BENJAMIN HARRISON
From a photograph by L. Alman
180. A General Who Became President. Early in our national history it had happened that the son of a President of the United States had also become President. In 1833 a boy was born in Ohio, the grandson of a President, who was also to gain this high position. His grandfather was William Henry Harrison, who was elected President in the stirring campaign of 1840. His parents named him Benjamin.
Young Harrison, a happy and well-born boy, received his education in the public schools. He entered Miami University at an early age and graduated at eighteen.
Harrison, like so many of our other presidents, studied law. He was very soon admitted to the bar, and in 1854 he went to live in the Hoosier State at Indianapolis.
Enters the army
He answered the call to arms. He was made a lieutenant, but had hardly learned his duties before he was promoted to be captain of a company of one hundred men. Hardly a month passed before an order came making him a colonel of a regiment of a thousand men. He led this regiment until the last days of the war, and the boys were proud of "Colonel Ben."
For personal bravery and for skill in handling his men in one of the battles in Georgia, he was made major general.
Active in politics