Woman of the Century/Caroline Lavinia S. Harrison

HARRISON, Mrs. Caroline Lavinia Scott, wife of Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third President of the United States, was born in Oxford, Ohio, 1st October, 1832. She is the daughter of the Rev. John Witherspoon Scott and Mary Neal Scott. She was educated in the Female Institute of Oxford, where her father was a professor and teacher. Carrie Scott became the wife of Benjamin Harrison, a rising young lawyer and former fellow-pupil, in Oxford, 20th October, 1853. In 1854 they removed to Indianapolis, Ind., and began housekeeping in a very modest way, while Mr. Harrison devoted himself to the practice of the law in such a vigorous and manly fashion as soon to attract the attention of the bar in the community Two children are the offspring of their union. Russell H , and Mary Scott Harrison, now Mrs. McKee. Mrs. Harrison has always been a home-loving woman, of a CAROLINE LAVINIA SCOTT HARRISON. decidedly domestic turn, and noted for her perfect housekeeping. Well born and educated, she has kept pace with her husband intellectually, and has always taken an intelligent interest in all that pertained to his business or success in life. Since her husband's inauguration as President and her installation as mistress, the White House has gone through a thorough course of repairs, such as it never experienced before, notable as were several of its former occupants for good housekeeping. The results are very gratifying and greatly enhance the convenience and comfort of the household. Mrs. Harrison will go on record as the warm advocate of the extension of the family part of the executive buildings, which have long since ceased to equal the residences of wealthy representative citizens in Washington and other places. Mrs. Harrison comes of good Revolutionary stock, and she is the first president chosen to preside over the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which she does with much grace and dignity. Mrs. Harrison's administration will be remembered for her patronage of art. While not highly gifted with artistic ability herself, she does very clever work in both water-color and on china, and several struggling young artists owe much of their success to her patronage. She is not fond of public and official social life, its responsibilities being somewhat onerous to her, but she enjoys the society of her friends. In religion she is a Presbyterian. She is quietly interested in all that tends to build up the interests of the Church of the Covenant, where the family attend. Mrs. Harrison's character can be summed up in a few words. She is a well born, well educated woman of the domestic type, an interested patron of art, who also numbers among her chosen friends many persons distinguished for literary ability or high personal character. While she has enjoyed living in the White House, it has been as a woman of conservative character, who felt the responsibilities of her station more than she was uplifted by its honors and privileges.