Editing William Henry Harrison (section)

===Marriage and family===
Harrison met [[Anna Harrison|Anna Tuthill Symmes]] of [[North Bend, Ohio]] in 1795 when he was 22. She was a daughter of Anna Tuthill and Judge [[John Cleves Symmes]], who served as a colonel in the Revolutionary War and as a representative to the [[Congress of the Confederation]].{{sfn|Madison|Sandweiss|2014|p=46}} Harrison asked the judge for permission to marry Anna but was refused, so the couple waited until Symmes left on business. They then eloped and were married on November 25, 1795, at the North Bend home of Stephen Wood, treasurer of the Northwest Territory.{{sfn|Owens|2007|pp=38–39}} They honeymooned at [[Fort Washington (Cincinnati, Ohio)|Fort Washington]], since Harrison was still on military duty.{{sfn|Owens|2007|p=40}} Judge Symmes confronted him two weeks later at a farewell dinner for General Wayne, sternly demanding to know how he intended to support a family. Harrison responded, "by my sword, and my own right arm, sir".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/greatpresidentia00dole |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/greatpresidentia00dole/page/222 222] |title=Great Presidential Wit: – I Wish I was in this Book |publisher=Scribner |location=New York |isbn=978-0-7432-0392-0 |last1=Dole |first1=Bob |author-link=Bob Dole|year=2001 }}</ref> The match was advantageous for Harrison, as he eventually exploited his father-in-law's connections with land speculators, which facilitated his departure from the army.<ref name="Freehling"/> Judge Symmes' doubts about him persisted, as he wrote to a friend, "He can neither bleed, plead, nor preach, and if he could plow I should be satisfied."<ref name="Freehling"/> Matters eventually became cordial with the father-in-law, who later sold the Harrisons {{convert|160|acres|ha}} of land in North Bend, which enabled Harrison to build a home and start a farm.{{sfn|Owens|2007|p=40}}

Anna was frequently in poor health during the marriage, primarily because of her many pregnancies, yet she outlived William by 23 years, dying on February 25, 1864, at 88.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=18}}{{sfn|Owens|2007|p=56}}

The Harrisons had ten children:

*Elizabeth Bassett (1796–1846)
*John Cleves Symmes (1798–1830), who married the only surviving daughter of [[Zebulon Pike]]
*Lucy Singleton (1800–1826)
*William Henry Jr. (1802–1838)
*[[John Scott Harrison|John Scott]] (1804–1878), father of future U.S. president [[Benjamin Harrison]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/H000272|title=John Scott Harrison|publisher=U. S. Congress|access-date=January 26, 2022}}</ref> 
*Benjamin (1806–1840)
*Mary Symmes (1809–1842)
*Carter Bassett (1811–1839)
*Anna Tuthill (1813–1865)
*James Findlay (1814–1817)<ref>{{Cite web|title=William Henry Harrison: Fast Facts| url=https://millercenter.org/president/harrison| publisher=Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia| access-date=March 9, 2019| date=September 26, 2016}}</ref>

Professor Kenneth R. Janken, in his biography of [[Walter Francis White]], claims that Harrison had six children by an enslaved African-American woman named [[Dilsia (slave)|Dilsia]] and gave four of them to a brother before running for president to avoid scandal. The assertion is based on the White family's oral history.<ref>{{cite book|first=Kenneth Robert|last=Janken|title=White: The Biography of Walter White: Mr. NAACP|location=New York|publisher=The New York Press|year=2003|page=3|isbn=978-1-5658-4773-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Phillips |first1=Amber |title=Warren Harding and 5 other presidents who have faced 'love child' questions |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/08/13/warren-harding-and-the-5-other-presidents-who-have-faced-love-child-questions/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]] |date=August 13, 2015}}</ref> In her 2012 biography of Harrison, author [[Gail Collins]] describes this as an unlikely story, although White believed it to be true.{{sfn|Collins|2012|p=103}}