[1] 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.

Sometime after Mrs. Harrison's death in 1892, the former president and Mrs. Dimmick fell in love and late in 1895 announced their engagement.

Harrison's vice president and the then governor of New York, Levi P. Morton, and several former cabinet members were among the three dozen guests; former navy secretary Benjamin F. Tracy was best man.

"[5] 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.

[6] On September 1, 1914, Mary and her seventeen-year-old daughter Elizabeth returned from Europe upon the outbreak of war aboard the SS Ryndam.