by David Braham. The titles of these plays indicate their character, The Mulligan Guards, Squatter Sovereignty, A Leather Patch, The O’Regans. The partnership with Hart lasted from 1871–1884. Subsequently Harrigan played in different cities of the United States, one of his favourite parts being George Coggswell in Old Lavender.
HARRIMAN, EDWARD HENRY (1848–1909), American
financier and railroad magnate, son of the Rev. Orlando
Harriman, rector of St George’s Episcopal church, Hempstead,
L.I., was born at Hempstead on the 25th of February 1848. He
became a broker’s clerk in New York at an early age, and in
1870 was able to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange
on his own account. For a good many years there was nothing
sensational in his success, but he built up a considerable business
connexion and prospered in his financial operations. Meanwhile
he carefully mastered the situation affecting American railways.
In this respect he was assisted by his friendship with Mr Stuyvesant
Fish, who, on becoming vice-president of the Illinois
Central in 1883, brought Harriman upon the directorate, and in
1887, being then president, made Harriman vice-president;
twenty years later it was Harriman who dominated the finance
of the Illinois Central, and Fish, having become his opponent,
was dropped from the board. It was not till 1898, however, that
his career as a great railway organizer began with his formation,
by the aid of the bankers, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., of a syndicate to
acquire the Union Pacific line, which was then in the hands of a
receiver and was generally regarded as a hopeless failure. It
was soon found that a new power had arisen in the railway world.
Having brought the Union Pacific out of bankruptcy into
prosperity, and made it an efficient instead of a decaying line,
he utilized his position to draw other lines within his control,
notably the Southern Pacific in 1901. These extensions of his
power were not made without friction, and his abortive contest
in 1901 with James J. Hill for the control of the Northern
Pacific led to one of the most serious financial crises ever known
on Wall Street. But in the result he became the dominant
factor in American railway matters. At his death, on the 9th of
September 1909, his influence was estimated to extend over
60,000 m. of track, with an annual earning power of $700,000,000
or over. Astute and unscrupulous manipulation of the stock
markets, and a capacity for the hardest of bargaining and the
most determined warfare against his rivals, had their place in
this success, and Harriman’s methods excited the bitterest
criticism, culminating in a stern denunciation from President
Roosevelt himself in 1907. Nevertheless, besides acquiring
colossal wealth for himself, he helped to create for the
American public a vastly improved railway service, the benefit
of which survived all controversy as to the means by which he
triumphed over the obstacles in his way.
HARRIMAN, a city of Roane county, Tennessee, U.S.A., on the
Emory river, about 35 m. W. by S. of Knoxville. Pop. (1900) 3442
(516 being negroes); (1910) 3061. Harriman is served by the Harriman
& North Eastern, the Tennessee Central, and the Southern
railways. It is the seat of the East Tennessee Normal and
Industrial Institute, for negroes, and of the American University
of Harriman (Christian Church, coeducational; 1893), which
comprises primary, preparatory, collegiate, Bible school, civic
research, commercial, music and art departments, and in 1907–1908
had 12 instructors and 317 students. Near the city are
large deposits of iron and an abundance of coal and timber.
Among manufactures are cotton products, farming tools, leather,
tannic acid, furniture and flour. Harriman was founded in 1890
by a land company. A clause in this company’s by-laws requires
that every conveyance of real estate by the company “shall
contain a provision forbidding the use of the property or any
building thereon, for the purpose of making, storing or selling
intoxicating beverages as such.” Harriman was chartered as a
city in 1891, and its charter was revised in 1899.
