William Henry Harrison's Tomb

William Henry Harrison was the 9th President of the United States. A member of the Whig party. Abraham Lincoln actually campaigned for him. During his campaign people came to believe that he lived in a log cabin and drank hard cider. The truth is that he grew up on a plantation in the south and really didn't like drinking that much.

Harrison is mostly remembered for being the first president to die in office and also had the shortest term (30 days). People back then blamed his death on the fact he gave the longest inaugural address (2 hours) in a snow storm without a coat. He died of pneumonia. Now people are starting to blame overly excited doctors for his death. They tried to cure him by giving him opium and putting leeches on him. Yay Leeches!

I could go on about good ole William, but I will stop. I don't want this to become a history report. William Henry Harrison was a rather interesting character. I am not going to say that he held a lot of promise. During that time frame the president really couldn't do much. I mean honestly after the first five presidents how many can you name before Lincoln?

But then again, who am I to say he wouldn't have changed the course of the U.S. history? I can't help but think "What if?" when I think of William Henry Harrison.

And it is with that in mind that I visited his tomb. The location of his memorial is actually very strange to me. It is in North Bend, Ohio. Most of you may have visited it before. Apparently I did when I was in grade school, but I don't remember.

You can kind of see it off of Route 50. Just a tall pillar. I was thinking my visit to the place would be about 20 minutes. However, after I got there I felt compelled to stay. First off, for not being president for very long the walk up to it is rather intimidating. Case in point, the picture to the right.

Also there are a good number of placards full of information about the area. Apparently Harrison's father in-law had planned for there to be a huge city there. His dream never came to fruition. Again a huge "What if?" pops up in my mind. What if that area became larger than Cincinnati? What if instead of the surrounding area being a highway and some rather interesting houses it was a metropolis? How different would things be? I think of Butterfly Effect and A Sound of Thunder. I can't help but ask, "Would there be a flying car now had that happened?" Probably not. Still, a girl can dream.

I was truly surprised. As I was walking up I felt the same kind of calm and resonance I felt when visiting many of the memorials in D.C. The landscape is very clean, though there was some evidence of vandalism.

Inside the tomb is Harrison, his wife and one of his 10 children. Apparently one of his sons got placed inside the tomb after grave robbers kidnapped his body and took it to a local medical university.

I tried to look into the window to see if I could find his coffin. But I only did so briefly, and all I saw was a podium with a very modern binder on it. I honestly couldn't stay close to the fence long because I was afraid zombie/mummy Harrison would jump up and scare me. Had someone been with me I probably would have manned up and looked longer. Without a person there to prove I am tough to, I chickened out.

Like I said before, I was expecting this to be a quick trip. I never really felt compelled to visit there before. Harrison at this point is more used as a joke. His campaign was silly, and his military and political career is pretty full of taking advantage of Native Americans. This was suppose to be an easy first new thing to do. But still I can't help think, "What if?" I want to go back. I feel like I have to.


When you walk up to the memorial it states that it is the burial place of the first president to have resided in Ohio. He is the president of many firsts per days in office. This memorial was erected to commemorate his life and accomplishments. I feel though that it really is a memorial for his dream that could have been.

I will probably go back there soon. Not just to visit Harrison's tomb. There is also a cemetery just up the way that has a train car in it. How could I pass that up?