PRESIDENT BENJAMIN HARRISON - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 02/12/1889 CO-SIGNED BY: FIRST LADY CAROLINE SCOTT HARRISON - HFSID 309266

BENJAMIN HARRISON & CAROLINE SCOTT HARRISON
Less than one month before becoming the 23rd President of the United States, Harrison and his wife write to a friend thanking him for a plaque of apple blossoms.
Typed Letter signed: "Benj Harrison" and "Carrie Scott Harrison", 1 page, 8½x5½. Indianapolis, Indiana, 1889 February 12. On his personal letterhead, written to Master Oliver Parsons, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in full: "My Dear Little Friend: - I have received your mother's note and also the beautiful plaque of apple blossoms which you have sent. Please accept my sincere thanks for this evidence of your good will. With kind regards, Very truly yours," BENJAMIN HARRISON (1838-1901), the 23rd President of the United States (1889-1893), had been a Brigadier General in the Civil War and a U.S. Senator from Indiana (1881-1887). Elected President in 1888, despite losing the popular vote to Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland, he was defeated by Cleveland four years later. CAROLINE SCOTT HARRISON (1832-1892) married young lawyer Benjamin Harrison in 1853. They had three children, one of whom died in infancy. As First Lady from 1889, Caroline Harrison made many improvements to the White House and served as first President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. Harrison contracted tuberculosis in 1891, and became the second of three First Ladies to die in the White House. (The others were Letitia Tyler in 1842 and Ellen Wilson in 1914.) Benjamin Harrison remarried four years later to Mary Scott Lord Dimmick, Caroline Harrison's widowed niece and personal secretary. One vertical and two horizontal folds. Toned at edges. Lightly creased. Slightly worn. Otherwise, fine condition.