The Peculiar Truth about the President Who Married His Niece

• March 4, 1889: Benjamin Harrison was named the 23rd President of the United States. He was grandson to the country’s 9th president, William Henry Harrison, and great grandson to one of America’s Founding Fathers.

• Harrison had served as a US Senator and a Civil War officer. To this day, he is the only US President from the state of Indiana.

• His term lasted four years and, like President Joe Biden, Harrison’s presidency was preceded by and succeeded by the same man - in his case, Grover Cleveland who was both the 22nd and 24th President.

• Harrison was a Republican whose election victory was marred by voting scandals. Once in office, he had almost no rapport with Congress, and his tariffs caused inflation. He was notoriously cold and aloof.

• The most notable scandal in his life, however, came after he left the White House.

• In 1896, he married his niece, Mary Scott Lord Dimmick. He was age 62, and she was 37.

• Harrison’s adult children vehemently disapproved, and it caused a family rift.

• Benjamin Harrison was married to Caroline Harrison nee Scott for nearly 40 years. She was the daughter of abolitionists, had a liberal arts background, and taught music. She organized women volunteers during the Civil War and managed an orphanage.

• She married Benjamin Harrison in 1853, and they had two children together, Russell and Mary (aka Mamie).

• Caroline Harrison became First Lady in 1889 and helped bring their large family to the White House. During his presidency, Harrison became a grandfather. Caroline was constantly busy with volunteer work and household chores.

• In 1891, doctors diagnosed her with tuberculosis or consumption, as it was more commonly called then. It’s an airborne bacterial infection that can spread to the spine and brain. For treatment, she went to the Adirondack Mountains for fresh air. But in that era, the disease was almost always fatal.

• Caroline stayed away from Washington to recuperate until she heard rumors that her husband, the president, was having an affair with a much younger woman - her niece.

• Mary Scott Lord married Walter Dimmick when she was 23. He died three months after their wedding day. That left her a widow throughout the 1880s.

• When her Aunt Caroline became First Lady, Mary became her personal aide. She kept her aunt’s social calendar, responded to letters, and spent time with the President, whom she called Uncle Ben.

• Caroline Harrison succumbed to her fatal illness in October 1892. Weeks later, her husband lost his re-election bid to Grover Cleveland.

• After the First Lady died, Harrison moved back to Indiana. Mary joined him, and they fell in love. That surprised many because Harrison was seen as such a cold, dispassionate man.

• His son and daughter were furious. Not because he remarried but because of his choice in a wife. Mary was their cousin and roughly their same ages.

• As a result, neither Russell nor Mamie attended their wedding ceremony.

• One year later, Harrison and his new wife welcomed a daughter, Elizabeth. She was ten years younger than Russell and Mamie’s own children, which was seen as scandalous.

• Russell and Mamie never spoke to their father again. When he died in 1901, they did not attend his funeral.

• Mary, a widow again at 42, lived to age 89.