Anna Tuthill Symmes Harrison was the wife of the ninth President of the United States William Henry Harrison. She was nominally First Lady of the United States during her husband's one-month term, but she never entered the White House. Anna Harrison also happened to be the grandmother of the 23rd President of the United States Benjamin Harrison.
Background
Anna Tuthill Symmes was born in Flatbrook, New Jersey, in 1775. Her father, John Cleve Symmes, was a judge who served in the American Revolution as a colonel in the Continental Army. Anna was four when her mother died, and her father wanted to take her to Long Island to be cared for by her grandparents while he continued fighting. Unfortunately, they had to cross through British-occupied territory in order to reach Long Island. He disguised himself as a British redcoat and managed to pass through with his daughter in his arms to deliver her safely to her grandparents. Then he went back to war.
Like her husband, Anna Harrison grew up in genteel, aristocratic surroundings although she lived most of her life on the Northwest frontier in what is now the state of Ohio. She liked pretty clothes and enjoyed shopping in New York City before her father decided to move West to the frontier, where he had accumulated large tracts of land, and she went along with him.
Education
Anna Harrison was the first First Lady to receive a formal education. At school she studied classics and English.
Career
Anna Harrison had no ambitions socially or politically; rather she derived her sense of purpose from the traditional roles of wife and mother and as a devoted member of her church community. Through Harrison's early military career, she remained at the small log home that they built on 169 acres in North Bend. Anna supported her sixty-six-year-old husband on his last campaign, although grudgingly. She thought it would be better for him to enjoy a quiet retirement, but Pah, as she called him, was swept into office on a wave of his popularity.
When Harrison left for Washington, Anna stayed home nursing an ailment. It was the last time she saw him alive; he died from pneumonia a month after taking office.
Views
Quotations:
“I wish that my husband’s friends had left him where he is, happy and contented in retirement. ”