William Henry Harrison, or Old Tippecanoe (1773-1841)

William Henry Harrison became President because he was a war hero. His campaign slogan was “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”, which came from the battle of the same name. This battle or skirmish in 1811 involved 700 Indians under the command of Tecumseh's little brother, who was called The Prophet because Tenskwatawa was too hard to spell.

Many details have been lost in “the fog of war”, but Harrison was clearly the hero on the scene thanks to a pool of embedded reporters. American was a young country that was nervous about its future, particularly in 1811 when everybody knew the War of 1812 was scheduled. So a future leader was born.

Thirty years later, Harrison became the first man to campaign openly for the presidency.[i] (He was out of a job at the time.) He had been in Congress and most notably had been the Governor of The Indiana Territory, which included the future states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the eastern part of Minnesota, the Land of the Lakes Trading Post and Souvenir Center, and anything else not nailed down.

The campaign was notable for suggesting that Harrison was brought up in a log cabin and was just an ordinary Joe. This was not quite accurate in that Harrison came from a Virginia family of means. He even went to a sort of prep school, something like the Leander Smith Fairchild School for Sissies. When Harrison was shown an actual log cabin of the type he had claimed to have lived in, he fainted dead away.

Harrison, our 9th President, set several records for the Presidency including dying in office after only 31 days. “Old Tipp” (short for Tippecanoe) was actually the oldest president elected (67), a record that stood until Ronald Wilson “The Gipper” Reagan was elected in 1980.

On a cold, windy March day Harrison made news again by giving the longest inaugural address in history, over 8,000 words. He would have gone on even longer, if his teleprompter hadn’t malfunctioned. It took Harrison over two hours to read his speech; he had forgotten his overcoat and managed to catch a very bad cold.

His advance men neglected to make arrangements for a canopy to shelter him, but the balloons they ordered showed up three hours after the speech was over, so it wasn’t a complete failure.

During Harrison’s brief tenure in office no states entered the union and he appointed no Supreme Court judges, so you can’t say he didn’t accomplish anything.

Much of his time was taken over by office seekers who stormed the White House the month he was President. (Several good post office jobs were up for grabs.)

But mainly he was trying to get over his cold. Many medical experts were consulted including barbers who did a little medical work on the side such as blood letting. One suggested therapy was the use of snakes. (A Harvard man thought this was a good idea.)

Eventually, however, nothing worked and Harrison went on to The Happy Hunting Ground of Warriors that he had fought against.

Harrison today is largely forgotten; a hint of his future obscurity was provided the day he died by ex-President Andrew Jackson, who was taking a nap at the time. When told the news about Harrison, Jackson said: “President Who?”


[i] The Founding Fathers had stayed at home and filed their nails, but they kept their cell phones handy so they could answer their country’s call.