Essay prepared by IHS staff

William Henry Harrison became famous as the victor in the Battle of Tippecanoe (Nov. 7, 1811), while also serving as Indiana's first territorial governor for 12 years, and he was elected president of the United States in 1840.

He was born into a distinguished family of Virginia, his father both a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a governor of Virginia. Harrison began his own military-political career in the Northwest as an aide to General Anthony Wayne and later to Governor Arthur St. Clair. Harrison was elected (over Arthur St. Clair, Jr.) as the Northwest Territory's first delegate to Congress in 1799, and the following year came the first of four appointments as governor of the Indiana Territory, created in 1800 by legislation Harrison had sponsored.