Carter Harrison, Sr.

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Carter Harrison, Sr.
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 2nd district
In office 1875 – 1879
Preceded by	Jasper D. Ward
Succeeded by	George R. Davis
29th Mayor of Chicago
In office 1879 – 1887
Preceded by	Monroe Heath
Succeeded by	John A. Roche
33rd Mayor of Chicago
In office 1893 – 1893 (assassinated in office)
Preceded by	Hempstead Washburne
Succeeded by	George Bell Swift
Born	February 15, 1825(1825-02-15) Lexington, Kentucky
Died	October 28, 1893 (aged 68) Chicago, Illinois
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Margaret Sterans, Sophonisba Grayson Preston
Children	William , Caroline Dudley, Carter Henry, Hebe Grayson, Randolf, Harry Grayson, William Preston, Gracie, Edith
Residence	Chicago, Illinois

Carter Henry Harrison, Sr. (February 15, 1825 – October 28, 1893) was an American politician who served as mayor of Chicago, Illinois from 1879 until 1887; he was subsequently elected to a fifth term in 1893 but was assassinated before completing his term. He previously served two terms in the United States House of Representatives. Harrison was the first cousin twice removed of President William Henry Harrison.

Born near Lexington, Kentucky to Carter Henry Harrison II and Caroline Russell,^[1] his father died when the younger Harrison was only a couple of months old. He was educated by private tutors, and was graduated from Yale College in 1845 as a member of Scroll and Key. Following graduation, he traveled and studied in Europe from 1851 to 1853 before entering Transylvania College in Lexington, where he earned a law degree in 1855. He was admitted to the bar in 1855 and commenced practice in Chicago; Harrison came to Chicago because he saw it as a land of opportunity.

Harrison ran an unsuccessful campaign in 1872 for election to the Forty-third Congress. Beginning in 1874, he served as a member of the board of commissioners of Cook County. He was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Congresses (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1879); he was not a candidate for renomination in 1878. In 1879, he was elected to his first term as mayor of Chicago. He served as mayor from 1879 to 1887, when he declined a renomination. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Illinois in 1884. He served as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1880 and 1884.

The night of the Haymarket Riot in 1886, Harrison walked unmolested through the crowd of anarchists and advised the police to leave the demonstrators alone. The riot was sparked by a bomb, reportedly thrown at police by anarchists. After leaving office, Harrison was owner and editor of the Chicago Times from 1891 to 1893. He was re-elected in 1893, in time for the World's Columbian Exposition. His desire was to show the world the true Chicago, and he appointed 1st Ward Alderman "Bathhouse" John Coughlin to sit on the reception committee. On October 28, 1893, three days before the close of the Exposition, Harrison was murdered in his home by Patrick Eugene Prendergast, a disgruntled and apparently mentally ill office seeker. Harrison was buried in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery. Prendergast was hanged on July 13, 1894. Harrison was Chicago's first five-time elected mayor; eventually his son, Carter Harrison, Jr., was also elected mayor five times.

Harrison's career and assassination are closely connected with the World's Columbian Exposition, and are discussed at some length as a subplot to the two main stories (about the fair and serial killer H. H. Holmes) in The Devil in the White City. His death came two days before the scheduled close of the fair, whose celebration was cancelled in lieu of a large public memorial service for Harrison.

[edit] See also

• List of assassinated American politicians
• The Devil in the White City, a narrative history of the 1893 Exposition, intertwined with a subplot about one of America's earliest known serial killers.

[edit] References

• Abbott, W.J. (1895). Carter Henry Harrison: A Memoir. 
• Johnson, Claudius (1928). Carter Henry Harrison I: Political Leader. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 

[edit] External links

• Carter Harrison, Sr. at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Carter Harrison III (1825-1893)

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