Ohio History Journal

BACKGROUND AND YOUTH OF THE SEVENTH OHIO

PRESIDENT1

 

BY RAY BAKER HARRIS

 

News still traveled slowly in the 1860's. Although the tele-

graph was by that time in use between principal cities, news, to a

large degree, continued to be transmitted by stagecoach, by trains

[such as they were], by boats and by human carriers. However be-

lated its appearance in print, the news in the public press during

the week of October 30, 1865, was of considerable historic im-

portance. In England it was the ending of a long era which had

been largely dominated by Lord Palmerston, and the delayed report

of his death was received in America with a renewed optimism that

the tense differences between the two countries might now be more

easily reconciled. It was the ending of an era in America too, and

the beginning of after-war readjustments. The words "return to

normalcy" had not then been devised. The end of war brought,

as it always does, a new economic and social day, frought with

difficulties, uncertainties and many dangers. The Emancipation

Proclamation and the termination of the War between the States

had cleared the air by the end of 1865, and the national politics

turned largely upon the President's program of reconstruction.

President Johnson was having his hardships and was soon to have

greater ones.

During the week of October 30, with all its eventful news,

no newspaper reported that on November 2, at Blooming Grove,

Ohio, a son had been born to George Tryon and Phoebe Dicker-

son Harding. The New York Times, with all of its superior fa-

cilities for gathering and presenting the news of the day, did not

report it; and not even the Ohio State Journal at Columbus, fifty

miles from the scene, took notice of the event. There was abun-

 

1 Other Presidents of the United States whose native State was Ohio were: U. S.

Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William Mc-

Kinley and William H. Taft.

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SEVENTH OHIO PRESIDENT                261

 

dant news of Henry Ward Beecher and General George W. Mor-

gan who were quarrelling loudly, but not in any Ohio paper was

there so much as mention that Warren Gamaliel Harding was the

"talk of the town" at the crossroads community called Blooming

Grove.

The romance between George Tryon Harding and Phoebe

Dickerson, who lived on adjoining farms near Blooming Grove,

began during the early days of the Civil War. The war feeling

was strong all through Ohio, and it had been strong even before

the war began. One of the routes of the underground railroad

ran through Marion, and the Ohio River was one of the means

of ready escape to the north. General sentiment had long been

favorable to fugitive slaves, and because of all this, "Black Laws"

began to accumulate from the very first meeting of the Ohio State

legislature. Lincoln spoke at Columbus and Cincinnati during the

campaign of 1859, and little by little the ties which bound the

North and South had been breaking under the strain of northern

attacks on slavery and the southern defense of it. When the war

finally came, regiments from the Old Northwest territory were

in every important campaign from Bull Run to Appomattox. These

western men and boys comprised the bulk of Sherman's marching

army, and thousands of them died at Vicksburg, Gettysburg, in

the Wilderness and in the constant engagements near Richmond.

The war was a deep, tragic, living reality to every community in

Ohio, and Morgan's men had been as near as Cincinnati.

It was the first week in May, 1864, that Tryon Harding, then

only nineteen, determined to enlist in the war. A regiment was

being mustered in at Camp Chase on May 13, and they would al-

low him to enlist as a musician, as "a drummer boy." He told

Phoebe Dickerson that he was going, and that he wanted her to

marry him before he left. He was not the only one who was

courting the youngest daughter of Isaac Dickerson, and during the

100 days or more that he would be away he wanted the assurance

that she was his.

They knew what Isaac Dickerson would say if they asked his

blessing on the marriage. A nineteen-year-old boy, just leaving

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for war, would not have been his idea of a suitable husband for

his eighteen-year-old daughter. He would have told them to wait.

They also knew what Charles Harding would have said to

his only son's marriage. The Hardings didn't want him to go to

war in the first place, because of his age and the fact he was needed

on the farm, and they were using every device to persuade him to

remain at home. It was bad enough to them that he was leaving

his family, but what a row they would have raised if they knew

he had a bride.

