Special Sub-Topic: The Curse of Tecumseh Click Here To Play: The Curse of Tecumseh

Who was Tecumseh?

Shawnee Indian Chief. Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa (The Prophet) founded the city of Prophetstown, in present day Ohio, as a base for Indians who were unhappy with the treaty signed by Indian Leaders and Governor William Henry Harrison. While he is called the Chief of the Shawnees, very few Shawnees joined his confederation.

Who issued “The Curse of Tecumseh?”

Tenskwatawa (The Prophet). While Tecumseh was the leader of the confederation, his younger brother Tenskwatawa, a religious leader, was the solidifying element in the group. Following the battle of Tippecanoe, “The Prophet” uttered the fateful curse, which paraphrased says that every President elected in a year ending in 0 would die in office.

Which hero of Tippecanoe was the first President to fall to “The Curse?”

William Henry Harrison. Harrison was Tecumseh’s main adversary in the battle for the Indian lands. He was elected president in 1840, but during his inauguration speech he contracted a cold after standing in the bitterly cold rain for an hour and forty minutes. His cold quickly turned to pneumonia, and he died on 4 April 1841.

In 1860 a new President was elected. He would become the second victim of “The Curse,” on 14 April 1865.

Abraham Lincoln. That night, a southern-sympathizing actor named John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln as he sat in his box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. Lincoln died the next day.

The third president elected in a year ending in 0 was shot as he waited for a train in Washington D.C. on July 2nd 1881. Who was this 3rd victim of “The Curse of Tecumseh?”

James Garfield. When James Garfield emerged victorious in the 1880 election, Charles J. Guiteau felt that he should be rewarded for his loyalty with a political appointment. When the White House ignored him, he believed that God commanded him to kill the president. On July 2nd 1881, Guiteau shot Garfield in the back as he was boarding a train in Washington D.C.

Gangrene caused by the bullets from Leon Frank Czolgosz’s gun caused the demise of which President elected in a year ending in 0?

William McKinley. On September 6th 1901 Czolgoz went to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, where President McKinley was greeting the public. Concealing his pistol in a bandage hand, he shot McKinley twice at point blank range. McKinley died a week later.

Which President was the first to visit Alaska, but the 5th to fall to “The Curse of Tecumseh?”

Warren G. Harding. Harding, who was elected in 1920, had set out on a cross-country tour in June of 1923 as an effort to inform 'the common man' of his policies. Unfortunately the stress of the trip combined with rumors of scandal within the administration proved to be too much for the 57 year old President. After arriving in San Francisco he died of either a stroke or a heart attack on August 2nd.

The famous last words of which winner of the 1940 election were, “I have a terrific headache?”

Franklin Roosevelt. The longest serving President, FDR, was beginning his fourth term, when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while on a working vacation in Georgia during April of 1945. While he was posing for a portrait, he suddenly dropped his pen, made a comment about a headache and slumped forward, unconscious.

As the 7th victim of “The Curse of Tecumseh,” which President did an assassin hiding in the Texas School Book Depository shoot?

John F. Kennedy. Probably the best known of all the victims we have discussed, JFK was elected in 1960, and served for only two years before he was killed in Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Which man broke “The Curse of Tecumseh?”

Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, and therefore should have been the 8th successive victim of the curse. The moment came on March 30th, 1981, when John Hinckley Jr. shot the President as he left the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. Considering that Reagan was 70 at the time, he probably should have died, yet the former actor beat the odds, and “The Curse of Tecumseh.”