Deceased US Presidents
By Dr Khalid Siddiqui
Ohio
9. William Henry Harrison (1841-1841): He was the grandfather of President Benjamin Harrison, making William and Benjamin Harrison the only grandparent-grandchild pair of presidents. He briefly studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He later withdrew from the medical school, though school archives record him as a "non-graduate alumnus of Penn's medical school class of 1793".
He was one of the four US Presidents who lost the elections the first time but won the second time. He was the last president born as a British subject. His speech remains the longest inaugural address of any US president. It took him nearly two hours to read.
He was the first US president to have his photograph taken while in the office. He is one of the four presidents who didn’t appoint any Supreme Court Justice. Harrison was the first of the eight US presidents who had died in office. He died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest presidency in United States history.
His wife, Anna, was still in Ohio packing to be with her husband in Washington, scheduled for May, when she was informed of Harrison's death. Anna never moved into the White House, thus becoming the only First Lady who never lived in the White House.
Harrison's widowed daughter-in-law, Jane Irwin Harrison, had served as hostess of the White House in Anna's place while Harrison was President. Harrison enjoyed living luxuriously to the point where he was nearly penniless when he died. Congress voted to give his widow a presidential widow's pension of $25,000 (equivalent to about $657,000 in 2021). She also received the right to mail letters free of charge.
Harrison’s nickname was Old Tip.
