March 4th, 1841 was a very cold and wet Thursday. William Henry Harrison, our 9th President, was in the middle of giving the longest inaugural address that a President has ever given. At nearly two hours and 8,445 words (after being edited for length…. Wowzers), he literally went over every campaign agenda point of the Whig Party. Despite the cold and rain, Harrison wore no coat, no hat, and was delivered to the ceremony riding on open horseback. He wanted to appear tough and live up to his war general and tough guy reputation, and not the backwoods uneducated man his election opponents had cast him. Harrison would get severely ill and die 31 days later, making him the man who was President for the shortest amount of time. But was it the cold and rain of his 2-hour address that killed him? Or did our first President to die in office, and serve the shortest term, die of something that would soon claim the lives of 2 more Presidents? A Killer White House.

But let’s start from the beginning. Up to this point as we have seen, we have had Presidents come from extremely prominent families, and on the other end of the spectrum ones who had been orphaned or born into poverty. William Henry Harrison fell on the prominent end of the spectrum. His father, Benjamin Harrison V was a prominent politician, signer of the Declaration of Independence, served in the Virginia Legislature, and as Governor of Virginia. William’s older brother Carter was also a U.S. House representative from Virginia. So, William grew up around politics, and entered college at age 14. He studied there for 3 years, and then pursued medicine. He was not a fan of medical studies, and when his father died when he was 18, he discovered the family was out of money. He left medical school, and joined the military, thus setting the course that would determine his future path.

Harrison was quickly commissioned to the army and stationed in what is present day Cincinnati (They were NOT eating watery chili over spaghetti noodles at this time), in the Northwest Territory. By 1793 he was commanding troops in the frontier, battling numerous Indian tribes and winning some famous battles. A few years later he would resign from the military and begin his political career when President Adams appointed him the secretary of the Northwest Territory, and he often served as governor. By this time the Northwest Territory had gained enough population to warrant a seat in Congress. So, at age 26 Harrison ran for election and became the territory’s first congressional delegate. Two years later at age 28 President Adams would appoint him as governor of the Indiana Territory.

He would serve in this post for several years, that is until the War of 1812. Not being able to keep a good man down, he resigned the governorship and resumed his role in the military. Harrison once again led troops against battling Native Americans. This time it was against the fierce Shawnee. The Shawnee launched a surprise attack against Harrison and his men. Harrison would win this fight, known as the Battle of Tippecanoe, and become a national war hero. This would also give him his nickname of “Ole Tippecanoe”. Harrison would soon become brigadier general of the United States Army.

After the war, William Henry Harrison would enter politics once more. Over the years he would run for U.S House of Representatives, the Ohio Senate, the governor of Ohio, the U.S. Senate, and appointed the minister to Colombia. Around 1830 he retired from the political life. That was until he was bored once again and ran for the Presidential election of 1836, where he was unsuccessful against Martin Van Buren. But that didn’t stop Harrison. As we know from the Van Buren article, he had a rough Presidency, and William Henry Harrison easily defeated him the second go round in 1840.

Harrison would at the time be the oldest President our nation had elected at 68 years old (until Ronald Regan at 69 more than a century later, and now Donald Trump at 70.). Harrison had suffered through one of the most intense Presidential campaigns our nation has ever seen (Yes, its always been as bad as it is now). We have the invention of the campaign slogan, with “Tippecanoe and Tyler too” and even a campaign song. We will visit this campaign more in Harrison’s Vice President John Tyler’s article.

Again, Harrison stepped into the role of our nation’s 9th President on March 4th, 1841. He delivered the longest inaugural speech, outside, in a pouring rain storm. He then attended an outdoor parade, and three inaugural balls, all while wearing the same wet clothing. A few weeks later, he contracted pneumonia like symptoms and severe stomach and bowel issues. 9 days later, we had our first President to die while in office. The newspapers and rumors flew that his own inaugural speech had killed him, and the country was in a panic. No one even knew if the Vice President would ascend him into the office.

But did William Henry Harrison really die of pneumonia? And if so, why did the symptoms not show up until 23 days after his cold and wet inaugural address. The reason is because the White House killed him. More specifically, originating in a putrid marsh not far from the White House. As it is today, the White House is staffed by dozens and dozens of workers. Which in turn creates…… a lot of human waste. Well, the early 1840’s weren’t quite known for their sewage systems. In fact, the White House and Washington D.C. itself didn’t even have a sewer system.

Therefore, White House staff would cart this “night soil” to the nearest body of water, as did every other D.C. resident. The nearest body of water for waste disposal was in a marsh 7 blocks from the White House. The problem was this marsh was upstream from the area where the White House pumped in their water supply. So after extensive research in the 2000’s with today’s medical knowledge, it was determined that William Henry Harrison died from typhoid fever and gastroenteritis by salmonella, from this marsh which seeped into the White House water supply. But did the Killer White House stop there? It did not, James K. Polk, the 11th President Polk frequently wrote in his diary that since moving into the White House he suffered from violent diarrhea (yyeeeaahh….) while in office. 3 months after leaving office, he died from cholera morbis. And what about or 12th President, Zachary Taylor? He also died in office. And guess from what? Yep, acute gastroenteritis.

Other White House staff reportedly also passed away during this time period from similar aliments. Washington D.C. would not have a fully functioning sewage system until the 1870’s. So little did we know, the White House itself has been the biggest Presidential assassin, killing 3 out of 4 Presidents in a 9 year period. With Harrison’s sudden death, only 31 days after taking office, someone would need to fill his role. And our Constitution did not explain who that person would be. In our next article we will take a look at our nation’s first, and controversial, mid-term Presidential succession of power.