So it was that on May 7, 1864, Tryon hitched up the horses

and drove up to the Dickerson farm to "take Phoebe and her sister

Deb [Deborah Dickerson] for a ride." They drove to Galion and

were married, with Deborah as witness, "at the Methodist preach-

er's house," returning at once to Blooming Grove so as not to

arouse suspicion by a too long absence. On the way back Phoebe

had asked her husband for his watch, and when she returned it

to him she had scratched in the back case these four lines:

Phoebe Dickerson is no more

May ₇th 1864

Phoebe Harding now it is

Didn't we fool Mal and Liz?

Leaving the girls at the farm, Tryon drove on to his own

home to pack, take leave of his family and start for Camp Chase.

In Blooming Grove, not even Bets Johnston, who had the repu-

tation of knowing everyone's business almost before it happened,

was aware that there was a new bride in their midst that night.

The 136th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry was

mustered in and ready to leave Camp Chase [Ohio] by the eve-

ning of May 13. Tryon Harding was in Company I, under Cap-

tain John Craven, and when the regiment left Camp Chase that

evening it was on the march for Washington City and arrived after

seven days. The regiment was placed on garrison duty at Forts

Ellsworth, Williams and North, which constituted part of the de-

fenses of Washington, just south of the Potomac. Company I

was at Fort Williams.

In the same Company there was a young friend of Tryon's

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SEVENTH OHIO PRESIDENT                263

who had enlisted with him, and who also had ideas about marry-

ing Phoebe Dickerson. He wrote to her frequently and at length,

and his letters did not go unanswered. She replied with friend-

liness and her letters were always filled with so much impersonal

but entertaining news of home that they were magnanimously

shared with his "rival." Letters came to Tryon, too, but these

were love letters and were not shared. Not until he was mus-

tered out and returned to Blooming Grove, did the friend discover

that all the time he had been writing to Tryon's wife. The secret

had been well kept.

The regiment was scheduled to return to Camp Chase and to

be mustered out on August 31, but toward the middle of that

month word reached Blooming Grove that Tryon had contracted

typhoid fever and was in the Army Post Hospital at Fort Wil-

liams. This report was followed shortly by another that the en-

tire regiment was on its way back to Ohio, that Tryon was con-

valescing and would be admitted to the Seminary U. S. General

Hospital as soon as the regiment reached Columbus.

Phoebe Dickerson's distress at the news of Tryon's illness was

a source of some surprise to her parents, and of downright as-

tonishment to the Hardings when she went so far as to offer to go

to Columbus to help take care of him. It was regarded as some-

what unseemly that an "unmarried" girl should proffer such serv-

ices, especially when Tryon had eight sisters, any one of whom

could nurse him with more propriety if the need arose. When

Isaac Dickerson heard of this he commanded an explanation from

his youngest daughter, and he received it. Whatever their amaze-

ment, Phoebe's parents were apparently by no means displeased.

They held their peace, and permitted Phoebe and Tryon to break

the news to the rest of the family in their own way, after Tryon

returned.

The secret had been confided to only one other, or really to

two, although the letter was to "poor Charley." Charley was the

twelve-year-old boy of Phoebe's sister, Malvina. He had never

been well, and his life was destined to be a very short one. So,

although Malvina had been "fooled" on the seventh of May, she

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264    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

did learn of the marriage before the others, because when Charley's

days were finally numbered, and the end was near, Phoebe wanted

the small boy who had always been a favorite with the family, to

know about the marriage.

Tryon Harding, meanwhile, was an impatient invalid. He

was admitted to the Seminary U. S. General Hospital at Colum-

bus on August 24, as a convalescent from typhoid fever. After

four days he was granted a certificate of disability "arising from

an attack of typhoid contracted while in the service" and was told

to report to his regiment the following day to be honorably dis-

charged. On August 29, he left Columbus and started for home,

several days before the rest of the regiment was mustered out at

Camp Chase.

On September 5, 1864, Phoebe's brother, Thomas Wiley

Dickerson, wrote to his sister, Clara [Mrs. David K. Mitchell]:

Well, Clarie, I suppose you will hear before you get this that Phoebe

has been playing sharp and getting married. Tryon and her and Deb went

to Galion on the 7th of May and she and Tryon were married at the Metho-

dist preacher's house, and his sisters nor no one else but Deb knew of it

till near the time he was to come home from war. Then she told mother

and she told father, and that was all the family that knew it until after he

came home. They fooled Bets Johnston completely. They have been mar-

ried almost four months. He had the fever and by that means got home

first. He was going back to be mustered out and then they were going to

let it be known. She had written to poor Charley before his death and told

him all about it.

