Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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N XVILLIAM HENRY HARRISON CLASS

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JMX-,F like I 9 'Z 6 fa YQ1IejcZoscope1 President William Henry Harrison 117915 ' ' 1 'ff HIS distinguished alumnus, born Pebruary 9, 1773, was the third .-,. ,,W,,,47,Y son of Benjamin Harrison of Berkeley -member of the Continental r r Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Governor of Virginia. The boy entered Hampden-Sidney College in I787. Among his fellow-students were judge Dabney Carr, Senator George lVl. Bibb, Dr. James Jones and Rev. Moses Waddell. After leaving college, young Harrison, for a short time, studied medicine. then joined the army as ensign in the First U. S. lnfantry, and was appointed captain at twenty-one. Much of his very active life was spent in winning the great Northwest Territory of which he was the hrst Representative in Congress. While in Congress, he was appointed Governor of the lndiana Territory, with much of the newly acquired Louisiana Territory under his jurisdiction. ln the great battle of Tippecanoe, May 7, l8l l, General Harrison signally defeated the Indians, the Prophet being killed and the power of Tecumseh broken. During the War of ISIZ, he was Commander-in-Chief of the whole Department of the West, proving himself a skillful soldier and a gifted executive. Por the last twenty-five years of his life, General Harrison was a man of peace, serving the State of Ohio and the United States in important offices. ln l8l6, he was elected to Congressg from l8l9 to 1821, he was a member of the State Senate of Ohiog in l824, he was sent to the United States Senateg before his term expired he was appointed first Minister to the new Republic of Columbia. ln 1840, General Harrison was nominated by the Whigs as their candidate for the Presidency, with john Tyler, his old neighbor from Virginia, as his running-mate. Tippecanoe and Tyler, too were electedg but the President lived just one month after his inauguration. Pneumonia, with gastric complications, proved too much for a constitution weakened by long years of hardship and exposure on the frontier and in the field. He died April 4, l84l. -W. H. WHITING, JR. IZII