A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

the body back from the Medical College for $3.00, Benjamin Harrison returned for the temporary burialof his father at Spring Grove Cemetery while the tomb at Congress Green was repaired and strengthened.The nation was shocked, and the ensuing publicity made it a major news event of the time.The 1888 election pitted the president, Grover Cleveland, against Benjamin Harrison as theRepublican candidate. Cleveland won the popular vote but Harrison was elected by winning the electoralvote 233 to 168.During Benjamin’s presidency the Oklahoma land rush started, the zipper was invented, the electricautomobile was being tried and color photography became possible. Harrison was known for his honesty.He passed the Disability Pension Act giving pensions to most veterans. The McKinley Tariff Actlevied high tariffs to protect domestic agriculture and industries. The Sherman Antitrust Act preventedlarge monopolies by businesses. Six new states were added: North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana,Washington, Idaho and Wyoming. Three of his legacies are the National Park Service, the prominence ofthe flag on all government buildings and schools and the start of the modern Navy. In 1890 he appointedanother Ohioan, William Howard Taft, to the position of Solicitor General. He also appointed John S.Noble, one of his fellow Farmers’ College students, Secretary of State.Harrison and his wife presided over the restoration of the White House. The First Lady petitionedCongress to have the White House enlarged but failing this, proceeded with remodeling the five bedroomsand one bath executive mansion. The White House’s first electric lights were installed during thispresidency. The Harrisons were fearful of shocks and were so uncertain of electricity that an engineer wasresponsible to turn on the parlor and hall lights at night and turn then off in the morning (1891).Carrie started the Presidential china collection. China painting was her hobby and she designed thechina with a wide cobalt border painted with golden ears of corn. The Presidential eagle is in the platecenter. His family erected up the first White House Christmas tree, a tradition that continues.Carrie did not live through her husband’s presidential term. She died of tuberculosis in 1892 whilestill living in the White House. Harrison died on March 13, 1901, several years after he was defeated atthe polls by Grover Cleveland. Benjamin Harrison’s three-story, sixteen room home, built in 1874, isopen in Indianapolis (1230 N. Delaware Street) as a museum.Suggested Reading:Stockades in the Wilderness, Richard Scamyhorn and John Steinle, 1986.It Happened ‘Round North Bend, Marjorie Byrnside Burress, 1970Sketches of Jacob Parkhurst 1772-1863, by Himself, 1963 Eastern Indiana Press Publishing Co.A Devotion to the West: The Settlement of Cincinnati 1788-1810, Carol Jean Blum, Spring 1990, QueenCity Heritage, Cincinnati Historical Society.Chief Little Turtle, Indiana Historical Bureau, Indianapolis Indiana.William Henry Harrison, Indiana Historical Bureau, Indianapolis, Indiana.The Symmes Carbine, Andrew F. Lustyik, The Gun Report, May 1970.The Centinel of the North-Western Territory, Nov. 8, 1793, May 17, 1794 (microfilm, CincinnatiHistorical Society).Ohio Geography, History, Government, Carl H. Roberts & Paul R. Cummins, Laidlaw Brothers, 1966.Original Ohio Land Subdivisions, Vol. III, C. E. Sherman, Ohio Cooperative Topographic Survey,1925.William Henry Harrison Comes to Cincinnati, Hendrik Booraem V, Queen City Heritage, Vol. 45, Fall1987, #3.13