
William Henry Harrison was born on February 9, 1773. He was the youngest of seven children born to Benjamin Harrison V and the former Elizabeth Bassett. Harrison was born on his family's Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia, coincidentally the same county where his future running mate John Tyler was born. Harrison was the last president born as a British subject before American Independence. His father was a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1777 and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, as well as governor of Virginia from 1781 to 1784, during and after the American Revolutionary War. William's older brother, Carter Bassett Harrison, was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Virginia.
Harrison entered Presbyterian Hampden–Sydney College from 1787 to 1790. He was said to be well-spoken in Latin and basic French. He later attended a boys' academy in Southampton County where he was taught by antislavery Quakers and Methodists. This upset his father, who had his son transferred to Philadelphia the learn to be a doctor. Harrison studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1790 under Dr. Benjamin Rush. But he did not enjoy the subject. His father died in 1791, leaving him without funds to continue this education.
Governor Henry Lee of Virginia had been a friend of Harrison's father He learned of Harrison's situation after his father's death and convinced the 18 year old William Henry to join the army. Harrison was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Army, 1st Infantry Regiment and was assigned to Cincinnati in the Northwest Territory, where the army was engaged in the Northwest Indian War. There, General "Mad Anthony" Wayne was in command of the western army. Harrison was promoted to lieutenant that summer and the following year, he was promoted to serve as aide-de-camp to Wayne, who mentored Harrison on how to command an army. Harrison was with Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, which brought the Northwest Indian War to a successful end. Lieutenant Harrison was one of the signatories of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, which ceded lands previously held by Native Americans, opening up much of present-day Ohio for settlement.
Harrison's mother died in 1793, and he inherited 3,000 acres of land along with several slaves. Because he was still in the army at the time, Harrison sold his land to his brother. In 1795 at the age of 22, Harrison met Anna Tuthill Symmes, of North Bend, Ohio. She was a daughter of Anna Tuthill and Judge John Cleves Symmes. When Harrison asked the judge for permission to marry Anna, he was refused. The pair waited until Symmes left on business before they eloped. The couple wed on November 25, 1795 at the North Bend home of Dr. Stephen Wood. Two weeks later, an angry Symmes confronted his new son-in-law concerned about Harrison's ability to provide for his daughter. Symmes sold the young couple 160 acres of land in North Bend. The Harrisons had 10 children, nine of whom lived to adulthood.
Historian Kenneth Robert Janken has written that Dilsia, a female slave belonging to William Henry Harrison, had six children by him, born into slavery. Four were said to be sold to a planter in La Grange, Georgia, including a daughter, Marie Harrison. Marie was Madeline's mother.
Harrison resigned from the army in 1798. With the aid of his friend, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, Harrison was appointed to the position of Secretary of the Northwest Territory. He frequently served as acting governor during the absences of Governor Arthur St. Clair. He also operated a successful horse-breeding enterprise. In 1799 Harrison ran for Congress at age 26. He was elected as the first delegate representing the Northwest Territory in the Sixth United States Congress. He served from March 4, 1799, to May 14, 1800. As a delegate from a territory he was not permitted to to vote on bills, but was permitted to serve on a committee, submit legislation, and debate. While in Congress he sponsored the Harrison Land Act, which made it easier for settlers to buy land in the Northwest Territory by allowing land to be sold in small tracts. This led to rapid population growth of the Northwest Territory. Harrison also served on the committee that decided how to divide the Northwest Territory. The committee recommended splitting the territory into two segments, creating the Ohio Territory and the Indiana Territory and this proposal was passed into law.
President John Adams nominated Harrison to become governor of the new Indiana territory and Harrison was confirmed by the Senate the following day. He resigned from Congress. The Indiana Territory consisted of the future states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the eastern portion of Minnesota. Harrison moved to Vincennes, the capital of the new territory, on January 10, 1801. He built a plantation-style brick home on his farm that he named Grouseland because of its many birds. As governor, Harrison had authority to appoint all territorial officials, including the territorial legislature, and to control the division of the territory into political districts.In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson granted Harrison authority to negotiate and conclude treaties with the Indians.
