Anna Tuthill Symmes Harrison; 1841

Born: 1775
Died: 1864

The only child of a New Jersey chief justice, Anna Tuthill Symmes was a well-educated 19-year-old when her father took her to the Indiana Territory, where he had purchased a half million acres for settlement. There she met and married 22-year-old Lt. William Henry Harrison, who had left his family's Virginia plantation to pursue a military career. Anna's father opposed the match, worried about the hardships of frontier life, but Anna adjusted nicely. After one year in a log cabin on the Ohio River, Anna and William built ever grander homes in the settlements of North Bend, Ohio, and Vincennes, Indiana. Anna raised ten children (nine died before her) and managed the family's land holdings while William rose in politics and the military.

Though she shared her husband's interest in government and public affairs, Anna, at age 65, did not want William to run for President in 1840. When he won, she was too ill to accompany him to the White House, grieving over the recent loss of a child. She was packing for the long trip to Washington when she received word of her husband's death of pneumonia one month after taking office. Anna remained in Ohio and eventually moved in with son John, whose own son Benjamin would become President in 1888. Anna encouraged her grandson Benjamin to fight for the Union Army.

Ninth President
William. H. Harrison