Tryon took his bride to live in the old homestead on the

Harding farm, the house that had been built by his great great

grandfather, Amos Harding, when he had come to Ohio with his

family, by covered wagons from Clifford [Wyoming Country]

Pennsylvania in 1821. With Amos Harding, at that time, had

come his son, George Tryon, and his family. George's second

wife, who had been Elizabeth Madison, was related to President

Madison. The year before they left for Ohio their second son

was born, and they named him Charles Alexander. It was this

Charles Alexander Harding who welcomed Phoebe Dickerson to

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SEVENTH OHIO PRESIDENT                           265

 

his home as the bride of his son, George Tryon II, that late

August day in 1864.2

The Dickersons, on the other hand, had not come to Blooming

Grove as early as had the Hardings. Natives of Washington,

Pennsylvania, Isaac Haines and Charity VanKirk Dickerson had

come to Ohio with the many new settlers who emigrated from

Pennsylvania and other seaboard states. Phoebe Dickerson's an-

cestors in arriving in America had also followed the Hardings.

Jan Jansen ver Kersen [vanKirk] came from Holland and set-

tled in King's County on Long Island in 1663, and his descend-

ant, Josiah Van Kirk, Phoebe's great-grandfather, was famed for

his seven sons who all served in the Revolutionary War.

To return to Phoebe and Tryon in their new home, it had

been hoped that the War between the States might end during

that Winter of 1864, but early Spring found the armies still in

the field. Late in March, 1865, Phoebe wrote to her sister, Clara,

that she dreaded the possibility that Tryon might go to war again:

I almost wish Tryon had a bad leg so he would not be liable [to go to

war]. Oh no, I'll take that back, for I am glad that he is sound in body as

well as in mind. For if his body was one bit weaker than it is, then his mind

would be entirely too strong for his body and would go soaring around like

a raging lion seeking whom it might devour.

On April 9, 1865, Abbie [Abigail Dickerson] wrote from

Blooming Grove to her sister Clara that Tryon was soon to go to

war again, but although Abbie had not yet heard the news, it was

on that very day that General Lee surrendered to General Grant

at Appomattox Court House.

 

2 Amos Harding, who had taken his children and grandchildren into the wilder-

ness of the frontier, was remembered as a high-spirited man of adventurous nature,

stern and unbending in matters affecting his convictions, "a hard-shelled Baptist of the

old school, but generous and kind in dealing with his family and neighbors." Indeed

those were still the days when the men of small frontier communities, leading a primi-

tive life and intimately sharing their common problems and hardships, prospered only

in proportion to their capacity to assume responsibilities and deal with their neighbors

honestly and fairly.

The men who founded Ohio were simple men, judged by certain conventional

standards, but they knew instinctively more of public policy, more of public morals,

"than all the philosophers put together who were at that time torturing the feverish

body of France with their terrible political experiments"--as John Hay was later to

express it. They knew how to govern themselves. They knew the necessity of religion:

the need of laws and of obedience to them. This was a heritage from ancestors who

had worked together to win food and shelter in the New England wilderness. Amos

Harding had learned these simple rules of human conduct from his father, Abraham

Harding [1744-1820], who had been Governor of Connecticut, directly descended from

the Stephen Harding who emigrated from England in 1624 and who joined the Plymouth

Colony at Weymouth, Massachusetts.

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266     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Soon afterwards both the North and the South were stunned

by the assassination of President Lincoln in Ford's Theatre in the

Capital. Mrs. Lincoln, who had suffered from gossips and scan-

dal-mongers more cruelly than did any First Lady for another

sixty years, was not to be left in peace after she had buried her

dead and had withdrawn from the official scene. Vice President

Andrew Johnson became President and was soon involved in all

the suspicions and hatreds of the reconstruction. It was an event-

ful year in the history of the Republic, but as 1865 drew to a close

Phoebe and Tryon Harding awaited impatiently the arrival of

their first born.

