More on W.H. Harrison

Gerald P. Lunderville
Long Beach, Calif.
To the editor,

Thank you, Sharon Wood,(Sept. 18 Eagle Times) for sharing the fascinating story of William Henry Harrison Moody, founder of the Hotel Moody and Moody Park. As a child growing up in Claremont, my family and I always enjoyed our visits to Moody Park, and when I taught at the Stevens Annex, I would often stop in at the Hotel Moody on Fridays where Dodie Belski tended bar. When I was a child growing up in Claremont on Union Street, there was a family of Moodys living across the street. I still remember Moody’s barber shop on the square but had been unfamiliar with the founder of the hotel and park and never knew he was named after a former U.S. President.

I currently teach a course to senior citizens on the lives of U.S. presidents in Lakewood, California, and I am always on the lookout for trivia and other sidelights of our nation’s presidents. One story of which people may not be aware is that of William Henry Harrison’s 10 children; only one lived past the age of 30. He was John Scott Harrison, the only son to survive to adulthood and father of a president, Benjamin Harrison, born in 1833. When John died in Cincinnati, Ohio at age 73, some medical students stole his body from a cemetery and were examining the cadaver in class. Son Benjamin and a university administrator located the body that had been hidden in a dumbwaiter after Benjamin called out, “That’s my dad!”

Now I have more information to share with my students about William H. Harrison and Mr. Moody. Several notable athletes have been named after presidents and presidential candidates, such as Grover Cleveland Alexander, Hall of Fame pitcher, William Jennings Bryan Herman, Hall of Fame second baseman, and Theodore Samuel Williams (“Ted”) and Jack Roosevelt Robinson, both named after Teddy Roosevelt.

 

Gerald P. Lunderville

Long Beach, Calif.