Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-03-21
Harrison Dead.
THE END CAME PEACEFULLY.
None of His Children Present at the
Final Moment.
WAS UNCONSCIOUS FOR HOURS.

IN Indianapolis last wednesday, Drief
announcement of the fact was published in
our last issue.
Sketch of a Distinguished Career.
Benjamin Harrison, twenty third
President of the United States, came
of historic line. Major General Har-
rison, an English ancestor, bore arms
with Oliver Cromwell, and rose with
him to prominence in the revolution. 1t
fell to his lot to sign the death warrant
of Charles I, and after the restoration
he paid the penalty for this act, being
hanged on Oct Is, 1860. Benjamin
Harrison, the first descendant of Crom-
wells general who appears in Amer
lean history, was member of the Vir-
ginia house of burgesses, later a dele
gate to the colonial congress, a signer
of the Declaration of independence,
three times governor of Virginia, and
member of the convention that rati-
fed the constitution. His son was
Gen. William Henry Harrison, whose
honorable career as a soldier and
statesman eliminated in his election
to the presidency in 1910, to be fol-
lowed by his death in the White House
one month after his Inauguration. John
Scott Harrison, the son of President
Harrison, was the father of the subject
of this sketch.
Benjamin Harrison was born at
North Bend o., Aug. 20, 1888. He was
educated at the Miami University, from
which he was graduated at the age of
18. After leaving college he studied
law in the Office of Judge Slower, in
Cincinnati, and was admitted to the
bar in 1854, before he had attained his
majority. The next year he took up
his residence in Indianapolis, where
he began the practice of his profession.
Young as he was he was already mar
ried, and poor, but he boldly took his
young wife, the daughter of Prof. Scott,
of Miami University, with him to his
new home.
Clients were not long in finding him
out, and from the outset he took an
active part in politics. In the cam
paign of 1860 he was one of the leading
Republican orators in his state. He
had been nominated for reporter of
the supreme court Of Indiana and was
elected. He served in this position for
more than year, but the war fever be-
came too strong for him, and in July,
1862, he raised a regiment and was
commissioned colonel of the Seven
teenth Indiana by Governor Morton. Col
Harrison with his regiment began SER
vice in Kentucky and Tennessee. He
was breveted brigadier general for
gallant conduct ct Reseca, and earned
full brigadiership at Peach Tree
Creek Gen. Harrison served with
credit until the end of the war, and
was with his command at the final
grand review at Washington in 1865.
Gen. Harrison was again elected re-
porter of the supreme court of Indi-
ana in 1864. He served out his term
but declined a reelection in 1868 and
devoted himself entirely to his prac-
tice in the courts. In 1876 he was the
Republican candidate for governor OF
Indiana, but was beaten. His candi-
dature at that time was forlorn hope
Godlove S. Orth, who had been nomi-
mated, having withdrawn from the
ticket. Four years later, or in 1880, the
Republicans succeeded in obtaining a
majority in the Indiana legislature and
then Harrison was elected to the
United States senate. Upon the expira-
tion of his term he resumed the prac-
tice of his profession.
Gen. Harrison was delegate at large
from his state to the national Republi-
can convention held in Chicago in 1884
Four years later, when his name had
been at an early stage brought into
prominence as an aspirant for the Re-
publican nomination to the presidency,
he remained at his home in Indiana
polls, carefully refraining from taking
too active part in current political
discussion. The republican leaders in
Indiana, and almost the entire Repub-
lican press of the state, had pronounced
in favor of his nomination, and his
name was presented by the solid dele
cation to the convention at Chicago.
On the first ballot Gen. Harrison re-
ceived only SO votes, but on the eighth
ballot he received 544 votes, 100 more
than necessary. In the electoral col
lege he received 233 votes, against 1853
for Grover Cleveland, and was inaugu-
, rated president March 4, 1889.
Three days before the assembling of
the Republican national convention at
Minneapolis, in June, 1892, James G.
Blaine resigned the post of secretary
of state, in order to compete with his
chief for the presidential nomination.
The contest in the convention was
mainly between the supporters of these
two aspirants, and on the first ballot
Harrison was renominated His plural
ity over Blaine, who received 1872 votes,
was 1853. Mckinley also received 1872
votes and 5 were scattering. White
law Reid, of New York, was made the
candidate for vice president. Grover
Cleveland, who became the Democratic
candidate for the third time, received
S77 votes in the electoral college, to
las for Harrison. and % for James B.
Weaver, the Populist candidate.
Gen. Harrison, whose first wife died
few days before the presidential cleo
ton of 1892, married Mrs. Mary Scott
Lord Dimmock, niece of his first wife.
Since retiring from the presidency
Gen. Harrison has studiously avoided
taking an active part in political af-
fairs, and has devoted himself to his
law practice His fee as counsel for
Venezuela In the boundary dispute
with Great Britain was said to be
s200, 0Go.