President: William Henry Harrison

Wife: Anna Tuthill Symmes (1775-1864), on November 25, 1795

Kids: Elizabeth Bassett Harrison (1796-1846); John Cleves Symmes Harrison (1798-1830); Lucy Singleton Harrison (1800-26); William Henry Harrison (1802-38); John Scott Harrison (1804-78); Benjamin Harrison (1806-40); Mary Symmes Harrison (1809-42); Carter Bassett Harrison (1811-39); Anna Tuthill Harrison (1813-65); James Findlay Harrison (1814-17)

Pets: a goat; a cow

Bio: William Henry Harrison, (1773-1841), was the 9th President Of The United States. He was born at Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia, on Feb. 9, 1773. His father was Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His education consisted of private tutoring and college. Harrison’s early career was in the military, mainly fighting Indians in the Western-most points of colonial America. Harrison retired from the Army in 1798, after having risen to the rank of captain.

In 1795, Harrison married Anna Symmes without her wealthy father’s blessing. Over the next 19 years the couple had 10 children. Grandchildren would include Benjamin Harrison, the 23d president. After resigning from the Army, Harrison moved North Bend, Ohio where he bought 160 acres of land for $450. In 1798, President John Adams appointed him secretary of the Northwest Territory. When the Territory was divided in 1800, he was appointed to governor of the Indiana Territory.

In the War of 1812, he resumed his military career after being appointed as brigadier general in charge of the Northwestern Army. Resigning his commission on May 31, 1814, Harrison held a variety of political positions throughout the next several years. He experienced many successes and failures, including a presidential election defeat to Van Buren. But he did not give up andecided to run again. At their convention in Baltimore in May 1840, the Democrats renominated President Van Buren. It was a bitter campaign, with Van Buren accusing Harrison of being senile and feeble. But Harrison, promising to end corruption in the government, carried 19 of the 26 states, winning an electoral total of 234 to Van Buren's 60. Unfortunately, he contracted pneumonia in late March, he died in Washington, D.C., on April 4, 1841. Until that time he had been the oldest president elected to office and the only one to die in office.