| While there were no Bellamy children’s birthdays in February, grandmother Harriss was born on the 27th of this month in 1802. Mary Priscilla Jennings, daughter of George Jennings and Charity Johnson, married William James Harriss in 1820. William became a respected physician, prominent citizen and mayor of Wilmington; he and Mary had eight children, the eldest of whom was Eliza. In the same year that Eliza married John Dillard Bellamy (1839), Dr. Harriss died at the age of 42. Mary was just 37 with seven children under age 15 still living in their home on the corner of Dock and 2nd Streets. And so the newly wed Eliza and John moved in and added four more children to the already bustling household serviced by 14 slaves. | 
The gravestone for "Mother" in Oakdale cemetery reads: Mary P. Harriss sweetly fell asleep in Jesus. She was 77 years old.
|
Grandma Harriss remained a daily presence in the lives of the Bellamy children even after Eliza and John moved out in 1846. Their new home where they bore six more children was across the street in the former residence of Governor Benjamin Smith. The couple moved again in 1861 to the mansion on Market Street where the last of the Bellamy children was born.
