Mary Mckinney Harris was the daughter of John McKinney of County Donegal, Ireland. Mother's name is unknown. Of Scottish and Irish descent, her birth year according to McKinney and Harris histories ranges from 1700 to 1710. Arrived in America in 1726 with father, John McKinney and brother's John Jr., Henry and Matthew on same ship as husband to be, Thomas Harris and his family, settling in Lancaster, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania where she married Thomas Harris in 1730. Mary McKinney Harris and Thomas Harris then moved to Elizabethtown, Lancaster Co., Pa., where Thomas built and opened a tavern abt. 1730 called the "Sign of the Bear" later building a substantial house-tavern on same site 56 N. Market St which still stands today. Thomas Harris sold the site and tavern in 1751-2 and continued to live in the western part of Lancaster Co., and southern Dauphin Co., Pa. In 1760 he bought land in the Churchville- Lower Crossroads area of Harford County, Md. where he stayed for some years. Here Mary McKinney Harris died in 1770 and was buried. Thomas Harris then invested in the Philadelphia Land Co., buying land, and moving with two sons to Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada, land that the French Acadians were forced from in the Great Deportation-Expulsion " Du Grand Derangement". Thomas Harris later bought land and moved back to Mifflintown- Academia area of Juniata County, Pennsylvania where he built a grist and saw mill, and remarried to an Agnes Unknown. Thomas Harris died age, 106 yrs old in 1801. Mary McKinney Harris original gravestone was replaced by a new marble gravestone in 1892 by the Van Bibber and Archer families..

Children of Capt. Thomas Harris and Mary McKinney Harris
1. Dr. Robert Harris -[1731-1815] died in Philadelphia, Graduated Princeton University
2. John Harris - [1733-1734]
3. Matthew Harris - [1735-1819] died in Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada
4. Margaret Harris - [1737-1815] married to Col. George Stuart
5. Dr John Harris - [1739-1802] died in Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada.
6. Dorothy Harris - [1745-1747]
7. Catherine Harris - [1742-1815] died in Churchville, Harford Co., Md., Wife of Dr. John Archer.
8. Mary Harris -[1748-184?] Married to John Lyon

Mary McKinney Harris 1st gravestone had engraved " In Memory of Mary Harris, wife of Thomas Harris" but eventually the stone decayed and crumbled. Then in 1891 - 1892 the Archer's and Van Bibber families combined forces to replace her stone and erected a 4ft high Italian marble stone on a granite base and dedicated in 1892. This new Inscription :

" In Memory of Mary Wife of Thomas Harris of the family who founded Harrisburg, She was a daughter of John Mc Kinney of Paxtang Township, Lancaster Co., Pa., and the Mother of Catherine Harris who married Dr. John Archer, Sr.
Her descendants in Maryland, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oregon, as a slight Token of Affection for their worthy Ancestor, now A. D. 1892, more than a Century after her Death- replace, with this Stone, one that was fast crumbling away "

Biographical information and photos on the Harris and Stewart Families , Mary Mc Kinney, Capt. Thomas Harris, Catherine Harris Archer and their related families are found in the book " Colonel George Steuart And His Wife Margaret Harris, Their Ancestors and Descendants, with Appendixes of Related Families, Portraits and Illustrations, A Genealogical History by Robert Stewart, D.D., L.L.D. Printed in 1907 in Lahore, India