Benjamin Harrison, born here in 1833 on a farm established by his grandfather William Henry Harrison, graduated from Miami University in Oxford, read law in Cincinnati, and moved to Indianapolis to practice before becoming active in Republican politics and serving in the Civil War as a colonel of the 70th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. In the 1880s, after his defeat for governor of Indiana, he served in the United States Senate, where he championed pensions for Civil War veterans, high protective tariffs, homesteading, and civil service reform. In the presidential election of 1888, he ran against incumbent Grover Cleveland and, despite receiving fewer popular votes, carried the Electoral College. As president, he convened the first Pan-American Conference, modernized the navy, and negotiated reciprocal foreign trade agreements. Renominated in 1892, he was defeated by Cleveland. William Henry Harrison, born in 1773, left Virginia in 1791 and was commissioned in the 1st Regiment of Infantry. After resigning from the army, he became Secretary of the Northwest Territory, and in 1801 became governor of the newly created Indiana Territory. During the War of 1812, he commanded the Army of the Northwest and defeated combined British and Native American forces at the Battle of the Thames. He lived here after the war, turned to politics while living in North Bend, and represented Ohio in the United States Congress for two terms. In the presidential election of 1840, the Whigs nominated him against incumbent Democrat Martin Van Buren, drawing on his fame as a military hero. Shortly after his lengthy inaugural address, he developed pneumonia and died on April 4, 1841; his body was returned to North Bend for burial.