HARRINGTON, EARLS OF. The first earl of Harrington
was the diplomatist and politician, William Stanhope (c. 1690–1756),
a younger son of John Stanhope of Elvaston, Derbyshire,
and a brother of Charles Stanhope (1673–1760), an active
politician during the reign of George I. His ancestor, Sir John
Stanhope (d. 1638), was a half-brother of Philip Stanhope, 1st
earl of Chesterfield. Educated at Eton, William Stanhope
entered the army and served in Spain, but soon he turned his
attention to more peaceful pursuits, went on a mission to Madrid
and represented his country at Turin. When peace was made
between England and Spain in 1720 Stanhope became British
ambassador to the latter country, and he retained this position
until March 1727, having built up his reputation as a diplomatist
during a difficult period. In 1729 he had some part in arranging
the treaty of Seville between England, France and Spain, and for
his services in this matter he was created Baron Harrington in
January 1730. Later in the same year he was appointed secretary
of state for the northern department under Sir Robert Walpole,
but, like George II., he was anxious to assist the emperor Charles
VI. in his war with France, while Walpole favoured a policy of
peace. Although the latter had his way Harrington remained
secretary until the great minister’s fall in 1742, when he was
transferred to the office of president of the council and was
created earl of Harrington and Viscount Petersham. In 1744,
owing to the influence of his political allies, the Pelhams, he
returned to his former post of secretary of state, but he soon
lost the favour of the king, and this was the principal cause
why he left office in October 1746. He was lord lieutenant
of Ireland from 1747 to 1751, and he died in London on the 8th
of December 1756.
The earl’s successor was his son, William (1719–1779), who entered the army, was wounded at Fontenoy and became a general in 1770. He was a member of parliament for about ten years and he died on the 1st of April 1779. This earl’s wife Caroline (1722–1784), daughter of Charles Fitzroy, 2nd duke of Grafton, was a noted beauty, but was also famous for her eccentricities. Their elder son, Charles (1753–1829), who became the 3rd earl, was a distinguished soldier. He served with the British army during the American War of Independence and attained the rank of general in 1802. From 1805 to 1812 he was commander-in-chief in Ireland; he was sent on diplomatic errands to Vienna and to Berlin, and he died at Brighton on the 15th of September 1829.
Charles Stanhope, 4th earl of Harrington (1780–1851), the eldest son of the 3rd earl, was known as Lord Petersham until he succeeded to the earldom in 1829. He was very well known in society owing partly to his eccentric habits; he dressed like the French king Henry IV., and had other personal peculiarities. He married the actress, Maria Foote, but when he died in March 1851 he left no sons, and his brother Leicester Fitzgerald Charles (1784–1862) became the 5th earl. This nobleman was a soldier and a politician of advanced views, who is best known as a worker with Lord Byron in the cause of Greek independence. He was in Greece in 1823 and 1824, where his relations with Byron were not altogether harmonious. He wrote A Sketch of the History and Influence of the Press in British India (1823); and Greece in 1823 and 1824 (English edition 1824, American edition 1825). His son Sydney Seymour Hyde, 6th earl (1845–1866), dying unmarried, was succeeded by a cousin, Charles Wyndham Stanhope (1809–1881), as 7th earl, and in 1881 the latter’s son Charles Augustus Stanhope (b. 1844) became 8th earl of Harrington.
Before the time of the first earl of Harrington the Stanhope family had held the barony of Stanhope of Harrington, which was created in 1605 in favour of Sir John Stanhope (c. 1550–1621) of Harrington, Northamptonshire. Sir John was a younger son of Sir Michael Stanhope (d. 1552) of Shelford, Nottinghamshire, who was a brother-in-law of the protector Somerset. Sir Michael’s support of Somerset cost him his life, as he was beheaded on the 26th of February 1552. Sir John was treasurer of the chamber from 1596 to 1616 and was a member of parliament for several years. He died on the 9th of March 1621, and when his only son Charles, 2nd baron (c. 1595–1675), died without issue in 1675 the barony became extinct.
HARRINGTON, or Harington, JAMES (1611–1677), English
political philosopher, was born in January 1611 of an old Rutlandshire
family. He was son of Sir Sapcotes Harrington of Rand,
Lincolnshire, and great-nephew of the first Lord Harington of
Exton (d. 1615). In 1629 he entered Trinity College, Oxford, as