Born on a farm by the Ohio River near Cincinnati on August 20, 1833, Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of William Henry Harrison, who served as ninth president of the United States in 1841. His great-grandfather was John Cleves Symmes, whose land purchase in 1788 led to the establishment of Miami University.
An 1852 graduate of Miami University, Benjamin Harrison was a member of Phi Delta Theta. He served as secretary of the first national Phi Delta Theta convention in Cincinnati in 1851.
During the Civil War, Harrison fought with the 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He rose through the ranks to become colonel of that regiment.
Harrison's legal career included service as a reporter of the Supreme Court of Indiana from 1860 to 1862 and from 1864 to 1868. From 1854 to 1889, Harrison practiced law in Indianapolis, Indiana. Harrison's political career began as the Republican candidate for Governor of Indiana in 1876. From 1881 to 1887, he served as a United States Senator from Indiana. Nominated for the presidency of the United States at the 1888 Republican Convention, Harrison campaigned by delivering short speeches to delegations from the front porch of his Indianapolis home. Although Harrison received 100,000 fewer popular votes than his opponent, Grover Cleveland, he carried the Electoral College, earning 233 votes to Cleveland's 168 votes. From 1889 to 1893, Harrison served as the 23rd president of the United States. Levi Morton was his vice president. Harrison's presidential administration saw the first meeting of the Pan American Congress in 1889, naval expansion, substantial appropriations for internal improvements, and subsidies for steamship lines. President Harrison also signed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, designed to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies. On October 20, 1853, Harrison married Caroline Lavinia Scott. Born in Oxford in 1832, "Carrie" was the second daughter of John Witherspoon Scott, a teacher and Presbyterian minister who founded the Oxford Female Institute. In 1853, she graduated from that institution with a degree in music. She bore Harrison three children: Russell Benjamin Harrison; Mary Scott Harrison McKee; and an unnamed stillborn daughter. An accomplished pianist and a talented artist, Mrs. Harrison established the collection of china associated with White House history. She served as the first President General of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. An advocate of local charities, she helped to raise funds for the Johns Hopkins University medical school, provided that it admit women. Known for her elegant hospitality, Mrs. Harrison presided over many White House receptions and dinners. However, her illness during late 1891 and early 1892 led to her October 25, 1892 death of tuberculosis. After a service in the East Room of the White House, Mrs. Harrison was buried from her church in Indianapolis. After Mrs. Harrison's death, daughter Mary Harrison McKee acted as hostess for her father in the last months of his term. In 1892, Harrison unsuccessfully ran for a second term in the White House, this time with fellow Miamian, journalist and statesman Whitelaw Reid as his running mate. After Harrison left office in 1893, he returned to Indianapolis to practice law. He married his first wife's widowed niece and former secretary, Mary Scott Lord Dimmick, in 1896. Harrison died on March 13, 1901.
From the guide to the Benjamin and Caroline Harrison Collection, 1851-1959, (Miami University)
