HARRIMAN, Walter, governor of New Hampshire, born in Warner, New Hampshire, 8 April, 1817; died in Concord, New Hampshire, 25 July, 1884. He received an academical education and began teaching, but became a Universalist clergyman, and in 1841 took charge of a society at Harvard, Massachusetts After a few years he became pastor of a new Universalist church in his native town.

In 1851, having meantime engaged in trade, he decided, against the earnest solicitation of friends, to abandon the ministry. In 1849, and again in 1850, he had already been chosen representative of his town to the general court, and in 1853 and 1854 was elected state treasurer, in August, 1855, he was appointed to a clerkship in the pension office at Washington, but resigned the following January to take part in the political canvass of that winter, which resulted in "no choice" by the people. In the spring of 1856 he was appointed by President Pierce on a commission to classify and appraise the Indian lands of Kansas. He was again in the legislature in 1858, and in 1859 and 1860 was elected to the state senate, his Republican opponent being on each occasion his own brother. He made speeches to sustain the Know-Nothing movement in 1855-'6, canvassed Michigan for Buchanan in company with General Lewis Cass, and was an earnest supporter of Stephen A. Douglas in 1860.

In May, 1861, Mr. Harriman became editor of the "Union Democrat," published at Manchester, New Hampshire, in which he advocated forcible and immediate action against the seceding states. He became colonel of the 11th New Hampshire regiment, was taken prisoner at the battle of the Wilderness, 6 May, 1864, sent to Macon, Georgia, and removed thence to Charleston, where he was placed, with forty-nine other northern officers, under the fire of the National batteries on Morris island. There he was for fifty-two days, until General Foster, in retaliation, placed fifty Confederate officers of the same rank under fire of the guns on Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie. This led to an exchange on 4 August, 1864. After returning home and engaging actively in the campaign of that year in favor of Lincoln and Johnson, Colonel Harriman rejoined his regiment, and commanded a brigade at Petersburg. In March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general. He was elected secretary of state of New Hampshire in 1865 and 1866, and governor in 1867 and 1868. In the last year he made a tour in the middle and western states, advocating the election of General Grant. As a political speaker he had few superiors.

He was naval officer at the port of Boston throughout Grant's entire administration, removed to Concord, New Hampshire, in 1872, and in 1881 was again chosen to the legislature. Governor Harriman published a "History of Warner, New Hampshire" (1879), and "In the Orient," a record of a tour through Europe and the east in 1882 (Boston, 1883).