Harrison supervised the development of 13 treaties, which added over 60,000,000 acres of land to the territory. The 1804 Treaty of St. Louis was greatly resented by many of the Sauk, especially Chief Black Hawk. It led to the Sauk siding with the British during the War of 1812 and was a cause of tensions on the frontier. The 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne cause further problems. Harrison purchased land from the Miami tribe, who claimed ownership of over 2,500,000 acres. The tribes living on the lands were furious and sought to have the treaty overturned, but were unsuccessful.

In 1803, Harrison lobbied Congress to to permit slavery in the Indiana Territory. He claimed it was necessary to make the region more appealing to settlers and would make the territory economically viable. Congress suspended the article prohibiting slavery there for 10 years, during which time the territories covered by the ordinance were granted the right to decide for themselves whether to permit slavery. Harrison led efforts to have slavery legalized in 1805 and again in 1807. In 1809 the legislature was popularly elected for the first time. An abolitionist party came to power and they blocked his plans for slavery.
An Indian resistance movement against U.S. expansion had been growing under the leadership of the Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa (The Prophet). The conflict led to what became known as Tecumseh's War. Tenskwatawa convinced some of the tribes to rise up against the white settlers. In August 1810, Tecumseh led 400 armed warriors down the Wabash River to meet with Harrison in Vincennes. The leaders of the group were escorted to Grouseland, where they met Harrison. Tecumseh told Harrison that the Fort Wayne Treaty was illegitimate and that no one tribe could sell land without the approval of the other tribes. He asked Harrison to nullify the treaty. Harrison rejected Tecumseh's claim that all the tribes formed one nation. He said each tribe could have separate treaties with the United States if they chose to. A confrontation arose, with some witnesses claiming that Tecumseh was encouraging his warriors to kill Harrison. Many of them drew their weapons and in response Harrison drew his sword. Tecumseh's warriors backed down after the officers had pulled their firearms in defense of Harrison. Chief Winnemac told the warriors that since they had come in peace, they should return home in peace. Before leaving, Tecumseh informed Harrison that unless the treaty were nullified, he would seek an alliance with the British.
After the meeting, Tecumseh journeyed to meet with many of the tribes in the region, hoping to build an alliance to battle the United States. In 1811, while Tecumseh was traveling, Harrison was authorized by Secretary of War William Eustis to march against Tecumseh as a show of force. Harrison led an army of more than 1,000 men north to try to intimidate Tecumseh into making peace. Instead, the tribes launched a surprise attack on Harrison's army early on the morning of November 6, in what became known as the Battle of Tippecanoe. Harrison defeated the tribal forces at Prophetstown, next to the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers. Harrison was hailed as a national hero and the battle became famous. In fact, his troops greatly outnumbered their attackers, and suffered many more casualties during the battle.
Harrison informed Secretary Eustis that he feared reprisal. Eustis asked why Harrison had not taken adequate precautions in fortifying his camp against attacks. Harrison countered by saying he had considered the position strong enough. This led to a disagreement between Harrison and the Department of War that continued into the War of 1812. Many Americans blamed the British for inciting the tribes to violence and supplying them with firearms. Congress passed resolutions condemning the British for interfering in American domestic affairs. A few months later, the U.S. declared war against the British.
The outbreak of the War of 1812 led to continued conflict with the tribes in the territory. Harrison was kept in command of the army in Indiana. After the loss of Detroit, General James Winchester became the commander of the Army of the Northwest. He offered Harrison the rank of brigadier general, but Harrison refused, as he wanted sole command of the army. President James Madison removed Winchester and made Harrison the commander on September 17, 1812. In the winter of 1812–13, Harrison constructed a defensive position at the rapids on the Maumee River in northwest Ohio. He named it Fort Meigs. After receiving reinforcements in 1813, Harrison led his army north to battle the Shawnee and their new British allies. He won victories in Indiana and Ohio, and recaptured Detroit, before invading Canada. He defeated the British at the Battle of the Thames, in which Tecumseh was killed. The Battle of the Thames was considered one of two great American victories in the war, the other being the Battle of New Orleans.