"I'll bet you'd like to see Phoebe's baby," [Lida Dickerson]

wrote to her sister Clara in January, 1866: "It grows so fast that

she can't keep its clothes large enough or alter them fast enough

as he grows out of them. She calls him Warren Gamaliel, and

for a pet name she calls him 'Winnie.'"

Toward the end of 1866 Phoebe wrote to Clara:

I have plenty of housework, sewing, knitting to do, besides taking care

of the sweetest, dearest little brother you ever saw, and you would say so

if you could be with him awhile. But I tell you, Clara, they are a trouble-

some comfort, when I think of the great charge that is upon my shoulders,

the responsibility of training him as he should be, and the care and anxiety

I feel about his future. But still I would not part with him for anything

in the world. I think if every child just knew the love a parent has for a

child, they would never wound their feelings or do anything contrary to

their wishes; but that, they will never know until they see their own off-

spring figuring on the stage of this life. Winnie is always walking. He

will walk all along the walls, but does not go alone. He has a head as

large as Jo Flack, and a beautifully shaped one too. It attracts a great deal

of attention. Oh, we think he is all right, but it is an impossibility to get

his picture taken. We have tried several times, but to no effect--he won't

sit still. So you will have to come to see him. ... I have a large house

and everything in it that any farmer's wife around here has to do with.

Tryon has bought property, and we will move there in the Spring so as to

be by ourselves. His father gave him the deed by [Tryon] paying six hun-

dred dollars.

In this letter Phoebe also described the new minister and his

family, general conditions on the different farms nearby, her own

"preserves of 14 cans of tomatoes, 9 of blackberries, 3 of peaches,

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SEVENTH OHIO PRESIDENT                       267

 

4 of molasses, 6 of elderberries," apple butter and cider, ending

with "Oh, we really live up our way; and I have made a piece of

carpet in my loom for my sitting room this Winter. I made 23

yards last Fall for our parlor."

Phoebe's sister Priscilla [Mrs. Jo Flack] had also written to

Clara, this letter being dated on the first day of the new year,

1867:

I have written four letters since yesterday noon and now my arm is so

tired carrying Winnie around that I can scarcely write at all. Phoebe and

Try were here today. Tryon is cutting wood and Pa is hauling it while

there is snow, and then Pa is going to get the woodsaw and have it sawed

on the shares.... And New Year's eve we had an oyster supper here at our

house. Those three boys, Abner, Hat and Chat, Lizzie Chandler, Mrs. Tip-

ton, Gust and Liddy Harding, Josie Harbison, Sarah McFarland, Isaac

Dickerson, Ellie Wheeler, Wiley, Phoebe and Try were here. We had a

good old time indeed. There were 12 of them staying all night and then we

had lots of fun the next day, riding down hill on the hand sled and caveing

around in the snowdrifts. For the supper I baked 8 mince pies, 5 cherry pies,

2 jelly cakes, 1 white and 1 golden cake, 24 light cakes and some bread....

We have a fresh cow and are making lots of butter, but it has come down

to 22 cents and other things in proportion.

A  few days after Tryon and Phoebe had moved into their

own small house, on their own land adjoining the Harding farm,

a daughter was born to them on March 1, 1867. A week later

Elizabeth Ann Dickerson [Liz] wrote to her sister, Clara:

Phoebe's time was up two weeks ago last Friday. She brought forth a

daughter which weighs 7 pounds. She calls her Charity. Winnie was 16

months old the next day after she was born. There was no one there but

Sillie until about five minutes before. She ran to the Hardings and gave

Mrs. Harding a pluck by the sleeve and she followed her out and they had

the young one on hands before anyone knew it. Tryon was at a raisings at

Dr. Mac's, and they didn't send for him or the Doc either. Sillie says she

only called Mrs. Harding in for the looks of the thing, and not because she

really needed her. She is getting along very well; has had two or three

baths and sits up a little each day. Both Mother and I went up there Satur-

day, and while we was up there Winnie upset a tinful of hot water on his

bosom and scalded himself so badly that when we took his clothes off his

skin came too, as big as your hand on his left shoulder and breast. His hands

and face were scalded too but they didn't blister.

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Tryon and Phoebe enjoyed the freedom of their own home,

and there was usually "an awful sight of company" in their house.

