Vigo County Historical Society
Historical Treasure Article
Historic Treasure of the Week -
September 1, 2002
By Shawn M. Rogers
Vigo County Historical Society
Lantern had role in presidential bid
The presidential campaign between William Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren was one of the most colorful and entertaining episodes in the history of the United States. The pro-Harrison Whigs sought to paint Van Buren as a lordly, uncaring aristocrat who cared not for the welfare of the general public, while casting Harrison as a homespun Indian fighting hero who had the needs and wants of the common man in mind. A few Harrison supporters sought to further enhance the candidate’s reputation as a man of the people by stating that he was born and raised within the rustic confines of a log cabin amid the frontier wilderness. The notion that Harrison was born and raised a “common frontiersman” was preposterous. In reality, Harrison was reared as a privileged aristocrat on a large affluent plantation at Berkley, Va. One Democratic opponent quipped that Harrison would be more inclined to take a military pension and live out his life in a log cabin drunk on hard cider if it wasn’t for the incessant pleas of his political handlers. Whig supporters quickly jumped on this statement and labeled Harrison the log cabin and hard cider candidate. The label stuck. Soon thousands of voters came to view Harrison as the champion and brethren of the common man.
In late May and early June of 1840, a massive rally for the effort to elect William Henry Harrison president took place at the Tippecanoe battlefield near Lafayette. (Site of Harrison’s victory over the Prophet and his sizable army of Indians, and origin of his name “Tippecanoe”). An estimated 30,000 people were present for the political extravaganza, which featured a parade nearly three miles long commencing in Lafayette, free bread and various sorts of roast meats, several bands, floats, stump speeches, miniature log cabins and enough kegs of hard cider to intoxicate a large portion of the entire state’s population. As the result of the immense support garnered from among the more “common” stock of the U.S. electorate, William Harrison, the famed Indian fighter (and builder of Fort Harrison at Terre Haute) was elected president of the United States. Unfortunately, he died of pneumonia on April 4, 1841, just one month after his inauguration.
This week’s historical treasure is a relic from the storied “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” campaign, also known as the “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” campaign. Mr. and Mrs. Benbridge donated this oil-burning lantern to the Vigo County Historical Society on Dec. 8, 1964. It is believed that the grandfather of Mrs. Benbridge carried it in the Harrison campaign parade at Lafayette mentioned above.
The glass chimney has a beautifully etched picture of a log cabin flanked by a split rail fence and fronted by a barrel, which no doubt represents a keg of the infamous hard cider featured in the Harrison campaign effort.
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. The Web site: http://web.indstate.edu/community/vchs.