Anna Harrison

Anna Tuthill Harrison (née Symmes; July 25, 1775 – February 25, 1864), wife of President William Henry Harrison and grandmother of President Benjamin Harrison, was nominally First Lady of the United States during her husband's one-month term in 1841, but she never entered the White House. At the age of 65 years during her husband's presidential term, she is the oldest woman ever to become First Lady, as well as having the distinction of holding the title for the shortest length of time, and the first person to be widowed while holding the title. She was the last First Lady to have been born in British America.

This article is about the American First Lady. For the American chemist, see Anna J. Harrison. For the New Zealand netball player, see Anna Harrison (netball player).

Anna Harrison
First Lady of the United States
In role March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841 Serving with Jane Harrison (Acting)
President	William Henry Harrison
Preceded by	Angelica Van Buren (Acting)
Succeeded by	Letitia Tyler
Personal details
Born	Anna Tuthill Symmes (1775-07-25)July 25, 1775 Morristown, New Jersey, British America
Died	February 25, 1864(1864-02-25) (aged 88) North Bend, Ohio, U.S.
Resting place	Harrison Tomb State Memorial North Bend, Ohio, U.S.
Nationality	American
Spouse(s)	William Henry Harrison ​ ( m. 1795; died 1841)
Children	10, including John Scott and Carter Bassett
Parents	John Cleves Symmes Anna Tuthill
Signature

Early life and marriage

Anna Tuthill Symmes was born on July 25, 1775, in Morristown, New Jersey, to Judge John Cleves Symmes and Anna Tuthill.[1] Her father was a Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court and later became a prominent landowner in southwestern Ohio. When her mother died in 1776 her father disguised himself as a British soldier to carry Anna on horseback through the British lines to her grandparents on Long Island, who cared for her during the war. Her father was also deputy to the Provincial Congress of New Jersey (1775-1776), the Chairman of the Sussex County Committee of Safety during the Revolution, and a New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress (1785-1786).

She grew up on Long Island, receiving an unusually broad education for a woman of the times. She attended Clinton Academy in East Hampton on Long Island, and the private school of Isabella Graham in New York City.

In 1794, Anna went with her father and new stepmother, Susannah Livingston, daughter of the Governor of New Jersey William Livingston, into the Ohio wilderness, where they settled at North Bend, Ohio. While visiting relatives in Lexington, Kentucky, in the spring of 1795, she met Lieutenant William Henry Harrison, in town on military business. Harrison was stationed at nearby Fort Washington. Anna's father thoroughly disapproved of Harrison, largely because he wanted to spare his daughter the hardships of army camp life. Despite his decree that the two stop seeing each other, the courtship flourished behind his back.

While her father was away on business in Cincinnati, the couple eloped and married on November 22, 1795, at the home of Dr. Stephen Wood, treasurer of the Northwest Territory, at North Bend. The couple honeymooned at Fort Washington, as Harrison was still on duty. Two weeks later, at a farewell dinner for General "Mad" Anthony Wayne, Symmes confronted his new son-in-law for the first time since their wedding. Addressing Harrison sternly, Symmes demanded to know how he intended to support a family with Anna. Harrison responded, "by my sword, and my own right arm, sir."[2] Not until his son-in-law had achieved fame on the battlefield did Symmes come to accept him.

The couple apparently had a happy marriage, or at least a fruitful one, having had 10 children and 40 grandchildren. Tragically, most of their children died young, one in infancy, and seven in their 20s or 30s. Only two lived beyond age 35, and only one beyond 50. Nine of their 10 children preceded her in death, and six of the 10 preceded him:

Name	Birth	Death	Age at death	Married to	Children
Elizabeth Bassett Harrison	29 September 1796	27 September 1846	49	John Cleves Short	1
John Cleves Symmes Harrison	28 October 1798	30 October 1830	32	Clarissa Pike	6
Lucy Singleton Harrison	5 September 1800	7 April 1826	25	David K. Este	4
William Henry Harrison Jr.	3 September 1802	6 February 1838	35	Jane Irwin Harrison	2
John Scott Harrison	4 October 1804	25 May 1878	73	Lucretia Knapp Johnson	3
				Elizabeth Ramsey Irwin	10 children (2nd child, Benjamin, became 23rd US president)
Benjamin Harrison	5 May 1806	9 June 1840	34	Louisa Smith Bonner	3
				Mary Raney	2
Mary Symmes Harrison	28 January 1809	16 November 1842	33	John Henry Fitzhugh Thornton	1 child
Carter Bassett Harrison	26 October 1811	12 August 1839	27	Mary Anne Sutherland	1
Anna Tuthill Harrison	28 October 1813	5 July 1845	31	William Henry Harrison Taylor	7
James Findlay Harrison	15 May 1814	6 April 1817	2	Didn't marry; died in infancy of unknown causes	None

Husband's rise to fame

Grouseland, the Harrison home in Vincennes

Harrison won fame as an Indian fighter and hero of the War of 1812, but he spent much of his life in a civilian career. His service in Congress as territorial delegate from Ohio gave Anna and their children a chance to visit his family at Berkeley, their plantation on the James River. Her third child was born on that trip, at Richmond in September 1800. Harrison's appointment as governor of Indiana Territory took them even farther into the wilderness; he built a handsome house at Vincennes, Indiana, that blended fortress and plantation mansion.

Facing war in 1812, the family moved to the farm at North Bend. There, upon hearing news of her husband's landslide electoral victory in 1840, home-loving Anna said simply: "I wish that my husband's friends had left him where he is, happy and contented in retirement."

First Lady of the United States

External video
America's First Ladies, Anna Harrison, Letitia Tyler & Julia Tyler, 2013, C-SPAN[3]

When William was inaugurated in 1841, Anna was detained by illness at their home in North Bend. She decided not to accompany him to Washington. President-elect Harrison asked his daughter-in-law Jane Irwin Harrison, widow of his namesake son, to accompany him and act as hostess until Anna's proposed arrival in May. Half a dozen other relatives happily went with them. On April 4, exactly one month after his inauguration, President Harrison died. Anna was packing for the move to the White House when she learned of William's death in Washington, so she never made the journey.

Later life and death

Following William's death, she lived with her son John Scott in North Bend and helped raise his children, including eight-year-old Benjamin who later became President of the United States. In June 1841, President John Tyler signed into law the first pension for a president's widow, a grant of $25,000 for Mrs. Harrison.

Anna Harrison died on February 25, 1864, at age 88, and was buried at the William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial in North Bend. Her funeral sermon was preached by Horace Bushnell.[4]

References

1. "Anna Harrison". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
2. Bob Dole, Great Presidential Wit, 2001, page 222
3. "America's First Ladies, Anna Harrison, Letitia Tyler & Julia Tyler". C-SPAN. 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
4. Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1892). "Harrison, Benjamin" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.

• Original text based on White House biography

External links

• Anna Harrison at Find a Grave
• Anna Harrison at C-SPAN's First Ladies: Influence & Image

Honorary titles
Preceded by Angelica Van Buren Acting	First Lady of the United States De jure 1841 Served alongside: Jane Harrison (de facto)	Succeeded by Letitia Tyler