Secretary of War John Armstrong divided the command of the army, giving control of the front to one of Harrison's subordinates. Armstrong and Harrison had disagreed over the effectiveness of the invasion of Canada. When Harrison was reassigned, he promptly resigned from the army. His resignation was accepted in the summer of 1814. After the war ended, Congress investigated Harrison's resignation. It found Armstrong at fault in the dispute and they awarded Harrison a gold medal for his services during the War of 1812.
Harrison returned to his farm in North Bend. In 1814, he was appointed by President Madison to serve as a commissioner to negotiate two treaties with the Indian tribes in the Northwest. Both treaties were successful in gaining more land in the west.
Harrison was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives serving from October 8, 1816, to March 4, 1819. He was elected to and served in the Ohio State Senate from 1819 to 1821, but lost an election for Ohio governor in 1820. In 1822, he ran for the U.S. House, but lost by 500 votes. In 1824, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until May 20, 1828. In 1817, Harrison was offered the position of Secretary of War in the cabinet of President Monroe, but he declined the offer.
In 1828 Harrison was appointed as minister plenipotentiary to Colombia. He resigned from Congress and arrived in Bogotá on December 22, 1828. He reported that he believed that Simón Bolívar was about to become a military dictator. While minister in Colombia, Harrison called on Bolívar to encourage the creation of a democracy. In response, Bolívar wrote, "The United States seem destined by Providence to plague America with torments in the name of freedom." When the new administration of President Andrew Jackson took office in March 1829, Harrison was recalled and he returned home in June.
After Harrison returned to the United States in 1829, he once again lived at his farm in North Bend, Ohio where he lived in relative retirement. He had become quite wealthy and he grew corn and had a distillery to produce whiskey. But a brief time in the liquor business, he became disturbed by the effects of alcohol on its consumers, and closed the distillery. Harrison later said that he had sinned in making whiskey, and hoped that others would learn from his mistake and stop its production.
In 1836 a biography of Harrison was published. It was written by James Hall, and was entitled A Memoir of the Public Services of William Henry Harrison. That year, he made an unsuccessful run for the presidency as a Whig candidate. Harrison was the Northern Whig candidate for president in 1836. The Whigs intentionally ran four regional candidates in the hope of denying Vice President Martin Van Buren, the Democratic candidate, a majority, thereby throwing the election to the House of Representatives. They hoped the Whigs would control the House after the general elections.
Harrison ran in all the free states except Massachusetts, and the slave states of Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky. Hugh L. White ran in the remaining slave states except for South Carolina. Daniel Webster ran in Massachusetts, and Willie P. Mangum in South Carolina. The plan failed, as Van Buren won the election with 170 electoral votes. A swing of just over 4,000 votes in Pennsylvania would have given that state's 30 electoral votes to Harrison, and the election would have been decided in the House of Representatives, although after the election, the Democrats controlled the House.
In 1840 Harrison was selected as the Whig candidate for President. Once again he faced Van Buren, now the incumbent president. Harrison was chosen over more established members of the party, such as Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Harrison based his campaign on his military record and on the weak U.S. economy, caused by the Panic of 1837. In an effort to blame Van Buren for the depressed economy, the Whigs spin doctors nicknamed him "Martin Van Ruin".

The Democrats ridiculed Harrison by calling him "Granny Harrison, the petticoat general", because he had resigned from the army before the War of 1812 ended. They reminded voters that his name spelled backwards was "No Sirrah" and they portrayed him as an out-of-touch old man who would rather "sit in his log cabin drinking hard cider" than run the country. This strategy backfired when Harrison and his vice presidential running mate, John Tyler, adopted the log cabin and hard cider as campaign symbols. They used the images in banners and posters. Although Harrison was wealthy, in the campaign he was shown to be a humble frontiersman much like the popular Andrew Jackson. The Whigs also boasted of Harrison's military record and reputation as the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe. Their famous campaign slogan was "Tippecanoe and Tyler too."
On election day, Harrison won a landslide electoral college victory by a margin of 234 to 60. The popular vote was much closer, at 53% to 47%.
Tomorrow: Part II-The Presidency and Legacy of William Henry Harrison