TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO!
The year 1840 was a memorable one in the history of this country. It witnessed the great “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too,” campaign, in which Gen. William Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren were opposing candidates. The whole country went wild with political speech-making, songs, log-cabins, great gatherings of people and enormous processions of the opposing hosts. Mr. Bloomer was absorbed heart and soul in the contest. He was the editor of the only Whig paper in the village and county, and he was present at political caucuses, conventions and assemblages in all that region. His wife at first took little interest in the great hubbub raised over the land. In fact, her health was quite delicate that first summer of her married life. It is remembered distinctly now by the writer of these lines, that while he was on the 4th of July, 1840, delivering an address at a political celebration, she was at home prostrated with some form of intermittent fever. His address over, he hastened to her bedside; and soon after, having so far recovered as to leave her room, she was taken to Avon Springs, in western New York, where she regained her health so as to return to her boarding place early in August. But Mrs. Bloomer gradually became interested in the political turmoil so far as to attend political gatherings, visit the log-cabin which stood on one of the principal streets of the town, and assist in preparing badges and mottoes for the use of those who espoused the cause advocated by her husband.
And so the months moved quietly along during that eventful year, and the first of October found Mr. and Mrs. Bloomer settled down to housekeeping in a modest dwelling in Seneca Falls. The great election contest terminated in November, and they both rejoiced most heartily in the result, although what particular benefit it would be to either of them, except the satisfaction of being on the winning side, it would have been very difficult for either to very fully explain.