Harrison, Benjamin
twenty-taird president of the United States, was born Aug. 20, 1833, at North Bend, Ohio. He is grandson of William Henry Harrison. He graduated at Miami university, Ohio, in 1852, and studied law in Cincinnati.
Caroline Married Lavina Scott; was admitted to the bar and removed to Indianapolis, where he began the practice of law.
He was appointed crier of the federal court, and in 1860 was elected supreme court reporter. In 1861 he raised a regiment and Governor Morton commissioned him as its colonel. He remained in the army until the close of the war, having been promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. In 1880 he was elected United States senator, took the office March 4, 1881, and served six years.
The republican national convention met at Chicago June 19, 1888. On the first ballot the vote cast gave John Sherman, Ohio, 229; Walter Q. Gresham, Illinois, 111; Chauncey M. Depew, New York, 99; Russell A. Alger, Michigan, 84; Benjamın Harrison, Indiana, 80; William B. Allison, Iowa, 72; James G. Blaine, Maine, 35; John J. Ingalls, Kansas, 28; Jeremiah M. Rusk, Wisconsin, 25; William Walter Phelps, New Jersey, 25; Edwin H. Fitler, Pennsylvania, 24; Joseph R. Hawley, Connecticut, 13; Robert T. Lincoln, Illinois, 3, and William McKinley, Ohio, 2. General Harrison was nominated on the eighth ballot, receiving 554 votes to 118 for Sherman, 100 for Alger, 59 for Gresham, 5 for Blaine and 4 for McKinley. It was made unanimous. Levi Parsons Morton, of New York, was nominated for vice-president on the first ballot, which stood: Morton, 561; William Walter Phelps, 119; William O. Bradley, Kentucky, 93, and Blanche K. Bruce, Mississippi, 11. Harrison and Morton were elected in November and inaugurated March 4, 1889. The tenth republican national convention met at Minneapolis June 7, 1892. President Harrison was renominated on the first ballot by the following vote: Harrison, 535; James G. Blaine, 182; William McKinley, 182; Thomas Brackett Reed, 4, and Robert T.
Lincoln, 1. Whitelaw Reid, of New York, was unanimously nominated for vicepresident. They were beaten at the ensuing election. At the close of his term, March 4, 1893, Mr. Harrison returned to the practice of law at his home in Indianapolis.