Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/127

 HARRISON

HARRISON

mistress of the White House on the election of her husband to the presidency, and she per- formed the duties with dignity and grace. Her health, however, gradually failed and she sought relief in the pure air of the Ailirondack moun- tains, where she resided during the greater part of the last year of her life. She was a manager of the orphan asylum, Indianapolis, and the first pi-esident of the National society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She died in the White House, Washington, D.C., Oct. 25, 1893.

HARRISON, Carter Bassett, representative, was born in "Berkeley," on the James river, Va. ; second child of Benjamin and Eliza (Bas- sett), and elder brother of William Henry Har- rison, President of the United States. He received a classical education at the College of William and Mary and was a lawyer. He was a member of the Virginia house of delegates, 1784; after- ward served in both liouses of the Virginia legis- lature for many years, and was a representative in the 3d, 4th and 5th congresses, 1793-99. He married Miss Allen of Claremont on the James, and had three children: William A., Benjamin C. and Anna Carter. He died in Virginia in 1804.

HARRISON, Carter Henry, representative, was born at Elk Hill, Fayette county, Ky., Feb. 15, 1825 ; son of Carter Henry and Caroline Evalind (Russell) Harrison; grandson of Robert Carter and Ann (Cabell) Harrison, and of Col. William and Nancy (Price) Russell; and a descendant on his fatlier's side from Benjamin Harrison who emigrated from England to Virginia about 1620, and on his mother's side from William Russell, who came from England to Jamestown, Va., with Sir Alexander Spotswood in 1710. Mr. Harrison was prepared for college under Dr. Lewis Marshall, brother of Chief-Justice John Marshall, entered the sophomore class at Yale in 1843 and was graduated in 1845. He then engaged in farming in Fayette county, Ky., travelled in the Orient with Bayard Taylor, spent two years in Germany and France, and in 1855 was graduated from the Transylvania university law school, Lexington, Ky., being admitted to the bar in the same year. He was married in 1855 to Sophonisba Preston of Hen- derson, Ky., who died in 1876. In 1882 he was married in London to Marguerite E., daughter of Marcus A. Stearns of Chicago. In 1857 he removed to Chicago, where he practised law and engaged in the real estate business. He was elected commissioner of Cook county in 1871; was defeated for congress in 1872, and was a Democratic representative in the 44th and 45th congresses, 1875-79. In 1879 he was elected mayor of Chicago and was also elected in 1881, 1883, 1885 and 1893. In 1884 he was Democratic candidate for governor of Illinois

and in 1891 unsuccessfully contested the mayor- alty nomination with De Witt C. Cregier ; mak- ing the race independently he came within two thousand votes of election. In 1887-88 made a trip around the world, writing descriptive letters to the Chicago papers. These letters were after- ward published under the title " A Race with the Sun." In November, 1891, he purchased the Chicago Times newspaper which was managed by his two sons. Carter Henry and William Preston, until 1894. On the evening of his death a stranger, pleading urgent business, was ad- mitted to Mayor Harrison's house. Mr. Harrison left the dining-room to meet the stranger who fired at him with a revolver, inflicting five wounds. The assassin afterward gave himself up and was convicted of murder. Mr. Harrison died in Chicago, III., Oct. 28, 1893.

HARRISON, Carter Henry, politician, was born in Chicago, 111., April 23, 1860; son of Carter Henry and Sophonisba (Preston) Harri- son ; and grandson of Carter Henry and Caroline Evalind (Russell) Harrison. He attended the Gymnasium of Altenburg, Germany, 1874-76; was graduated from St. Ignatius college in 1881, and from the law department of Yale in 1883. He practised law in Chicago until 1889, when with his brother William Preston Harrison, he engaged in the real estate business. He was joint manager with his brother of the Chicago Times, 1891-94, and in April, 1897, was elected mayor of Chicago, to winch office he was re- elected in 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902 and 1903.

HARRISON, Charles Custis, philanthropist, was born m Philadelpliia, Pa., May 3, 1844; son of George Leib and Sarah Ann (Waples) Harri- son. His father (1811-1885) was an honorary graduate of Harvard, where he studied for two years, receiv- ing his A.M. degree in 1878; was the founder of the Frank- lin sugar refinmg company ; president of the state board of charities; trustee of the P.E. divinity school, Philadelphia, and author of Science as Connected with the Admin- istration of State Charities" (1877) and
 * ' Chapters on Social

a

a<:>.(Z. /m/72 0/rH^^

Legislation on Insanity " (1884). Charles Custis was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, Greek salutatorian, A.B. in 1863, A.M. in 1865. He was senior partner of Harrison, Frazier & Co. until the