Hidden in plain sight . . .

"I ask who are the militia?  They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers."

- George Mason, Address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 4, 1788

9th President of the United States

In office:
March 4, 1841 - April 4, 1841

Vice President:
John Tyler

Preceded by
Martin Van Buren

Succeeded by:
John Tyler

Political party:
Democratic-Republican (before 1828) Whig (1836 - 1841)

William Henry Harrison
(February 9, 1773 - April 4, 1841)

William Henry Harrison was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States in 1841.  He died of typhoid 31 days into his term (the shortest tenure), becoming the first president to die in office.  His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis regarding succession to the presidency, Tyler claimed a constitutional mandate to become the new president setting an important precedent for an orderly transfer of the presidency and its full powers.

Harrison was a son of Founding Father Benjamin Harrison V and the paternal grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States.  He was the last president born as a British subject in the Thirteen Colonies before the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775.

He participated in the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers, an American military victory that effectively ended the Northwest Indian War.  Later, he led a military force against Tecumseh's Confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.  He was promoted to major general in the Army in the War of 1812, and in 1813 led American infantry and cavalry at the Battle of the Thames in Upper Canada.

Afterward, he returned to private life in Ohio until he was nominated as the Whig Party candidate for president in the 1836 election, defeated by Democratic vice president Martin Van Buren.  Four years later, the party nominated him again with John Tyler as his running mate.  They defeated Van Buren in the 1840 election, making Harrison the first Whig to win the presidency.

Historian William W. Freehling calls him "the most dominant figure in the evolution of the Northwest territories into the Upper Midwest today"

Born:
February 9, 1773 Charles City County
Colony of Virginia

Died:
April 4, 1841 (aged 68) Washington, D.C.

Resting place:
Harrison Tomb State Memorial