The Harrison family had been active in government for four generations! Benjamin's namesake great-grandfather signed the Declaration of Independence. His grandfather William Henry Harrison was our 9th U.S. President, and his father served in the U.S. Congress.

Young Benjamin set up a law practice in Indianapolis and married Caroline Lavinia Scott, an accomplished artist. In the 1870s, they spent $28,000 to build a lovely 16-room Italianate mansion. During the 1880s and early 1890s they lived in Washington D.C. while Benjamin served in the U.S. Senate and then in The White House.

Caroline died from tuberculosis in 1892, shortly before Benjamin was defeated for re-election. He returned home alone to Indianapolis. In 1896 when he married the niece of his departed wife, his own children refused to attend the ceremony. The second Mr. and Mrs. Harrison had one daughter, the apple of her father's eye until Benjamin's death a few years later.