Life At North Bend / President Harrison

After the War of 1812, William Henry Harrison resigned his post and settled with his family at North Bend, where he lived not in a log cabin but in a mansion and became known, along with the Harrisons, for gracious hospitality that drew church congregations and travelers ranging from politicians to trappers. North Bend was the home of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, and the birthplace of the twenty-third president, Benjamin Harrison, a distinction otherwise shared only by Quincy, Massachusetts, home to John Adams and John Quincy Adams. On March 4, 1841, in cold rain, William Henry Harrison refused to wear a coat, took the presidential oath, and delivered the longest inaugural speech ever, then died one month later, after which Vice President John Tyler became the nation’s tenth president. His speech suggested that he intended to limit presidential power by rejecting the veto in almost all circumstances and leaving greater influence to Congress and the individual states. Anna Symmes Harrison, ill and unenthusiastic about the presidency, never joined him in Washington and regretted that his friends had not left him happily retired. With William Henry Harrison’s election as the ninth president of the United States, Ohio began a run that eventually gave it eight presidents: William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William H. Taft, and Warren G. Harding.

North Bend, Ohio · United States