August 20 marked the 193rd birthday of an American president.
Don’t feel bad if you didn’t know that. Benjamin Harrison is used to being forgotten.
Harrison is almost comically overlooked. Ask someone to name the presidents between Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, and you would probably hear crickets.
It’s even worse for a guy like Harrison, whose lone presidential term is sandwiched between Grover Cleveland’s two nonconsecutive terms. Even his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, is better remembered, and the man was president for just 31 days.
But being forgotten isn’t the same as being insignificant. Harrison may never top anyone’s list of great or memorable presidents. His face isn’t carved into a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and no one is clamoring for a Benjamin Harrison national holiday. But during his four years in the White House, Harrison presided over a surprisingly consequential chapter in our nation’s history.
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