Warren G. Harding

Notable people · President · Journalist

Warren G. Harding

Twenty-ninth president and Marion Star publisher, who ran a front-porch campaign from Marion in 1920 and died in office in 1923.

Born November 2, 1865, Blooming Grove (Corsica post office), North Bloomfield Township
Died August 2, 1923, Palace Hotel, San Francisco

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: November 2, 1865, Blooming Grove (Corsica post office), North Bloomfield Township (Morrow County) source
Died: August 2, 1923, Palace Hotel, San Francisco source
Buried: Harding Tomb (Harding Memorial), Marion (Marion County) source
Also known as: Warren G. Harding
Education: Ohio Central College, Iberia, OH, graduated 1882
Known as: President, Journalist
Organizations: Marion Star

Life story

Warren Gamaliel Harding was born in 1865 at Blooming Grove, Ohio, and moved with his family to Caledonia at ten. He went to Ohio Central College, graduating in 1882.

He bought the failing Marion Star in 1884 and built it into a profitable paper. In 1891 he married Florence Kling, a Marion banker's daughter who ran the paper's business side.

He served in the Ohio Senate from 1900 to 1904, as lieutenant governor, and as a US senator from 1915. Republicans picked him on the tenth ballot in 1920, and he won by a landslide on a promise of a return to normal life.

He hosted the 1921-22 Washington Naval Conference. He died of a heart attack in San Francisco on August 2, 1923, and is buried in the Harding Tomb in Marion. His record is clouded by the scandals that surfaced after his death.

Ohio ties

Blooming Grove (1865-)
birthplace; his father George Tryon Harding was also born in the area Morrow County · source
Iberia (Ohio Central College) (graduated 1882)
student Morrow County · source
Marion (1880s-1923)
publisher of the Marion Star; home 1891-1921; 1920 front-porch campaign; burial Marion County · source
Columbus (1900-1906)
Ohio state senator, then lieutenant governor Franklin County · source

Timeline

1865 Born November 2 near Blooming Grove, Morrow County. source
1882 Graduated from Ohio Central College in Iberia. source
1884 Around this year bought the Marion Star. source
1891 Married Florence Kling on July 8 in the Mount Vernon Avenue house they had designed. source
1900 Entered the Ohio Senate (served to 1904). source
1904 Became lieutenant governor of Ohio (served to 1906). source
1910 Lost the election for governor of Ohio. source
1914 Elected to the U.S. Senate (served 1915-1921). source
1920 Won the presidency after a front-porch campaign in Marion that drew more than 600,000 visitors. source
1923 Died August 2 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco; his casket was placed in the Marion Cemetery receiving vault. source
1927 The Harding Tomb, designed by Henry Hornbostel, Eric Fisher Wood and Edward Mellon, was completed after construction began in 1926. source
1931 President Herbert Hoover dedicated the Harding Tomb on June 16. source
1963 Biographer Francis Russell found Harding's letters to Carrie Fulton Phillips of Marion; they were later sealed at the Library of Congress until 2014. source
2015 DNA testing showed Elizabeth Ann Blaesing, daughter of Nan Britton, was Harding's child. source

What Warren is known for

29th US president
Publisher of the Marion Star
Ohio state senator 1900-04, lieutenant governor 1904-06, US senator 1915-21
Owner and publisher of the Marion Star
Washington Naval Conference 1921-22

Stories

The porch and the press house

Warren and Florence Harding designed their Queen Anne house on Mount Vernon Avenue in 1890 and were married in it in 1891. Nearly thirty years later it became the stage for his presidential campaign. In 1920 Harding spoke from the porch to crowds that totaled more than 600,000 people. A neighbor, George Christian, let his house serve as Republican headquarters, and Harding built a bungalow-style press house behind it for the reporters who followed him. Florence later left the house to the Harding Memorial Association, and it still holds most of its original furnishings and more than 5,000 artifacts.

