Lesser known US presidents

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President William  Henry Harrison 2022.  104 pg Hourly History series  6/9/26

Born in 1777   a few years before the start of the American Revolutionary War .the youngest of 7 siblings. The Harrison family had a plantation in Virginia. there was no schooling available but the best tutors were hired till William turned 14. He later tried to present himself as a rough and tumble frontiersman rather than the son of an aristocrat. He had been tutored in Greek , Latin, history , rhetoric and maths. His father tried to steer him into the direction of the medical field. He was sent to to be schooled by a physician but was not enthused and in 1791 when his father suddenly died he changed course.

His father Benjamin Harrison V had been a delegate to the continental Congress, and they all knew if they failed in their aims would be hung as traitors by the British Crown. When they signed the Declaration of Independence they were very much aware of this danger. He was 1 of 7 Virginians who signed. A total of 56 delegates representing all 13 states, former colonies signed. from a young age William had learned to be without his fathers presence. War came to a close in 1783

In 1791 he joined the military and once he was commissioned he managed to get other young men to be recruited.  He was based at Fort Pitt in Pittsburg.  Here he met people who played a significant role like Lewis and Clerk. Then they headed for Fort Washington.  He was often found reading a book but was serious about becoming a professional officer..

1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers this was against local Native Americans.  He met 20 year old Anna Tuthill Symmes and whose wealthy father was not to keen on him and so they eloped.. Later his determination won him the respect by his father in law an got his full blessing to the marriage. His father in law gave them 160 acres in North Bend where William built a house for him and his wife. Later he found himself dealing with complaints of bored disgruntled soldiers about poor food inadequate equipment and delayed paychecks.

1800 became first governor of he Indiana territory. so moved his family to the then capital Vincennes and historic role was to defend against the tribal people

He put a stop to alcohol sales to tribal people and got many of them inoculated against smallpox.  The greatest tribal chief was Tecumseh who was stopping westward expansion..

1804 brokered the Treaty of St. Louis against the Sauk and Meskwaki tribal groups. 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne where Indiana City got half a million acres., but the Shawnee tribe under Tecumseh. He sent an army of 1000 and destroyed they tribal camp at the Tippecanoe River.

The British in still remained a formidable force on the American continent, the controlled most of Canada. With the local tribes they held a string of forts. 

1911 The British were at war with Napoleonic France and began impressing, American naval personal into their army. President James Madison declared war on Britain thus the 1812 war. At the battle of Lake Erie the beat the British navy. Harrison led troops against the British in 1813 and sent the British and some tribes  fleeing in the battle of Thames River, here Tecumsah was killed. 1814 the British stormed the White House and burned it with other buildings. Peace came in the  treaty of Ghent.

1816 Indiana was made a state, with Harrisons help and he build a house at North Bend.  he managed to get a bill giveing financial compensation to veterans wounded in battle.

1828 Appointed ambassador to Bogota in Gran Colombia by President John Quincy Adams. He did not get along with the leader there Simon Bolivar a military dictator.

1936 stood for the Presidency for the Whig Party.  His policy was  for weakening the President power in favor of strengthening the states. He lost to Martin van Buuren.

1940 he stood again with Tyler as his vice President. he won with both the House of Representative  and the Senate. He was inaugurated in the presents of both his wife and son in Feb 1941. He stood at the ceromony in the cold in a suit and no coat in the cold and gave a 1000 word speech. He was later diagnosed with pneumonia. 

Perished after 31 days in office   in  1841 he was 68  and his body was buried at the family crypt in North Bend.  He was the  first President to die in office..________________________________________________ 

President Franklin Pierce 2025 pg  56  Hourly History  series.

12/8/26

1804 -1869 Franklin Pierce was born in New Hampshire.  The family had come from Norwich, England to Massachusetts Bay in 1634 as puritans. Franklins father served as a lieutenant during the American Revolutionary War and later became a general in the New Hampshire militia and governor of the state. His mother was his fathers 2nd wife. His father had bought 50 acres of land after the revolutionary war and added to the original tract over  time.

Franklin went to Bowdoin College in Brunswick , Maine. He liked the debate club where his quick wit and charisma made him a formidable opponent. 1827 he passed the New Hampshire bar and established his own practice in Concord.

1833 got a congressional seat in the US House of Representatives.

Slavery was the most contentious issue and the first draft of the Declaration of Independence.  There was actually a passage condemning this practice.. The Southerner States would not support a struggle for independence if anyone suggested abolishing  slavery and so the words of condemnation were removed.

