Mass Communication#64;Campbell

Harrington Research


Teacher Is In Search Of Handwritten Newspapers Harrington

A journalism professor is conducting research on Harnett County’s most famous editor, John McLean Harrington, and is seeking help from residents North Carolina and beyond.

Mr. Harrington is best known for producing handwritten newspapers in the late 1850s and 1860s and Michael Ray Smith, a Campbell University professor, wants to obtain examples of the newspapers, most of which are about 9 inches by 6 inches and about four pages.

“John McLean or John McL, as he was known, was a journalistic maverick, the kind of free spirit that is the stuff of legends,” Dr. Smith said.

“Our journalism program wants to salute this kind of creativity by

Dr. Smith is collecting John McL. memorabilia that he hopes to use in a display at Campbell’s department of mass communication.

Recently Geneva H. Cameron donated photographs of John McLean for Dr. Smith’s project. In addition, Mrs. Cameron generously donated a copy of her family history for the display.

According to the history supplied by Mrs. Cameron of Broadway and originally assembled by Daisy Kelly Cox in 1960, John McL was educated at Pine Forest and Haywood Academies and taught at Pine Forest Academy near the Thomas Harrington home. He began teaching when he was only 15 years old. John McL died in 1887.

Born in 1839 to a farmer and successful politician, James Steven Harrington, and his wife, Margaret, John McL grew up in what was then Cumberland County, but is now known as Harnett County.

The senior Harrington served in North Carolina’s House of Commons from 1858-1860 and is reputed to have changed parties as the political necessity arose.

John McL began issuing his handwritten newspapers when he was just 19. The newspapers were filled with political commentary, amusements, literature and advertising.

They also told of the breakup of the Union and the beginning of military conflict. The tone of Mr. Harrington’s papers was decidedly anti-Lincoln

Mr. Harrington produced The Nation, a handwritten weekly newspaper; The Young American, a monthly magazine; The Weekly Eagle and The Leasure (stet) Hour. During the war between the states, Mr. Harrington served as postmaster in an area that was once known as Harrington. The building, now gone, was located near the present-day Mt. Pisgah Presbyterian Church, not far from Broadway. Examples of the newspapers can be found at libraries in Duke and UNC, Chapel Hill, but Dr. Smith hopes to obtain actual artifacts that can be displayed in Harnett County at Campbell.

Pine Forrest

Pine Forest Academy

This year Dr. Smith was awarded the Archie K. Davis Fellowship by the North Carolinian Society, an organization dedicated to promoting increased knowledge and awareness of North Carolina history, to study John McL’s journalism.

Professor Smith can be reached at smithm@campbell.edu or 893-1528. His office is located in Hight House, 180 Main St., Buies Creek, N.C. 27506.

Harrington mentioned in quilt
http://www.harnett.org/library/Quilt/Quilt%20Squares/the%20nation.htm
 

Article by Michael Ray Smith, Ph.D.

Harrington's epic poem research by student Courtney Willey