Her sisters commented in wonder that she never seemed to mind,

nor did it ever appear to be much trouble for her to "get up a

meal" for strangers on short notice. She never knew when Tryon

would bring a new acquaintance home for dinner, or when rela-

tions might "drive over" for the day. No telephones or telegrams

brought fore-warnings in those days, but Tryon was "a great one"

for keeping abundant provisions on hand at all times. So Phoebe's

days were even more crowded than they ordinarily would have

been with two young babies and a new farm home. Both Warren

and Charity had the whooping cough in June of that year [1867],

and all these happenings in the home seemed more important than

the news from outside Blooming Grove which she would hear the

men discussing after church on Sundays. The past year [1866]

the Atlantic cable had been completed and news came from

Europe in a day; the Civil War had officially been ended; severe

race riots had occurred in New Orleans; and the menace of In-

dians had been vividly demonstrated by the massacre of nearly

100 United States troops in Wyoming that December. In March,

1867, Nebraska had come into the Union as a new State, and in

October the territory of America was further extended by the

purchase of Alaska. All these events, however, seemed distant

and unimportant to Phoebe Harding in the third year of her mar-

riage.

On April 26, 1868, another daughter was born to them and

they named her Mary Clarissa. It was about this time that Tryon

began to "read medicine" in the office of Dr. MacFarland who was

the local doctor and also the Methodist minister at Blooming

Grove. The standard of medical education at that time was to

study with some local physician for about three years before seek-

ing a degree from a recognized school of medicine. Almost all

medical students in rural communities did this, and then if they

attended two sessions of lectures a degree could be obtained.

There is some conflicting evidence on the point, but it appears

that Tryon, after an extended period of studying with Dr. Mac-

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SEVENTH OHIO PRESIDENT                269

Farland, attended one session in 1870-1871 and then received his

degree from the Homeopathic Hospital College in Cleveland after

attending a second session in 1873. Dr. MacFarland had attended

this college and graduated from it in 1852 when it was known as

the Western College of Homeopathy. Its name was changed six

times during the next twenty years, but when Tryon received his

degree in 1873 it was known as the Homeopathic Hospital College.

After attending his first session at medical school in the 1870-1871

term, Tryon returned to Blooming Grove where he divided his

time with working his farm, assisting Dr. MacFarland in the local

practice and continuing his studies toward a medical degree. The

passing of time was noted more by seasons than by days or

weeks.

Five days after Warren's seventh birthday another sister,

Persilla, arrived on November 11, 1872. There were now four

children. Warren was seven, Charity ["Chat"] sixteen months

younger and Mary was four. Warren and his sister Chat were

old enough to start in at school. Tryon wished to return to Cleve-

land for another college session in order to obtain his degree, and

so, everything considered, they decided to "move into town." It

would be easier for Phoebe, with Tryon away in Cleveland, not

to have the farm to look after in his absence. So they bought a

house and a little land in Caledonia, a town which was not much

larger but at least less isolated than Blooming Grove.

By summer of the following year, 1873, Tryon had his degree

and was licensed to practice medicine. Warren and Chat had fin-

ished their first term in the two-story school house across from

the Caledonia Methodist Church. In the following spring, April

8, 1874, a second son was born and he was named Charles Alexan-

der for Tryon's father. In the months that followed both of the

two youngest children were healthy and active, giving no warning

that their lives were soon to end.

Warren by this time was approaching his tenth birthday. His

father bought him a cornet and a drum, whereupon he placed his

sisters under very strict injunction not to touch these valued in-

struments, and of course they continually did so for the pleasure

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of teasing him. There was an old harness maker in the town of

Caledonia who took more time than was good for his business to

instruct members of the town band. Here Warren practiced sev-

eral evenings a week and soon became reasonably proficient, en-

joying his first associations with other boys of about his own age.

Life on the little farm at Blooming Grove had been to Warren

Harding mostly a matter of visiting neighbors and relations much

older than himself. A new world opened for him when the family

moved to Caledonia. There was the school. There was the

church, where the congregation was much larger than the one at

Blooming Grove; and there was the town band composed of young

men and boys. Tryon was now practicing medicine and the

Harding household was thereby continually in touch with the

whole community. When Tryon was at home there were not many

dull moments.   He was energetic and unpredictable, handsome

and popular.

