Books and Manuscripts

Greenville, (Ohio), June, 4, 1794. One oblong sheet, 2 1/4 x 6 1/2 in. (57 x 165 mm). Manuscript document in a secretarial hand, signed by William Henry Harrison ("Wm. H. Harrison/A.d.C."), as aide-de-camp during the Northwest Indian War, requisitioning rations of whiskey for a barge crew; with manuscript table listing 14 rations for six men and one woman on the crew for two days use; inscribed on verso "No. 65/Wm. H. Harrison/7 Gills Whiskey/4 June 1794", further inscribed on same, "Recd. Seven Gills Whiskey...". Small cancellation hole at center. In mat with a portrait of Harrison, and in frame, 17 1/2 x 14 3/4 in. (444 x 375 mm).

A scarce document signed when future president William Henry Harrison was only 22 years old, as he was serving as an aide-de-camp to Major General "Mad" Anthony Wayne in the Northwest Indian War in the Northwest Territory. A little over two months following this document Harrison would fight alongside General Wayne against a coalition of Native American tribes in the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The United States's victory there brought major hostilities to an end, and in the summer of 1795 Harrison was one of the signatories of the Treaty of Greenville that officially ended the war.