- Presidential First Lady. She was the wife of Benjamin Harrison, who served as the 23rd US President from March 1889 until March 1893. She was born one of five children and the second daughter of a Presbyterian minister and professor of science and mathematics at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She received a good education and was highly exposed to literature, art, music, and religion. In 1845 her family relocated to College Hill, near Cincinnati, Ohio where her father became a chemistry and physics instructor at Farmer's College. In 1848 she met Benjamin Harrison, who was one of her father's freshman students and they began a courtship. The following year her family returned to Oxford, Ohio where her father became the first president of the Oxford Female Institute. She enrolled as a student, studying English literature, theater, art, and painting and in 1852, her senior year, she joined the faculty as an Assistant in Piano Music and graduated that same year with a degree in music. She then moved to Carrollton, Kentucky to teach music but became ill and returned to Ohio soon afterward. On October 20, 1853, she married Benjamin Harrison and they moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, after he completed his law studies and set up his first practice. After the outbreak of the American Civil War, she joined local groups such as the Ladies Patriotic Association and the Ladies Sanitary Committee, which helped care for wounded soldiers directly and raised money for their care and supplies while her husband was off to war. In 1881 her husband was elected to the US Senate by the Republican-dominated Indiana legislature and the family moved to Washington DC. Her poor health kept her from participating much in social events there, but she supported charities and headed the Garfield Hospital Aid Society. After her husband was elected US President in 1888 and they moved to the White House, she oversaw an extensive renovation, purging it of rodents and insects, laying new floors, installing new plumbing, painting and wallpapering, and adding more bathrooms. She was noted for her elegant White House receptions and dinners. In 1889 she raised the first Christmas tree in the White House and introduced the use of orchids as the official floral decoration at state receptions. A talented artist, she conducted china-painting classes in the White House for other women as it was a popular craft of the time. In 1890 she helped found the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and served as its first President General. In 1891 she had electricity installed but was too frightened to handle the switches, leaving the lights on all night and having a building engineer turn them off each morning. Later that year, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and the following summer she traveled to the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York, as the mountain air was considered beneficial for those suffering from the disease. After her condition became terminal, she returned to the White House, where she died at the age of 60. The Harrisons' daughter Mary Harrison McKee took up the duties of the White House hostess during the last months of his term.
Bio by: William Bjornstad [3]
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The Duttons of New England
1832 - 1892 (60 years)
Has no ancestors and no descendants in this family tree.
[1] 
HARRISON, President Benjamin
