Florence Harding

Notable people · First Lady · Politics · Journalism · Business · Women

Florence Harding

Marion banker's daughter who ran the business side of the Marion Star, steered Warren G. Harding's career, and as first lady (1921-1923) reopened the White House to the public and courted the press.

Born August 15, 1860, Marion (above her father's hardware store at 126 South Main Street)
Died November 21, 1924, Sawyer Sanatorium (White Oaks Farm), Marion

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: August 15, 1860, Marion (above her father's hardware store at 126 South Main Street) (Marion County) source
Died: November 21, 1924, Sawyer Sanatorium (White Oaks Farm), Marion (Marion County) source
Buried: Harding Tomb (Harding Memorial), Marion (Marion County) source
Also known as: Florence Harding, Florence Kling, Florence Kling DeWolfe, The Duchess
Known as: First Lady, Politics, Journalism, Business, Women

Life story

Florence Mabel Kling was born on August 15, 1860, above her father Amos Kling's hardware store on South Main Street in Marion, and studied piano at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. At 19 she eloped with Henry DeWolfe, had a son in 1880, was deserted, and supported herself in Marion by teaching piano before divorcing in 1886. In 1891, over her father's furious opposition, she married Warren G. Harding, publisher of the Marion Star, in the Mount Vernon Avenue house they had designed together. From 1894 she ran the paper's circulation department and business side, and she managed Harding's rise from state senator to U.S. senator to the 1920 front-porch presidential campaign. As first lady she reopened the White House grounds to the public, held regular press sessions, and championed veterans, animal welfare and women's causes, despite chronic kidney disease that nearly killed her in 1922. After Harding died in San Francisco in August 1923, she went home to Marion, lived in a cottage at Dr. Charles Sawyer's sanatorium, and died there on November 21, 1924. She is buried beside him in the Harding Tomb.

Ohio ties

Marion (1860-1878; c. 1880-1915; 1923-1924)
born over her father's store at 126 South Main Street; piano teacher; wife of the Marion Star's publisher and manager of its circulation; lived in the Harding Home on Mount Vernon Avenue for 30 years; died at the Sawyer Sanatorium; buried in the Harding Tomb Marion County · source
Cincinnati (1878-c. 1880)
piano student at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music Hamilton County · source
Columbus (1880; 1900s)
married Henry DeWolfe there in January 1880; later watched the Ohio legislature from the balcony while Harding was a state senator and lieutenant governor Franklin County · source

Timeline

1860 Born August 15 above her father's hardware store at 126 South Main Street, Marion, the eldest child of Amos and Louisa Bouton Kling. source
1878 After high school she went to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music to train as a concert pianist. source
1880 At 19 she eloped with Henry DeWolfe; their son Marshall was born on September 22. source
1886 Divorced DeWolfe, who had deserted her, and resumed her maiden name; she earned her own living teaching piano to Marion children. source
1884 Warren G. Harding and two friends bought the nearly defunct Marion Star for $300; he married Florence, a divorcee five years his senior, seven years later. source
1891 Married Warren G. Harding on July 8 in the Mount Vernon Avenue house the couple had designed in 1890; her father opposed the match. source
1894 With Harding in the Battle Creek Sanitarium, she took over the Marion Star's business side, organizing its circulation department and training the newsboys. source
1899 Encouraged Harding's first race, for the Ohio Senate, and managed its finances. source
1905 Had emergency surgery for a 'floating kidney', under the care of Marion homoeopath Dr. Charles E. Sawyer, the start of lifelong kidney disease. source
1911 Discovered her husband's affair with her friend Carrie Phillips by intercepting a letter; on a trip to England that year she became a supporter of woman suffrage. source
1914 Helped run Harding's successful campaign for the U.S. Senate, which he won by 102,000 votes. source
1920 After the front-porch campaign at the Marion house, she became in November the first future first lady to vote in a presidential election, following ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. source
1921 Became first lady on March 4 and had the White House and its grounds, closed since the war and Wilson's illness, reopened to the public. source
1922 In July returned with the president for Marion's centennial; in September nearly died of a kidney infection and sepsis. source
1923 Accompanied Harding on the 'Voyage of Understanding' to Alaska; he died in San Francisco on August 2 and she rode the funeral train back to Washington and on to Marion. source
1924 Lived at Dr. Sawyer's sanatorium on White Oaks Farm in Marion and died there of kidney failure on November 21. source
1924 The Associated Press reported that she died at 8:55 a.m. at the White Oaks Sanitarium of Dr. Carl Sawyer, with her brother Clifford Kling present; her funeral was set for Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church, her church since girlhood. source
1927 Her body and her husband's were moved from the Marion Cemetery receiving vault to the newly finished Harding Memorial and sealed in its sarcophagus. source
1931 President Herbert Hoover dedicated the Harding Memorial on June 16. source
1965 The Harding Home, which she had bequeathed to the Harding Memorial Association, was designated a National Historic Landmark on June 23. source

Stories

Mrs. Harding's boys

In January 1894 Warren Harding entered the Battle Creek Sanitarium for depression, and Florence went down to the Marion Star office. She never held an official title, but she ran the business side. She organized a circulation department, improved distribution, bought equipment cheaply and trained the newsboys, who became known around town as 'Mrs. Harding's boys'. She rewarded them for good work and spanked them in the street when they slacked. She learned to fix the presses, and after 1898 she helped set up the paper's first wire report. She also hired Jane Dixon, said to be the first woman reporter in Ohio. One of her newsboys, the future Socialist presidential candidate Norman Thomas, later said that Warren was the front man but Florence was the paper's real driving power.

