Mary Dimmick Harrison

Mary Scott Dimmick Harrison (née Lord) was born on April 30, 1858, in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Russell Farnham Lord, who served as the chief engineer of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and Elizabeth Mayhew Scott.

In 1881, she married Walter Erskine Dimmick, born on July 4, 1856. Walter E. Dimmick was the son of Samuel E. Dimmick, who served as Pennsylvania's attorney-general, and the brother of J. Benjamin Dimmick, a future mayor of Scranton. The marriage took place on October 22, 1881. Walter Dimmick died three months later, on January 14, 1882, rendering Mary a widow at age 23.

Following her husband's death, she moved to Washington, D.C., in 1889 to serve as an assistant to the First Lady Caroline Harrison in the White House. She was a niece of Caroline Harrison through her mother's family. After Caroline Harrison's death in 1892, Mary Dimmick Harrison entered into a romantic relationship with Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, who was nearly 25 years her senior.

Benjamin Harrison and Mary Dimmick Harrison announced their engagement in late 1895. The marriage was performed on April 6, 1896, at St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church in New York City. At the time, Benjamin Harrison was 62 years old, and Mary was 37. The wedding was attended by Vice President Levi P. Morton, then governor of New York, and several former cabinet members. Notably, Harrison's children from his first marriage did not attend. Benjamin F. Tracy, a former Secretary of the Navy, served as the best man. The couple did not take a honeymoon and settled in Indianapolis.

Benjamin and Mary Harrison had one daughter, Elizabeth Harrison (later Elizabeth Walker), born in 1897. Elizabeth earned a law degree from New York University School of Law in 1919 and married James Blaine Walker in 1922, who was the grandnephew of James G. Blaine, a former Secretary of State. Elizabeth was the founder and publisher of "Cues on the News," an investment newsletter aimed at women. She and James Walker had a daughter, Mary Jane Walker, who married Newell Garfield, a grandson of President James Garfield.

The Harrisons traveled extensively, including trips to Venezuela, where Benjamin Harrison was involved in resolving a boundary dispute, and to the First Peace Conference at The Hague in 1899. Benjamin Harrison died on March 13, 1901, and Mary Harrison survived him by nearly 47 years.

In her later years, she established The Benjamin Harrison Memorial Home in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1901, she commissioned a stained-glass window from Frederick Wilson of Tiffany Studios for the First Presbyterian Church, Harrison's longtime congregation. She returned from Europe with her daughter Elizabeth upon the outbreak of World War I in September 1914.

Mary Scott Dimmick Harrison died of asthma in New York City on January 5, 1948. She was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.