1834 Franklin and  Janet both supported the temperance movement. That was the year they married he was 30 and she   was 28. Their children died  of typhus  including their  and the other of a horrible train accident. This left them childless and Franklin was determined to leave a lasting legacy through public service. 

1837 he got a seat on the senate aged only 32 years. 

1839 appointed chairman of the Senate Committee on Pensions. 1842 He and is wife decided that Washington was no place to live so he resigned from his seat and went back to his legal practice in New Hampshire.  When Polk became president he appointed Pierce as district attorney for New Hampshire.

1846 -1848 The Mexican - American War broke out the root cause of this was the the Texas dispute. Then Franklin Peirce was appointed US attorney general. In 1847 he joined the army  and landed in Veracruz Mexico. He was wounded in battle.

1848 General Winfield Scott managed to capture Mexico City and force the Mexican government to capitulate at the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico relinquished any claim to Texas. In compensation of $15 million that the US paid gained the new territory of California , Nevada Arizona and New Mexico. Every time a new state was added  there was a contention whether is would be slave or free. 

1828 the Democratic Party was founded by Andrew Jackson.  Franklin Pierce  opposed slavery on moral grounds, however he refused to support interference in the rights of slave states to govern. His stance was the most pragmatic , and most likely to win votes.  Pierce linked himself to Andrew Jackson. This was when he, his wife and son were in the train crash and she considered this god retribution for Franklins pursuit of politics. 

1854 Gadsden Purchase. Gadsden was the US ambassador in Mexico and this was the final piece of land that made the US is currant shape it cost $10 million. In was a piece of land in New Mexico and southern Arizona. This allowed the Southern Pacific Railway to run on a smoother route to California.

Under Pierce New England fishermen were entering Canadian water and this could lead to a conflict with the British Royal Navy. The US gave Canada  favorable trade agreement including allowing Nova Scotia coal to enter duty free and the fisherman were allowed to fish. He also made agreements with Mexico avoiding conflicts.

1854Commodor Perry was sent to open up Japan and threatened military action if an agreement wasn't reached. Treaty of Kanagawa. This was the result of American sailors ship wrecked of Japan take captive and never heard again.  Japan opened her door.

 Zachary Taylor died months after taking office and succeeded by vice President Millar Fillmore who  was considered an accidental President. Under him the 1850 Compromise admitted California as a free state while allowing Utah and New Mexico to decide on the slave question. This was one of the reason for the civil war.

The US wanted to take over Cuba which had slaves and northerners objected to this .

1854 Kansas Nebraska Act  "Border Ruffians " who supported slavery crossed from Missouri to vote illegibly in the Kansas elections. At this time John Brown and broke into homes of slavery supporter.  Pierce showed his sympathies were pro slavery, and sent troops to keep order.  Thus his own party decided to abandon him and would not receive the Democratic nomination for 1856 presidential election. James Buchanan a democrat won the election.

 Franklin Pierce's one term presidency is often viewed as the beginning  of the Union's dissolution, and Buchanan is remembered as one of the worst US presidents who set the stage for the Civil War. He sought to appease the south a every opportunity. Without a strong candidate the Republican   Abraham Lincoln won in 1860 as an antislavery Republican and the south believed he would contain slavers rights. Pierces unwillingness to    condemn southern secession raised a question about his commitment to preserving the Union.

1864 Lincoln won a second term but the Democrats were looking for a strong leader. However Pierce failed to fly the flag on his residences during the traditional mourning of Lincoln's assassination.  He had shown pro Confederacy sympathies during the war, He died  in 1869 aged 64 from heavy drinking and cirrhosis of the liver.

His friend Nathaniel Hawthorne described him as possessing the elements of a powerful stateman. Pierce knew how to speak to people and move them with words. His attempt to maintain national unity instead pushed the country closer to a civil war.

1837 -1841 Martin van Buren   Democrat.

1841          William Henry Harrison     Whig died after 31 days of pneumonia.

1841 to 1845 John Tyler   Whig 

1845 -1849  James Polk       Democrat

1849-1850 Zachary Taylor   Whig

1850 -1853 Milliard Fillmore     Whig

1853-1857 Franklin Pierce   Democrat

1857 1861  James Buchanan   Democrat

1861 - 1865  Abraham Lincoln Republican

1865-1869   Andrew Johnson    Republican

1869-1877   Ulysses Grant      Republican

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John Tyler Hourly History Series     2022