Nostalgia & History > Photos/Information of First Presidential Funeral Train?

While listening to the CBS report of the George Bush Funeral Train today, it was mentioned that William Henry Harrison was the first president to have a funeral train in 1841. I decided to look into that but haven't found anything. All I've found is information on Abraham Lincoln's funeral train, in addition to having to sift through the "First in 50 years" news articles. Does anyone have any additional information on this?

Your question is very interesting, so I tried some research.  I did not find any reference to a funeral train for President William Henry Harrison.  After his death, the interment for Harrison took place at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC.  He was subsequently buried in North Bend, Ohio.

All the presidential funeral train references which came up on my search indicated that the first presidential funeral train was for Abraham Lincoln

What I did find is that William Henry Harrison Gould was a "conductor on the special train that was to carry President Lincoln's body from Baltimore to Harrisburg."    It appears likely that the researcher for the CBS story was confused.  See the following:

http://topsfieldtimes.pbworks.com/w/page/70816134/Gould%2C%20William%20Henry%20Harrison%2C%201836-19--

Here's a link to an interesting Smithsonian Magazine article on presidential funeral trains:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/somber-history-presidential-funeral-train-180970955/

RuleG Wrote:
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> What I did find is that William Henry Harrison
> Gould was a "conductor on the special train that
> was to carry President Lincoln's body from
> Baltimore to Harrisburg."    It appears likely
> that the researcher for the CBS story was
> confused.

Go to youtube and put in /watch?v=9hCgosCD1rs after .com. It's just after the 3 hour, 13 munute, 30 second mark. He said it was a correction from an earlier statement made around the 2 hour, 59 minute mark

SD80MACfan Wrote:
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> RuleG Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > What I did find is that William Henry Harrison
> > Gould was a "conductor on the special train
> that
> > was to carry President Lincoln's body from
> > Baltimore to Harrisburg."    It appears
> likely
> > that the researcher for the CBS story was
> > confused.
>
> Go to youtube and put in /watch?v=9hCgosCD1rs
> after .com. It's just after the 3 hour, 13 munute,
> 30 second mark. He said it was a correction from
> an earlier statement made around the 2 hour, 59
> minute mark

I listened to the correction and I still think my previous post provided a logical explanation for what may be confusion on CBS's part.  Neither one of us, nor any other Trainorders members has been able to provide evidence of a funeral train for President William Henry Harrison.