacterium , Salmonella typhiorS. paratyphi , that devastate his GI system . Two other presidents , James K. Polk and Zachary Taylor , also suffered hard gastroenteritis while living in the White House , and Taylor , like Harrison , draw away in office .
