A Note on My Harding Research

The information I posted during 2020 mostly covered Warren Harding's front-porch campaign from his home on Mt. Vernon Avenue in Marion, Ohio. The campaign officially started on July 31, 1920, and ended on September 25. The plan was to post daily on events that occurred exactly 100 years ago that day, but I shared other information as well. You'll have to read bottom-to-top if you want to follow the campaign from Day 1.

I used the open web for some of my research but also information accessible by using my library card or my subscription to www.newspapers.com. The most useful resource was the Marion Star, which was owned by the Hardings at the time of the campaign. I also browsed online copies of other newspapers like the New York Times, the Washington Star, and the Dayton Daily News, which, in 1920, was owned by Harding's Democratic opponent, Governor James M. Cox. I also posted information from other newspapers that covered Harding's trips away from Marion during the campaign.

Another great resource I used was Dale E. Cottrill's The Conciliator, a 1969 biography of the president that expanded an earlier bibliography of Harding's speeches. An online version is available at the Internet Archive, but I used a hard copy borrowed from the State Library of Ohio.

Readers should not construe anything posted here as a political statement on my part. I just like Harding as a historical topic.

10/04/2020

Monday, October 4, 1920 (ATTICA, OHIO AND FREMONT, OHIO)

The Hardings leave Marion by car around 8:30 a.m. for a day trip to Attica and Fremont.

At Spiegel Grove, in Fremont, the senator unveils a bronze tablet to honor the soldiers from Sandusky County who died in the in Spanish-American and Great Wars:

My Countrymen: It is a fine thing to gather at the shrines of American patriotism. It is fine that we have such shrines. Without them we should have little soul, and less love of country. It is good to pause and note the sacrifices through which we came to nationality and then to eminence in the world. It is reassuring to dwell afresh in the atmosphere of colonial heroism, and to be reminded anew that the spirit which triumphed in the early making of the republic is with us, after all the years of developing fulfillment, to guarantee its perpetuity. .. It is an exceptional shrine at which we are gather today...

Here's the crowd in front of the Hayes library:

Spiegel Grove was the former home of President Hayes. Harding was to share the stage with Governor Cox for the first time during the campaign, but Cox cancelled. A crowd of 5,000 watch the ceremonies, which includes a parade and the naval band from the Chicago recruiting station. On the veranda of the Hayes' home, Harding takes time to shake the hands of dozens of children.

Sources:

  • "Fine Tributes Paid Soldiers." Marion Star. 4 October 1920.
  • "Imposing Ceremonies at Unveiling of Soldiers' Memorial Tablet Monday." Fremont News-Messenger. 5 October 1920.

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