Perhaps it was because many of his patients, having little

cash, paid him in farm implements and commodities that Tryon

was forever "trading." Phoebe became increasingly apprehensive

as to what he might bring home next. Livestock, land, farm im-

plements, teams, wagons--all passed through Tryon's ownership

and the exchange excited and pleased him. Occasionally he found

himself with something he did not know how to handle. This

was true when he came into possession, about 1876, of a local

newspaper known as the Caledonia Argus. The issues of the

paper appeared at very irregular intervals, but the little plant had

some small trade in job printing. With the Argus had come its

printer, who carried on under Tryon's uncertain sponsorship; but

Tryon did draft the services of his son to help as a printer's devil.

There was precious little money in it for Warren, but it was some-

thing new to do when he was not in school or helping with the

chores around the house. Here he had his first experience, en-

tirely elementary, in typesetting and working about the print shop.

The experience was not especially valuable, except in the sense of

the interest it aroused in the boy.

Warren had been so much occupied with his various interests

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SEVENTH OHIO PRESIDENT               271

 

that the arrival of another sister, May 31, 1876, named Abigail

Victoria, had not seemed the all absorbing event that the earlier

arrivals had rated. Vaguely, perhaps, he might have been an-

noyed that there was another sister who would probably grow up

to "bother" his musical instruments and show scant respect for

his authority.

It was about this time that Warren initiated his oldest sister,

Chat, into the task of milking the cow. Tryon and Phoebe had

taken their youngest children for a few days' visit to the not dis-

tant farm of one of their relations for some sort of family occasion.

Warren and Chat were left to look after the place, and it was at

this opportune time that the brother decided that his sister might

as well learn to relieve him of at least one of the household chores.

He was patient and explicit in the instructions, and Chat was not

permitted to leave the barn until she had learned the task to his

complete satisfaction.

The seventh child arrived on March 11, 1878, and was named

for his father, George Tryon Harding, Jr.; but this year was

destined to end sadly for the Hardings. In November Charles

and Persilla became ill. It seemed to be only a mild form of

jaundice and there was no apprehension. On November ninth,

however, both children suddenly became much worse. Tryon was

away, and despite the desperate efforts of Phoebe both children

had died within a few hours. Phoebe and Tryon were tense with

their grief. Of the other children only Warren and Chat were

old enough to comprehend. It was the first time death had closely

touched the Harding household; and while the house of Phoebe

and Tryon Harding was not overly rich in worldly goods, it was

a home full of friendliness and life and affection. This was the

first real tragedy in the family life.

Warren was nearly fourteen when his youngest sister, Phoebe

Carolina, the last of the eight children of Phoebe and Tryon

Harding was born on October 21, 1879. He was old enough to

try his hand at odd jobs that would bring in a little money. The

new leader of the Caledonia town band was a painter by trade,

and Warren sought instruction from him. It was not long before

young Warren prided himself on his ability to convert honest white

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pine into imitation oak, cherry and mahogany! Those were days

when people took good first-growth white pine and "grained" it.

Also there were usually a few barns which needed painting after

the winter. Warren had his preferences but, as Tryon once re-

marked, "Warren was never afraid of hard work if there was a

little money in it." By the spring of 1879 another opportunity ap-

peared when the Ohio Central Railroad was glad to give some

compensation to strong farm boys who would help in the grading

and track-laying work, particularly those who could bring a team

of horses. Warren was big for his years, and stronger than most

of the boys of his own age. Perhaps the explanation for the ill

health which plagued him through his early twenties, and sent

him several times to Battle Creek Sanitarium for medical treat-

ment, was the fact that at fourteen and fifteen he had often done

the same hard labor as that done by grown men. Such strains

upon a growing boy, even one as strong and as well physically

as Warren Harding, usually command a toll of some sort.

Otherwise Warren's life was little different from that of

other boys in that time and locality. In the winter it was early

morning chores, long hours at school and such evening amuse-

ments as the community provided. Phoebe Harding saw to it

that all her family accompanied her to church, and to its suppers

and entertainments. Spring, summer and autumn are open season

for country boys. School is just beginning or about to end, work

around the farm homes leaves time for fishing or swimming, ball

games and the circus, odd jobs and, in Caledonia anyway, Satur-

day night concerts by the town band. The ministers preached the

gospel on Sundays, and outside of church the men talked crops

and politics.

