General Harriman was appointed naval officer of the port of Boston, by President Grant, in April, 1869, which office he accepted after the expiration of his gubernatorial term in June following. He was re-appointed in 1873, for a term of four years. The affairs of this office were conducted in such manner as to preclude any word of criticism.
Gen. Harriman has engaged in political canvasses repeatedly in most of the northern states, and in 1872 he participated extensively in the state campaign in North Carolina. In this latter canvass, the key-note of the national campaign was pitched, and the result of the desperate contest there in August made the re-election of Gen. Grant in November a certainty.
Thousands have warmly testified to the rare oratorical powers of the subject of this sketch, the Meriden (Conn.) Recorder being one of the number. That paper says of him: "As a platform speaker, we never heard his equal. His delivery is fine, his logic clear as crystal, his manner easy and natural, and his physical force tremendous. With a voice clear and distinct as a trumpet, of immense compass, volume, and power, his influence over an audience is complete. He affects nothing, but proceeds at once to the work in hand, and from the very outset carries his hearers with him, rising, at times, with the inspiration of his theme, to the loftiest flights of eloquence."
Gov. Harriman has been twice married; first, in 1841, to Miss Apphia K., daughter of Capt. Stephen Hoyt, of Warner, who died two years afterwards; and again in 1844, to his present wife, Miss Almira R. Andrews. By the latter marriage he has had three children. Georgia, the only daughter, is the wife of Joseph R. Leeson, an enterprising importer of Boston. Walter Channing, the oldest son, married Miss Mabel Perkins, of Portsmouth. He is a promising and successful lawyer, living at Exeter, and solicitor of Rockingham county. The younger son, Benjamin E. having prepared himself for the medical profession at some of the best schools in the land, took his degree at Dartmouth College in 1877, and began practice in Manchester. But his health soon failing, after patient and determined efforts for its recovery, and after attempting in another place to resume his professional work, he died at his father's home in Concord, in May, 1880, lamented, not only by his own family, but by a large circle of devoted and enthusiastic friends. His wife, so early bereaved, was Miss Jessie B., only daughter of the late Col. Isaac W. Farmer, of Manchester. A biographical paper read before the N. H. Medical Society, by Dr. A. H. Crosby (a physician of wide reputation), and printed, portrays the character of Dr. Harriman in generous outline, and fine and tender tinting, and from it we know that he was a young man of high integrity, large capacities for friendship, and superior equipment for his life-work. There are two grandsons to represent the family, one in the home of each of the governor's surviving children.
The home of Gov. Harriman in Concord, where he has now lived since 1872, is a delightful one, and no one enjoys it with more satisfaction than he himself. A great traveler, by the necessities of his public career, he has a mastering fondness for quiet domestic life, and never are his rich stores of experience, his knowledge of men, and his fine sense of humor with its exhaustless fund of material, more ready at his command than of an evening in his own house. He writes for various of the standard publications of New England, and no time hangs wearisome on his mind. He wears the honorary degree of A. M., conferred by Dartmouth College in 1867. A good citizen and neighbor, a delightful companion, free and familiar and sympathetic with all persons, his intellectual power now at high noon, and never better able to serve his time than now, it would seem that many years of useful activity are before him ere the restful evening descends.
Sam M Wheeler