Warren G. Harding

Early life

Harding was born on November 2, 1865, near Corsica, Ohio (now Blooming Grove) in Morrow County. Harding was the oldest of the eight children of Dr. George Harding and Phoebe Dickerson Harding. His boyhood heroes were Alexander Hamilton and Napoleon. His mother was a midwife who later obtained her medical license. While a teenager, the Harding family moved to Caledonia in neighboring Marion County when Harding's father acquired The Argus, a local weekly newspaper, where Harding learned the basics of the newspaper business. Harding's education was completed at Ohio Central College (later Muskingum College) in Iberia.

Related Topics:
Corsica - Ohio - Morrow County - Alexander Hamilton - Napoleon - Midwife - Medical license - Caledonia - Marion County - Ohio Central College - Iberia

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After graduation, Harding moved to Marion, where he raised $300 with two friends to purchase the failing Marion Daily Star. It was the weakest of Marion's three newspapers and the only daily in the growing city. Harding converted the paper's editorial platform to support the Republicans and enjoyed a moderate degree of success. However, Harding's political stance was at odds with those who controlled most of Marion's local politics. When Harding moved to unseat the Marion Independent as the official paper of daily record, his actions brought the wrath of Amos Kling, one of Marion's wealthiest real estate speculators, down upon him.

Related Topics:
Marion - Marion Daily Star - Amos Kling

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While Harding won the war of words and made the Daily Star the biggest newspaper in Marion, the battle took a toll on his health. In 1889, when Harding was 24, he suffered exhaustion and nervous fatigue. He traveled to Battle Creek, Michigan to spend several weeks in a sanitarium regaining his strength, later returning to Marion to continue operating the Star. He spent his days boosting the community on the editorial pages, and his evenings "bloviating" (Harding's term for informal conversation) with his friends over games of poker.

Related Topics:
1889 - Exhaustion - Battle Creek - Michigan - Sanitarium - Poker

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In 1891, Harding married Florence Mabel Kling DeWolfe, a divorcee and the mother of one son. Five years older than Harding, she had pursued him persistently, until he reluctantly surrendered and proposed. Florence's father was Harding's nemesis, Amos Kling. Upon hearing that his only daughter intended to marry Harding, Kling cut her completely out of the family and even forbade his wife to attend her wedding. He opposed the marriage vigorously and would not speak to his daughter or son-in-law for eight years.

Related Topics:
1891 - Florence Mabel Kling DeWolfe

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While the marriage was not one of full-blown passions, the couple complemented one another, Harding's affable personality balancing his wife's no-nonsense approach to life. Florence Harding inherited her father's determination and business sense, and turned the Marion Daily Star into a profitable business. One of the Hardings' paperboys at the Star was the young Norman Thomas, son of the city's Presbyterian Church minister, who later became a noted journalist and socialist leader in New York City. Thomas, who ran for President on the Socialist Party ticket, often credited his work ethic to Florence Harding, whom he remembered fondly in his recollections of life in Marion. Florence's drive has been credited with helping Harding to achieve greater things than he could have done alone, leading to speculation that she later pushed him all the way to the White House.

Related Topics:
Norman Thomas - Presbyterian Church - Socialist Party - White House

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Harding was also a member of the Freemasons. He was raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason on August 27, 1920, in Marion Lodge No. 70, F. & A.M., Marion, Ohio.

Related Topics:
Freemasons - Master Mason - August 27 - 1920 - Marion, Ohio

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