John Scott Harrison (October 4, 1804 – May 25, 1878) was an American farmer and politician who served as a member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

. He was a son of U.S. president

William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...

and

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non- monarchical head of state or chief executive. The term is also used to describe a woman seen to be at the ...

Anna Harrison as well as the father of U.S. president

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...

. He is the only person to have been both the son and father of U.S. presidents.

Early life and family

Harrison was born in

Vincennes, Indiana Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the lower Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state, nearly halfway between Evansville and Terre Haute. Founded in 1732 by French fur ...

, to future President

and Anna Tuthill Symmes. He was also a grandson of

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of th ...

signer

Benjamin Harrison V Benjamin Harrison V (April 5, 1726April 24, 1791) was an American planter, merchant, and politician who served as a legislator in colonial Virginia, following his namesakes’ tradition of public service. He was a signer of the Continental As ...

. Harrison completed preparatory studies and studied medicine. He later abandoned this to become a farmer. In 1824, he married Lucretia Knapp Johnson (1804–1830). They had three children: *Elizabeth Short Harrison (1825–1904) *William Henry Harrison (1827–1829) *Sarah Lucretia Harrison (1829–1917) On August 12, 1831, in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...

, he married Elizabeth Ramsey Irwin (1810–1850). He and Elizabeth had 10 children: *Lt Col Archibald Harrison (1832–1870); Commander, 27th Indiana Infantry Regiment *

(1833–1901); became president *Mary Jane Harrison (1835–1867) *Anna Symmes Harrison (1837–1838) *John Irwin Harrison (1839) *Carter Bassett Harrison (1840–1905); Captain,

51st Ohio Infantry Regiment The 51st Ohio Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment of the Union Army during the American Civil War. Service The 51st Ohio Infantry Regiment was organized at Camp Meigs in Dover, Ohio, on September 17, 1861, mustered for three years of se ...

*Anna Symmes Harrison (1842–1926) *John Scott Harrison Jr. (1844–1926) *James Findlay Harrison (1847–1848) *James Irwin Harrison (1849–1850) After his father's death, in 1841, his mother moved in with his family to help raise the children.

Political career

He was elected a Whig to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1852, reelected an Oppositionist in 1854 and served from 1853 to 1857. After being defeated for a third term in 1856, Harrison retired to his estate "Point Farm" in North Bend, Ohio where he died on May 25, 1878, aged 73. He was the last surviving child of William Henry Harrison. He was interred in the family tomb in North Bend, today the

William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial The William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial is the final resting place of William Henry Harrison, ninth President of the United States; his wife Anna Harrison; and his son John Scott Harrison, Representative and father of the twenty-third P ...

, with his parents and other family members. Harrison's body was stolen by grave robbers until it was eventually returned to its final place of rest.

Body snatching

At that time it was common practice for graves to be robbed for recently deceased bodies for use in teaching dissection and anatomy at medical colleges. As a result, many precautions were taken to secure Harrison's grave, including building a cemented brick vault, filling the grave with earth mixed with heavy stones, and employing a watchman to check the grave each hour of every night for a week. The day of Harrison's funeral it was discovered that the body of Augustus Devin, which had been buried the previous week in an adjoining grave, had been stolen. The following day, one of John Harrison's sons, together with a friend of Devin, traveled to Cincinnati to look for his body. With search warrants in hand they went to the Ohio Medical College, where they discovered not Devin's body but the naked body of John Scott Harrison hanging from a rope in a chute. Devin's body was later found preserved in a vat of brine at the medical college of the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. The outrage over the act, amid changing sensibilities regarding death, contributed materially to passage of the Ohio Anatomy Law of 1881, a landmark statute, whereby medical schools were provided with unclaimed bodies, which in turn discouraged grave robbers by removing their primary market. As to the personal results, suits were brought against the Ohio Medical College; the Harrison estate was entered in a separate damage suit, in the amount of $10,000. The end result and decision in the three civil suits brought, has been lost in the passage of time, and no documentation is known to exist with this specific information.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, John Scott 1804 births 1878 deaths 19th-century American politicians American people of English descent Children of presidents of the United States Farmers from Ohio Fathers of presidents of the United States John Scott Opposition Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio People from Hamilton County, Ohio People from Vincennes, Indiana Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio Victims of body snatching