Editing Carter Harrison III (section)

===Marriages and late engagement===
On April 12, 1855, Harrison married his first wife, the former Sophie Preston.<ref name="gambler"/><ref name=patterson>{{cite book |title=The Assassination of Carter Harrison |publisher=A. Theo Patterson |url=http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/documents/Assassination_Carter_Harrison.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/documents/Assassination_Carter_Harrison.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=May 22, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Booneville">{{cite web |title=Assassination Foul |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/602203286 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |publisher=The Standard of Booneville, Indiana |access-date=31 January 2025 |language=en |date=November 3, 1893}}</ref> She hailed from the Preston family, a distinguished [[Southern United States|southern]] family.<ref name="Booneville"/><ref name="TopekaDailyPress1"/> Harrison and his first wife, Sophie, had ten children together. Six of their children died either in infancy or early childhood.<ref name="gambler"/><ref name="TopekaDailyPress1"/>

Harrison became a [[widower]] after Sophie died in Europe in 1876.<ref name=patterson/> After being widowed, Harrison married Margarette (alternatively spelled "Margaret" or "Marguerite") E. Stearns<!-- not Sterans --> in 1882.<ref name="Booneville"/><ref name=patterson/> Stearns was a member of one of Chicago's earliest and most wealthy families,<ref name="Booneville"/> being the daughter of Chicago pioneer [[Marcus C. Stearns]].{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} He was widowed again when she died in 1887.<ref name=patterson/>

At the time of his assassination, Harrison was engaged to a young New Orleans heiress named Annie Howard, daughter of [[Louisiana State Lottery Company]] organizer [[Charles T. Howard]], who had been worth an estimated $3,000,000,<ref name="gambler"/><ref name=patterson/> $700,000 of which she had inherited from him after his death.<ref name="TopekaDailyPress1"/>