Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-11-13
Franklin Pierce and j Vim Harmon,

People often see at the Fifth avenue hotel, in
Detroit tall man with long, black locks of
hair and Indian features. 1t is John Harmon,
collector of the port of Detroit, under Frank
lin Pierce, the editor of the Free Press for many
years, when it was Lewis Cass' organ, and he has
seen every president of the United Ststes but
five. He went to the Hermitage to see Stephen
A. Douglas clasped to the breast of An
drew Jackson. OF him it is related tn it when
Mr.. Pierce did not send his nomig alton in pune
tually he repaired to the White house to know
the reason. 'tSit down, John,'' said Pierce: 'sbs
cool there are some charges made against you"
''I'n have them right now, MIR. President. They
say you drink, john" ''That is true, Mr.. Pres
ident but never drink alone.'' eAnd that you
play cards. ''Mr. President, always play to
win.'' And that you are too gallant Mr.. Pres
ident, 1 never pursued woman
in my life and never fed from
one.'' Pierce had to smile, as his own charac-
name went in Immediately. Mr.. Harmon was
born in Connecticut, and has the veritable blood
of King Philip in his veins. He is seventy-one
years old, and he says that the most vivid of all
things to him is the great growth and power of
America, which he has seen when every state
west of Indiana was a savage territory or with
out an organized government
There are two very serious errors in the
above, and probably but two. namely, as
to his birth place, and as to the blood of
King Philip running in his veins. John n.
Harmon, the gentleman alluded o,was a ma
tive of Portage county, Ohio. A majority
of the noted men of the time hail. of
course, from Ohio! That is ssthe Ohio
ideal! John Harmon. the father of John
H., published the westminster Courier
in Ravenna, Ohio, the county seat of Port
age county, from 1881 to 1888. John FL.
learned the trade of printer in his fathers
Office, and drifted away in his young man
hood to Detroit, soon after that state had
emerged from territorial to a state
municipality. He entered the Office of
the Detroit Free Press as printer, then in
charge of the we'll known brothers, Smith,
Silas and John S. Bogg, now all deceased.
The splendid newspaper aptitude of young
Harmon was soon discovered, and
he was placed on the editorial
tripod of the Free Press,
and by his racy, brilliant, dashing, cpl
grammatic editorials, gave the paper i'm
mense popularity and increased circula-
ton. No Michigan daily has enjoyed such
d DfllllduG reputation Since. Inc
young editor became the ideal of
the young men of his party, and
he was even talked of" for governor of
the state, and might have reached that
honorable position but for the one weak
ness which President Pierce, himself a bib
ulous bon-vivant, laid to his charge, and
which Harmon adroitly parted, by saying,
to the amused president, Il never drink
alone,'' fact of which the president him
self had personal cognizance. That Mr..
Harmon had raven black hair, falling in
uncut measure upon his shoulders, and a
Tecumseh cast of features, the
writer hereof well knows, but to what
ancestral element he was indebted for
those peculiarities he is unable to state.
John Harmon, his father, was a native of
Puritanical Connecticut, distinguished for
its "Blue Laws" and in early life took up
his abode in Northwestern Ohio, then
known as the connecticut Western Re-
serve" OF a numerous family, John II.
was the only one that bore the stamp and
mien of ga Prince of the Blood" and the
only one distinguished for sparkling abil-
ity.-EDIToR GLOBE.