[118] Anna was still in Ohio packing for the trip to Washington when she learned of her loss.[121]
The prevailing theory at the time was that his illness had been caused by the bad weather at his inauguration three weeks earlier. [122] Jane McHugh and Philip A. Mackowiak did an analysis in Clinical Infectious Diseases (2014), examining Miller's notes and records showing that the White House water supply was downstream of public sewage, and they concluded that he likely died of septic shock due to "enteric fever" (typhoid or paratyphoid fever).[123][124]
A 30-day period of mourning commenced following the president's death. The White House hosted various public ceremonies, modeled after European royal funeral practices. An invitation-only funeral service was also held on April 7 in the East Room of the White House, after which Harrison's coffin was brought to Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., where it was placed in the Public Vault.[125] Solomon Northup gave an account of the procession in Twelve Years a Slave:

The next day there was a great pageant in Washington. 