Like most American presidents, William Henry Harrison came from a political family. The last president born in the colonies, instead of the U.S., he was also the last of seven children. Which "under the laws and customs of the day," as the University of Virginia's Miller Center describes it, "limited his prospects." When his father died, his elder brothers got basically everything. Without money to pay for medical school, Harrison joined the army.
After leaving the army, Harrison actually did well for a while, climbing the civil service ladder, making investments, and buying property. He kept trying to get higher into government either by elected office, eventually reaching the U.S. Senate, or by appointment, as he did as ambassador to Columbia. While overseas he was unable to manage his farm, which after a particularly bad season, "did not perform well, and money problems grew; he was reduced to a menial job as recorder for his county to make ends meet."
Harrison was still deep in debt when he was running for president in 1840. Ironically one of the biggest issues in that election, says the Miller Center, was that "the nation was on the brink of economic disaster." The incumbent president, Martin van Buren, was called Martin van "Ruin," and Harrison won handily. He died just one month into his presidency after giving a two-hour inaugural address in the cold without wearing a hat or coat.
