Rev. John J. Harrington Biography


	This biography appears on page 356 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				REV. JOHN J. HARRINGTON.  

	Rev. John J. Harrington, pastor of St. Peter and St. Paul's Roman 
Catholic church at Pierre, was born in Malden, Massachusetts, December 
13, 1872, a son of Michael and Elizabeth (Smith) Harrington, both 
natives of County Cork, Ireland. The father died in the year 1906, and 
the mother now resides with her son in Pierre. He is the sixth in a 
family of ten children, of whom only four are now living.  

	After completing the elementary branches of study Rev. John J. 
Harrington entered Holy Cross College, where he pursued preparatory 
courses. Having determined upon devoting his life to the priesthood, he 
continued his studies to that end by becoming a student in St. John's 
Seminary at Brighton, Massachusetts, where he pursued the study of 
philosophy and theology. Having qualified for holy orders, his 
ordination to the priesthood was solemnized in the Boston Cathedral in 
December, 1902, by the Most Rev. John J. Williams, archbishop of that 
diocese. Soon after he was assigned to the charge of a church at 
Medford and successively at Reading, Chelsea and Cambridge, 
Massachusetts. He was then transferred to the west and in 1912 came to 
South Dakota, being shortly afterward appointed to the church at 
Gettysburg, this state. Two years later, or in 1914, he was appointed 
priest of St. Peter and St. Paul's Roman Catholic church in Pierre and 
also has charge of several neighboring missions, including the Catholic 
members of the Pierre Indian Industrial School, who are looked after by 
Father Harrington. He brings to his work great thoroughness, keen 
sagacity and unfaltering consecration and zeal. Although his collegiate 
preparation was broad and thorough, he has continued his reading and 
study, his intellectual life being characterized by an orderly 
progression that renders more effective his untiring efforts for the 
moral progress of the race and the upbuilding of the Catholic church.