By the winter of 1880-1881 Tryon's penchant for trading had

brought the family into possession of a farm property about a mile

or so from Caledonia, so the place in town was sold and the

Hardings moved to this new home.

The spring of 1882 brought several changes to the Harding

family. Warren graduated from Ohio Central College at nearby

Iberia, Ohio. It had been chartered originally as Iberia College,

and was twelve miles from Caledonia. Its courses were the type

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SEVENTH OHIO PRESIDENT             273

of "academy education" prevalent in that section and period. Of

the seven Presidents of the United States who came from Ohio,

four besides Warren G. Harding received their education at an

academy or small college. Rutherford B. Hayes was graduated

from Kenyon College at Gambier; James A. Garfield finished his

courses at Hiram College; Benjamin Harrison was an alumnus of

Miami University at Oxford, Ohio; and William McKinley at-

tended Poland Academy.

In his last year at Ohio Central College, Warren joined with

a classmate, Frank H. Miller, and impressively formed a firm of

Miller and Harding. This organization of two undertook to pub-

lish a college paper, called the Iberia Spectator, and placed their

contract for its publication with William G. Beebe, the editor and

proprietor of the Union Register. Only six issues were published,

but this was something of an achievement considering their lim-

ited means.

Phoebe and Tryon, meanwhile, had decided to move into

Marion, the county seat, and make a permanent home there. It

would be easier to send the children to school and Tryon, while

continuing his rural practice, could gradually build up a town

practice where the patients might be expected to meet their bills

in cash instead of eggs, butter and other farm commodities. More-

over, Phoebe wanted to aid her husband in his work in a more

practical way and to this end wished to take several courses at

the Homeopathic College in Cleveland. It would be easier for her

to arrange to do this if they were living in town. They moved

into Marion before Warren graduated from college, but they did

not sell the farm and he continued to live there for a time. When

lie had to go into Marion he made the twelve mile journey some-

what uncomfortably by mule.

It was autumn before the family settled down again. Phoebe

had taken several courses in Cleveland, one of them being under

her husband's former teacher, Dr. Hamilton Biggar. All the

children were going to school in Marion with the exception of

Warren who had his college diploma but was "very broke" and in

need of work that would mean a regular income. During the

summer he had tried his hand at odd jobs, and then, as he wrote

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274     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

in later years, "I did what was very much in practice at the time

--turned to teaching, in my aboundant fullness of knowledge, hav-

ing just come out of college." He taught reading, writing and arith-

metic at "White School House" just north of Marion, a school

that was under the Marion County Institute. By February of the

following year he was convinced that teaching was not the pro-

fession to which he would devote his life, as can be gathered from

the following letter which he wrote at the "White School House"

to his aunt, Mrs. Thomas Wiley Dickerson, dated February 12,

1883:

Your good letter should have been aswered ere this, but my excuse is

good enough to secure my pardon from the terrible punishment of not hav-

ing another trial. As I always am, was glad to hear from you and the other

friends, although Pa got the first peep at your letter's contents. However,

he doesn't always open epistles addressed to me, but seems to know when,

and where they are from. I am still fighting ignorance with fair success. Of

course there are some chronic kickers, but I deem that the best evidence of

my success. Next Friday, one week, i.e. the 23rd inst., forever my career as

a pedagogue will close, and--oh, the joy! I believe my calling to be in some

other sphere and will follow out the belief. I sincerely hope that my Win-

ter's labors are not lost but that those with whom I labored are somewhat

benefited. How often it is that one's most arduous toils are without appre-

ciation! I will never teach again without better (a good deal, too) wages,

and an advanced school.

The winter is passing off very pleasantly and we are all glad to near

Spring. There are plenty of amusements, but the principal attraction is the

skating rink. I attend quite frequently and always enjoy myself. Chat has

attended but cannot yet manage the rollers. Her brother can, and he repre-

sents the family. Quite frequently young ladies show more of themselves

than is meant for general observation, but the boys, all the boys, look the

other (?) way.