Source

Amos Kling's daughter

Amos Kling, a prosperous Marion businessman and banker, trained his daughter in banking and real estate and clashed with her constantly. After her runaway marriage to Henry DeWolfe collapsed, she moved in with a friend, Carrie Wallace, taught piano and accepted help from her mother. Her father offered to raise her son Marshall but would not support her. When she took up with Warren Harding, the young publisher of the Marion Star and five years her junior, Kling fought the match. He repeated a rumour that Harding had Black ancestry and threatened to shoot him at the courthouse. They married anyway in July 1891, in the house on Mount Vernon Avenue they had designed together. Her mother attended in secret, and Florence chose not to wear a wedding ring.

Source

Last months at White Oaks Farm

Doctors Charles Elmer Sawyer and his son Carl opened a sanatorium on White Oaks Farm outside Marion in 1911. It had six patient bungalows named after plants such as 'Ivy' and 'Rose', joined by a quarter-mile enclosed cloister around a courtyard, and later hydropathic and electropathic treatment buildings. Charles Sawyer was a close friend of the Hardings and served as their personal physician until the president's death in 1923. Florence then came home to Marion, lived at the sanatorium under the Sawyers' care, and died there in 1924. A grandson of the founder joined the staff in 1935. The sanatorium became a nursing home in 1963 and closed in 1970. The City of Marion bought the land, which opened as Sawyer-Ludwig Park in 1971, and Ohio Historical Marker 20-51 stands at its entrance.

Source

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1 Harding Home (NRHP 66000618, National Historic Landmark), 380 Mount Vernon Avenue
Marion Marion County · source
2 Harding Tomb (Harding Memorial Park)
Marion Marion County · source
3 Sawyer Sanatorium at White Oaks Farm (now Sawyer-Ludwig Park), where she died; Ohio Historical Marker 20-51, 1313 White Oaks Road
Marion Marion County · source
Birthplace, above Amos Kling's hardware store, 126 South Main Street (unknown)
Marion Marion County · source

Ohio places

Where Florence Harding was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Born: Marion, Marion County Marion · Marion County
Connected: Marion, Marion County Marion · Marion County
Connected: Cincinnati, Hamilton County Cincinnati · Hamilton County
Connected: Columbus, Franklin County Columbus · Franklin County
Buried: Harding Tomb, Marion County Marion County

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Florence Harding, and what the record shows.

Often said Florence Harding poisoned her husband in 1923.

The record The claim comes from the semi-fictional book The Strange Death of President Harding (1930) and was soon debunked. Harding died in San Francisco under the care of Dr. Charles Sawyer, who is believed to have misdiagnosed his heart condition. The rumour fed on the fact that Florence refused an autopsy and destroyed many of his papers. source

Often said Florence was a young widow when she married Warren Harding (the impression she let the 1920 press form).

The record She had divorced Henry DeWolfe in 1886 after he deserted her, and he died at 35. In 1920 she deflected press questions about her first marriage by implying she had been widowed. The White House Historical Association adds that whether the 1880 union was a formal marriage or a common-law one is unclear. source

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

National Historic Landmark nomination: Warren G. Harding Home, Marion (NRIS 66000618) National Park Service, NPGallery
The Bismarck Tribune, November 21, 1924, p. 1: 'Death Takes Mrs. Florence Harding' (Associated Press, Marion dateline) 1924, Library of Congress, Chronicling America

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

Title: Birthplace of Mrs. Harding Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.
Public domain
Title: Dress of Mrs. Warren G. Harding Abstract/medium: National Photo Company Collection (Library of Congress...
Public domain
Title: Girlhood home of Mrs. Harding Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.
Public domain
Title: Mrs. W.G. Harding with dog "Hub" who is sitting on table Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in...
Public domain
Title: Harding & wife, Coolidge & wife Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.
Public domain
Title: Harding & wife, Coolidge & wife Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.
Public domain
Title: Harding, Mrs. Harding & Mrs. McLean Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller
Public domain
US President Warren G. Harding and his wife Florence in their garden
Public domain
Title: Pres. Warren G. Harding Abstract/medium: 1 photographic print.
Public domain
Pres. Warren G. Harding
Public domain
Title: President Warren G. Harding and his wife riding in back of car Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 ...
Public domain
Collection: Cornell University Collection of Political Americana, Cornell University Library Repository: Susan...
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