23rd United States President, Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General, US Senator. Born in North Bend, Ohio , he was the grandson of President William Henry Harrison, and great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He attended Cary’s Academy (Farmer’s College) near Cincinnati, Ohio and in 1850, he enrolled in Miami of Ohio University as a junior and was graduated in 1852 with honors. He moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, in order to begin a legal practice, and was elected Indianapolis City Attorney in 1857. He became the Supreme Court Reporter in 1860. During the Civil War, at the request of the Governor, he raised the 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was commissioned it’s Colonel and commander on August 7, 1862. He led the unit through the end of the war, and was honorably mustered out on June 8, 1865. He was brevetted Brigadier General, US Volunteers on January 23, 1865 for “ability and manifest energy and gallantry in command of a brigade”. He then resumed his law practice in Ohio, and in 1881, was elected as a Republican to represent Indiana in the United States Senate, serving until 1887. At the 1888 Republican Convention, he was nominated for President on the eighth ballot. While he lost the popular vote by a narrow margin, he won the electoral vote, defeating incumbent president Grover Cleveland, taking the presidency. As President, he sponsored the first Pan-American Congress, supported the McKinley Tariff Act, and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. He appointed four justices to the United States Supreme Court, established Coast Guard Academy, expanded the United States Navy from three steel war ships to twenty-two ships, had electricity installed in the White House, and admitted six states to the Union. He was re-nominated in 1892, but he was defeated by Grover Cleveland. Upon leaving the office, he returned to his law practice in Indianapolis. In the winter of 1901, he developed influenza which progressed to pneumonia, to which he succumbed within a month. He is to date, the only United States President who was the grandson of a former United States President.
Bio by: Iola