William Henry Harrison: Tippecanoe, 51 Million Acres, Log Cabin Politics

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William Henry Harrison, born in Virginia in 1773, was the last president born a British subject and the son of Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He studied medicine in Philadelphia under Benjamin Rush, but after his father died in 1791 and the family money ran short, he became an Army ensign within 24 hours of meeting Governor Henry Lee III. He served under Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers in 1794, was present for the Treaty of Greenville, and eloped with Anna Symmes over her father's objections. He left the Army around 1798, became the Northwest Territory's first congressional delegate at 26, and pushed the Land Act of 1800, which let settlers buy small parcels with 5 percent down and four years to pay.

As governor of the Indiana Territory he built the 26 room Grouseland mansion in Vincennes, acquired about 51 million acres through treaties, and pushed to legalize slavery. In 1811 he marched on Prophetstown while Tecumseh was away recruiting, and the Battle of Tippecanoe became his brand. He won at the Thames in the War of 1812, later fell deep into debt, and worked as a county court clerk. The Whigs revived him for 1840, and after the longest inaugural address in history he died 31 days into his term.

• Thomas Jefferson secretly funded an anti-slavery organizer to work against Harrison's slavery push in Indiana.
• At Tippecanoe his force lost about 62 dead and more than 120 wounded before Prophetstown was burned.
• As minister to Gran Colombia in 1829 he wrote Simon Bolivar a 10 page letter on republican government.
• The log cabin and hard cider campaign handed out whiskey in log cabin bottles from the E.C. Booz distillery and used the slogan Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.
• His death led John Tyler to claim the full presidency, and Anna received the first presidential widow's pension, $25,000.