Hasn't it been wet and slippery? . . . One morning I saw several new

constellations when on my way to educational headquarters. . . .

How is Uncle Dan . . . and the rest of the relatives? I am coming up

when school closes, and then I will visit all, Gert included perhaps. How

does Cass sail forth? Stingy as ever, I suppose. Does he "mash"? Uncle

D. K. and Aunt Clara are visiting at our house at this writing. Will return

home this even, I suppose. Uncle Trav. dropped in upon us and we all had

to laugh many a time. Pa is very busy, making over $500. per month. Ma

is on the healthy list again, having had three monstrous old teeth pulled

yesterday by the dentist. The children are well, myself included, for I am

gaining in flesh every day.

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SEVENTH     OHIO PRESIDENT                           275

 

Must now call my herd together and give them         their brain fodder. . . .

With love to all, Your affectionate neph.

W. G. HARDING

Marion, O.

Warren was not yet eighteen years of age when the foregoing

letter was written. At the close of the school term he gave up

teaching and came into Marion to live with his family, and soon

thereafter began his association with the Marion Star. With his

editorship of the Star he began his "public career"--the career

which was to bring him into contact with most of the notable men

of his day; which was to take him to the State Capitol, to the

United States Senate, and to the highest office within the gift of

the Republic in which he was born. So may close the chapter of

his early life. The story of his acquisition of the newspaper, its

early struggles, his marriage and the years in Marion, all these

belong to the dramatic, moving story of his adult life.³

 

3 Although the source of every statement made in this study of President Harding's

parents and his early life has been carefully checked and recorded, the material has

been assembled from so many different sources that it is impracticable to acknowledge

them all here.

Anyone undertaking to write of President Harding's life, either of the early

years or of his public career, must of necessity go to documentary and original sources

of information and check every detail most carefully. This is because the material now

in print, almost without exception, has been prepared without serious or extended re-

search and has been based mainly upon contemporary journalism. No full biography

of President Harding, worthy of the name, has as yet been published. There recently

appeared a book which purported to be a biography of the former President but which

was, to put it mildly, a much better portrait of its author than of its subject.

One of the explanations for the absence of a biography of the twenty-eighth

President of the United States may be found in the position of the Harding Memorial

Association. By the terms of Mrs. Harding's will this Association came into possession

of all of the files and papers belonging to President Harding, covering the entire period

of his services in the United States Senate and as President, as well as other miscella-

neous material preserved by the Hardings. It has been erroneously stated, and is still

repeated by writers occasionally, that Mrs. Harding destroyed all of her husband's

papers. This is completely untrue, and the Association is in possession of a vast

accumulation of correspondence, memoranda, documents and other material.

The Association, however, has adopted the policy of refusing to make any of the

Harding Papers available until the entire collection has been put in order, calendared,

indexed and until they are familiar with everything that the collection contains. The

Association is to be the sole judge as to when, and in what manner, any part or parts

of the collection may be made public. The officers of the Association have been abso-

lutely fair and impartial in adhering to this policy and have made no exceptions.

It can readily be seen, however, that until this wealth of information is made

available no historian can hope to prepare a really satisfactory biography covering the

period of President Harding's public life. While considerable information is, of course,

available from other sources, no really complete and authoritative study of President

Harding's adult life can be prepared without the cooperation of the Harding Memorial

Association. It is safe to say that whenever the Harding Papers are made available,

many of those who have written so glibly and even sensationally of President Harding's

later life will be happy that their work has long since been forgotten.

The author is particularly indebted to Dr. George T. Harding of Columbus,

Ohio, a nephew of the late president, for making available the letters of President

Harding's mother, her brother and sisters. from  which excerpts have been used in

this study, and for his patience and always cordial assistance in assembling and

checking the family history: to Mrs. Charity Remsburg of Santa Ana, California, and

to Mrs. Heber H. Votaw of Takoma Park, Maryland, sisters of the president, for their

kind response to requests for information; and to Mrs. Ada Denman of Marion, Ohio,

a cousin of President Harding, for material which she supplied and for permission to

use the early Harding letter [1883] the original of which is in her possession.

• 16