Harrison Street
From Worcester Activist wiki
“The Worcester Palladium, the most profligate and detestable paper in the Union…”
So slapped the National Aegis, another Worcester newspaper in 1839.
Undismayed, the Palladium replied: “That the editor of the Aegis should be so mortified and chagrined at the development of the imbecility of his candidate as to be reluctant to speak, is very natural.”
All this happened during a wild era in American politics. The campaign to elect William Henry Harrison for President and John Tyler for Vice- President was one of the most bitter and spectacular in America.
“The Harrison whirlwind,” John Quincy Adams called it.
In Worcester, the Whigs met on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 1840, in Brinley hall and “responded with enthusiasm” to the nominations of Harrison and Tyler.
“The meeting was one of the most numerously attended and the most spirited which has ever been held here,” glowingly reported the Aegis.
With the cry, Tippecanoe and Tyler too!” the campaign swept through the nation like a northeaster.
Symbol of Harrison, man of the people and Indian fighter, was that big log cabin on Grove street.
Here gathered thousands of Worcesterites to listen to long political speeches and drink hard cider.
How many came for speeches and how many for cider was never determined – but William Henry Harrison was elected president, only to die a month after inauguration.
When a new street was laid out in Worcester in 1841, John Pond named it for Harrison.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
