Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President of the United States, came to Washington in March of 1889, and he brought with him his wife of 36 years, Caroline Scott Harrison. For nearly four years she warmed the White House with her infectious charm. Then in October 1892, right in the midst of her husband's reelection campaign, she died, and the President went into mourning. No one comforted him more through this crisis than his late wife's secretary, Mary Dimmick, and one day the President would show his gratitude in a way that would make the rest of his family recoil in horror.
While Caroline was alive and in charge of the White House, none questioned the presence of her efficient and vivacious young secretary. After all, the First Lady was so busy that folks hardly had time to see beyond her whirlwind of activities. Mrs. Harrison helped organize the Daughters of the American Revolution and became its first president-general. She oversaw the installation of the first electric lights in the White House, although neither she nor her husband would touch the switches. Indeed, Caroline threw her energies into a multitude of good works and causes, one of which included the Women's Medical Fund of Johns Hopkins University. All the while, young Mary performed the Herculean task of organizing Mrs. Harrison's busy calendar.
The Presidential campaign of 1892 was in full swing when tuberculosis took the life of Caroline Harrison. Her death put a lid on the political debate surrounding the election, but didn't engender enough public sympathy to keep Benjamin Harrison in office. After his defeat, he retired to private life, but not alone. He maintained close ties with Mary Dimmick - much closer than his children really preferred.
By May 1896, Benjamin Harrison felt he had sufficiently mourned Caroline's passing, so he took a second wife. The former President married Mary Dimmick and thereby created a thorny dilemma for his family and the nation as well. Both of Harrison's grown children were so strenuous in their objections to the marriage of their father to their mother's former secretary that they refused to attend the wedding ceremony. He, in turn, eventually had the pair taken out of his will.
The objections of Harrison's children notwithstanding, Benjamin and Mary remained married for five years. Then in 1901, he died, leaving his young wife in an awkward position. Although she was the widow of a President, she had never served as First Lady, a fact that was made abundantly clear when she petitioned Congress for a presidential widow's pension. The nation's lawmakers turned her down.
Likewise, the widow remained anathema to Benjamin Harrison's children, for you see, when their mother chose Mary to be her secretary, in actuality, she selected her own niece - the daughter of her sister. Then in a curious twist in time, President Harrison transformed that relative-by-marriage into his wife.
The second Mrs. Harrison lived almost another half century longer, but she was never able to overcome the stigma that folks attached to her becoming the stepmother of her first cousins, much to their chagrin.
Bill Coate William "Bill" Coate is a San Joaquin Valley historian, author, television personality and retired public school teacher with 36 years of classroom experience. He is the award-winning founder of the Madera Method, a research-based educational program that uses primary source materials to help students explore history. He writes about the past of our nation and valley with a weekly column and story. He also writes articles pertaining to local schools.