Source

A tomb that waited four years

After Harding died in 1923, his body lay in the receiving vault at Marion Cemetery while a national competition chose a design for a memorial. Henry Hornbostel, Eric Fisher Wood and Edward Mellon won in 1925, and the tomb went up just south of the cemetery between 1926 and early 1927. Florence, who died in 1924, was entombed there with him. But by then scandals had damaged Harding's reputation, and the memorial was not officially dedicated until June 16, 1931, when President Herbert Hoover came to Marion to give the speech.

Source

The Phillips letters

For about fifteen years, ending in 1920, Harding carried on an affair with Carrie Fulton Phillips of Marion. In 1963 biographer Francis Russell found Harding's letters to her, and they were given to the Ohio Historical Society. After a lawsuit over copyright, the letters went to the Library of Congress in 1971, where they were sealed until 2014.

Source

Honors and things named for them

Harding Home and Harding Tomb, Marion, OH

Family

wife: Florence Kling Harding
father: George Tryon Harding
mother: Phoebe Dickerson Harding

Sites to know

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

1 Harding Home, 380 Mount Vernon Avenue
Marion Marion County · source
2 Harding Tomb (Harding Memorial)
Marion Marion County · source
3 Harding Birthplace marker, 6297 OH 97, south of Blooming Grove (house gone) (demolished)
Blooming Grove Morrow County · source

Places in Ohio to see

Harding Home (home)
380 Mount Vernon Ave, Marion, Marion County ZIP 43302 · Marion · Marion County
Harding Tomb (grave)
951 Delaware Ave, Marion, Marion County ZIP 43302 · Marion · Marion County

Ohio places

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

Born: Blooming Grove, Morrow County (Birthplace marked by an Ohio marker; house no longer stands. ZIP given is nearby Galion, not a postal ZIP for the unincorporated community) ZIP 44833 (approximate) · Morrow County
Lived: Marion, Marion County (Harding Home, 380 Mount Vernon Ave) ZIP 43302 · Marion · Marion County
Buried: Marion, Marion County (Harding Tomb, 951 Delaware Ave) ZIP 43302 · Marion · Marion County

In their words

America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy.
1920 campaign speech, as quoted in Wikipedia

Myths and corrections

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

Often said Harding had African ancestry, as his political opponents claimed.

The record A 2015 genetic test of Harding's descendants found no sub-Saharan African forebears within four generations. source

Often said Harding could not have fathered Nan Britton's daughter because childhood mumps had left him infertile (the family's position for decades).

The record DNA testing in 2015 proved Elizabeth Ann Blaesing was Harding's daughter. source

Often said Harding was poisoned, by his wife or others.

The record His sudden death and Florence's refusal of an autopsy fed suicide and murder rumors, but no opened source supports them; doctors at the time attributed his death to a cerebral hemorrhage, and Wikipedia gives a heart attack. source

Harding's 'normalcy' is often said to be a misspoken word for 'normality'; he used 'normalcy' deliberately in 1920 and the word predates him.
Disputed: Nan Britton claimed that Harding was the father of her daughter. DNA evidence reported in 2015 is cited as support, but historians still treat the question as disputed.

Pictures

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

Bain News Service,, publisher. [Car with Warren G. Harding driving through procession] [no date recorded on ca...
Public domain
80-G-433311: President Warren G. Harding, with Commander Whiting, USN; Secretary Work and Rear Admiral William...
Public domain
Title: HARDING, WARREN G. HONORABLE Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 8 x 10 in. or smaller
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Photographer: Western Newspaper Union
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No known restrictions
Title: Bishop Anderson, Firestone, Harding, [...] Abstract/medium: National Photo Company Collection (Library ...
Public domain
Title: Car with Warren G. Harding driving through procession Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. o...
Public domain
Harding
Public domain
Front and southern side of the childhood home of Warren G. Harding, located on the northwestern corner of the ...
Public domain
Collection: Cornell University Collection of Political Americana, Cornell University Library Repository: Susan...
No known restrictions
Title: Distinguished guests at the unveiling of the Dante Statue in Meridian Hill park today. Ambassador LeBre...
Public domain
Title: Eagles group with Harding Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller
Public domain