Dead PresidentsChris White is touring the gravesites, birthplaces and homes of the U.S. presidents. Here are his notes from those visits, which he probably means to be funny. Eh. 23. Benjamin HarrisonHarrison home and Crown Hill cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana Harrison Home (August 23, 2005)
But Harrison did alright for himself. He was born in North Bend, Ohio, went to Miami University and became a lawyer. And not just any lawyer -- in the professional sense, he's sometimes ranked as the best lawyer among U.S. Presidents (he argued a case before the Supreme Court after leaving office, in fact). When war broke out, he channeled grandpa and recruited 1,000 troops to form the 70th Indiana, because that's what you did back then. Even if you had a great job or a happy family, you just dropped everything and signed up for the army. And you grew a beard. It was the law. Before the war was over he was a brigadier general, and after the war he went back to lawyering. He was chosen for the Senate in 1881, and in 1888 he was a compromise candidate for the Republicans. And then he did nothing all that interesting, lost his bid for a second term and went back to being a lawyer. It's all very impressive. It's also very boring on paper, and that's why he'll mostly be remembered as the creamy Republican filling of the Grover Cleveland era. But if you're in Indianapolis, swing on by the house. It's a pretty snazzy tour -- they have costumed docents armed with funny trivia and a lot of original decorations and memorabilia. Visit, and think long and hard about how there's a little Benjamin Harrison in all of us. There's not really, but if you're in Indianapolis, you'll probably be looking for ways to kill time.
Update: Dead Publicists (3/26/08)Indianapolis, like most major American cities, has its fair share of dead people, and the creme de la dead people are in Crown Hill cemetery. So of course, that's where Harrison is buried: ![]() You'll note that "president" doesn't get top billing on his marker. Instead, that honor goes to "lawyer and publicist." Yes, publicist. Look for time-traveling Benjamin Harrison on the next season of "Entourage." (That's how desperate they are to tweak the ratings.) Not pictured: the line "Statesman, yet friend to truth." Apparently, the statesmen of the 1890s needed better publicists. |
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