Also known as John McL or McL, Harrington teased his readers with references to a partner but never revealed the person by name.

In late August 1858, he suspended The Nation but continued publishing the Young American and then his other newspapers.

Harnett County historian Malcolm Fowler called Harrington a child prodigy who graduated from Pine Forest Academy at 12 and began teaching there at 15, where he was paid $154 and five pair of socks for a three-month term.

The Civil War interrupted much of his work because of the scarcity of paper and other resources. Harrington sat out the war as the postmaster of the now-defunct town of Buffalo Springs, once home to a turpentine merchant.

No recluse, Harrington was a ladies’ man. In a 1955 radio broadcast on Dunn’s WCKB, amateur historian Jane Cranford called Harrington attractive, a bachelor who dated widely. She reported Harrington once said of women, “I never succeeded in fooling one of them into the bonds of matrimony.”

Where is Harnett County?

Listing of newspapers published by Harrington