Harrison, Anna

▪ American first lady

née  Anna Tuthill Symmes 

born July 25, 1775, Morristown, New Jersey, U.S.

died February 25, 1864, North Bend, Ohio

 American first lady (March 4–April 4, 1841), the wife of William Henry Harrison (Harrison, William Henry), ninth president of the United States, and grandmother of Benjamin Harrison (Harrison, Benjamin), the 23rd president.

      The daughter of John Cleves Symmes (a soldier in the American Revolution and a judge) and Anna Tuthill Symmes (who died when her daughter was one year old), Anna was raised by her maternal grandparents. She attended prestigious girls' schools on the East Coast, including Clinton Academy in Easthampton, New York, and took classes from the famed educator and philanthropist Isabella Marshall Graham (Graham, Isabella Marshall). The family, including her new stepmother, moved to Ohio in 1795 to settle on land purchased by Anna's father after the Revolution. While visiting her sister in Kentucky, she met William Henry Harrison, then a young soldier. Although William came from a prominent Virginia family, Anna's father objected to the match, citing the young man's lack of any profession “but that of arms.” The couple married secretly on November 25, 1795, while her father was away.

      While her husband's career progressed from garrison commander to congressional delegate from the territory of Ohio, Anna gave birth to 10 children (including one who died at age three) between 1796 and 1814, and she took primary responsibility for their education and upbringing. Despite her privileged childhood, she adapted well to the frontier life she led while her husband served as governor of the Indiana Territory (1800–12).

      When William won the presidency in 1840, the couple asked their daughter-in-law, Jane Irwin Harrison, widow of their son William Henry, to perform the duties of first lady until Anna, who was then ill, could come to Washington. As Anna began packing in April 1841, she learned of William's death. Although he had served only one month in office, Congress voted to give Anna a pension equivalent to his salary, thus setting a precedent for the pensions of subsequent first ladies.

      In 1858 Anna's house was destroyed in a fire, and she spent the remaining six years of her life with her son John Scott Harrison, the only one of her children to outlive her. She was buried beside her husband in North Bend, Ohio.

Betty Boyd Caroli

Additional Reading

Although many of Anna Harrison's letters were lost when her house burned, a few can be found in Beverley W. Bond, Jr. (ed)., The Intimate Letters of John Cleves Symmes and His Family (1956). A brief biography is Nancy Beck Young, “Anna (Tuthill Symmes) Harrison” in Lewis L. Gould (ed.), American First Ladies: Their Lives and Legacy (1996), pp. 98–108. Biographies of her husband that give attention to her include James A. Green, William Henry Harrison: His Life and Times (1941); and Freeman Cleaves, Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Time (1939, reissued 1996).

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