W.H. HARRISON, 9th, 1841

William Henry Harrison was stern, tall, and austere. He ate only cheese and milk products. He was completely honest and happily married to Anna, who bore him ten children. A notice in the papers announced W.H. Harrison would shake no hands at his inauguration. "I cannot bear this, don't trouble me," he said, his arm sore and his hand swollen from campaigning. He delivered a forty-minute inauguration speech (written by Daniel Webster) in the rain with no overcoat.

When W.H. Harrison took office in 1841 at the age of sixty-eight, he was the oldest man to become president‹a record that stood for 140 years until Ronald Reagan became president at the age of sixty-nine. He was also the first to die in office. His term, the shortest in the history of the presidency, lasted 30 days, 11 hours, and 30 minutes.

Most of W.H. Harrison's business, during his month-long presidency, involved receiving office seekers. He would promise anything to a friend, and if sincerity alone could keep promises, he would never have reneged on one. But he was overdrawing his account, overpromising his partisans, and overfeeding his friends.

Harrison helped bring down Shawnee warrior Tecumseh in the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. In retaliation, Tecumseh's brother, the Prophet Tenskwatawa, is said to have cursed the US presidency, so that those elected every 20 years would die in office. That's Harrison, 1840; Lincoln, 1860; Garfield, 1880; McKinley, 1900; Harding, 1920; Roosevelt, 1940; Kennedy, 1960; and Reagan, 1980. The Prophet said, "And when each one dies, let everyone remember the death of my people." W.H. Harrison's last words were: "Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more."

d. April 4, 1841 (Washington, DC), at 68, of pneumonia.