Born in
Honesdale, Pennsylvania, as
Mary Scott Lord, she was the daughter of Russell Farnham Lord, chief engineer of the Delaware and Hudson Canal (later known as the
Delaware and Hudson Railway), and his wife Elizabeth Mayhew Scott. Harrison's grown children from his first marriage, horrified at the news, did not attend the wedding. Harrison's vice president,
Levi P. Morton, the then-governor of New York, and several former cabinet members were among the three dozen guests; former navy secretary
Benjamin F. Tracy was best man. Without a honeymoon, the couple settled in Indianapolis. Together, the Harrisons had one daughter: •
Elizabeth (Harrison) Walker (1897–1955), a lawyer. Born in Indianapolis, she graduated from
New York University School of Law in 1919. In 1922, she married James Blaine Walker, grandnephew of her father's secretary of state
James G. Blaine. She was founder and publisher of "Cues on the News", an investment newsletter for women. Their daughter, Mary Jane Walker, married Newell Garfield, a grandson of
Interior Secretary James Rudolph Garfield, and great-grandson of President
James Garfield. The Harrisons traveled widely: to
Venezuela, where Harrison played a role in settling a boundary dispute, and to the
First Peace Conference at The Hague in 1899. Benjamin Harrison died on March 13, 1901. Mrs. Harrison survived the former president by nearly half a century. Arden Davis Melick reveals that "Mary Dimmick Harrison established
The Benjamin Harrison Memorial Home in Indianapolis, Indiana." In 1901, she commissioned
Frederick Wilson of
Tiffany Studios to create a
stained-glass window for Benjamin Harrison's long-time congregation, First Presbyterian Church. On September 1, 1914, Mary and her seventeen-year-old daughter Elizabeth returned from Europe upon the outbreak of war aboard the
SS Ryndam. She died of asthma in
New York City on January 5, 1948. She was buried in
Indianapolis, Indiana, in
Crown Hill Cemetery. == References ==