- Born
- Died
- Nickname
- The Icebox
- Height5′ 6″ (1.68 m)
- Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President of the US. He was born in North Bend, Ohio, on August 20, 1833. He came from a family which had a long history in politics--his grandfather William Henry Harrison was a former US President, his father was a Congressman and he had cousins who were congressmen, governors and mayors.
He was educated at Farmers College and Miami University in Ohio, graduating from the university in 1862. He was admitted to the bar in 1864 and began a law practice in Indianapolis, Indiana, but soon became involved in Republican politics. He held some minor party and appointed offices, During the Civil War he organized an army unit, the 70th Indiana Infantry, which he commanded as a colonel. The unit was posted to mostly garrison duty in Kentucky and Tennessee, and in 1864 it was attached to the forces of Gen. William T. Sherman in Georgia.
After the war he returned to Indiana and got even more involved in state politics, becoming a driving force in what became known as the Radical Republican movement. He ran in the Republican primary for the gubernatorial nomination in 1872, but was unsuccessful. In 1876 he finally got the nomination, but lost the election. In 1880 he headed the Indiana delegation to the Republican convention and was a major factor in securing the presidential nomination for James A. Garfield, who won the election. He was offered a cabinet post but turned it down in favor of being the party's nominee for Senator, and won the election. As a senator he was a strong advocate for civil-service reform and helped in the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. He lost his bid for re-election that year, but in 1888 secured the Republican nomination for President. He ran against Democrat Grover Cleveland, and although Cleveland won the popular vote, Harrison received more votes in the electoral college, therefore winning the presidency.
As President, Harrison's most notable accomplishments occurred in foreign affairs, and he sponsored the first Pan-American Conference in 1889 between the US and Latin America. On the domestic front, his administration secured passage of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which was popular with the public, but it also passed the highly unpopular McKinley Tariff Act and the even more unpopular Sherman Silver Purchase Act. A major scandal occurred in the Veterans Bureau--later to become the Veterans Administration--during Harrison's presidency; it had been very strictly run during Cleveland's term, but Harrison loosened oversight of it and soon the extravagant expenditures lavished by the bureau's top management on themselves and their cronies shocked the public and forced the resignation of the bureau's pension commissioner. In the 1890 elections the Democratic party took control of Congress. Public dissatisfaction with Harrison's administration led to his defeat by former president Cleveland in the 1892 elections, after which Harrison returned to Indianapolis and resumed his law practice. He wrote several articles for local newspapers and eventually published two books, "This Country of Ours" (1897), a collection of his writings; and a memoir, "Views of an ex-President" (1901).
He died in Indianapolis on March 13, 1901.- IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com
- SpousesMary Scott Lord Dimmick(April 6, 1896 - March 13, 1901) (his death, 1 child)Caroline Lavinia Scott(October 20, 1853 - October 25, 1892) (her death, 2 children)
- Grey beard
- 23rd President of the United States (1889-1893).
- Great-Grandson of Benjamin Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and grandson of William Henry Harrison who was the 9th U.S. President.
- He was the first president to have his voice recorded. It was recorded on a wax cylinder during his second campaign for president.
- His presidency came between the two nonsuccessive terms of Grover Cleveland.
- He lost his wife Caroline less than a month before his reelection campaign began.
- I have only a vague memory of my grandfather as I was only a child when he died but I will show all my family's famous name is safe in my keeping.
- I do the same thing every day. I eat three meals, sleep six hours and read dusty old books the rest of the time. My life is about as devoid of anything funny as the great desert is of grass.
- I have often thought that the life of the President is like that of the policeman in the opera, not a happy one.
- After the heavy blow of the death of my wife, I do not think that I could have stood re-election.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content