Alva Review-Courier -

Previously, we looked at some of the famous political families in U.S. history. Among the most prominent of those was the Harrison family whose original members lived on a plantation in Virginia.

We can start this look at the family with Benjamin Harrison III, who was the attorney general and later treasurer of Virginia when it was still a British colony. He also served as speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, the oldest legislative body in U.S. history.

One of Benjamin III’s children was Benjamin IV. He, too, served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, and fathered Benjamin V.

Benjamin V not only continued the family tradition of serving in the House of Burgesses, but he also represented Virginia in the First and Second Continental Congresses. As a member of the latter, he became one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776. He topped off his politigal career by serving as Governor of Virginia from 1781 to 1784.

One of Benjamin V’s children was William Henry Harrison who was in succession: delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from the Northwest Territory, territorial governor of Indiana, U.S. House member and U.S. senator from Ohio, and president of the United States.

In between all of that he managed to become a military hero in the War of 1812 and serve for a time as ambassador to Gran Colombia (a territory that included the modern-day nation of Colombia as well as Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, and parts of Peru, Guyana, and Brazil).

William Henry was also the father of John Scott Harrison, the subject of this article. John Scott served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio. One of his children was Benjamin Harrison, who served as U.S. senator from Indiana and as president of the United States.

John Scott Harrison has the distinction of being the only person ever to be the son and father of U.S. presidents. We will look further at his life in Part 2 of this story next week.