Only one person was both the son and father of a president.

  • Portrait of John Scott Harrison
Portrait of John Scott Harrison
Credit: © Niday Picture Library/Alamy
Author Michael Nordine

May 22, 2026

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There have been only two father-son pairs to serve as U.S. president: John Adams and John Quincy Adams and George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. (Robert A. Taft, the son of President William Howard Taft, came somewhat close to joining their company but failed to secure his party’s nomination despite three close attempts.) 

As the only person to be the son of one president and the father of another, however, John Scott Harrison occupies an even rarer place in history. His father, William Henry Harrison, was the shortest-serving president in U.S. history, having died 31 days into his term on April 4, 1841. John Scott Harrison’s son Benjamin Harrison occupied the White House from 1889 to 1893.

John Scott Harrison was 36 when his father died, and he went on to represent Ohio’s 2nd congressional district from 1853 to 1857 — first as a Whig and then as a member of the anti-slavery Opposition Party in his second term. He declined to run for governor in 1855 and, after losing his seat in Congress, retired to Point Farm, his estate near North Bend, Ohio. He passed away in 1878 and didn’t live to see his son become president.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

John Scott Harrison helped put an end to grave robbing.

John Scott Harrison’s story didn’t end with his death at the age of 73. Grave robbers absconded with his remains just days later and brought his body to Ohio Medical College, which had a reputation for acquiring its anatomical subjects in unseemly ways. Harrison’s son Benjamin, the future president, led the efforts to recover his father’s body. He was ultimately successful, and the incident led to the passage of the Ohio Anatomy Law of 1881, which allowed medical schools to use unclaimed bodies and helped hasten the end of grave robbing. All three Harrisons (as well as several other family members) are now at rest in the same tomb in North Bend.

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