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.

10/10/2020

Sunday, October 10, 1920 (KANSAS AND MISSOURI)

 

Coffeyville, Kansas

"Warren G. Harding, good roads enthusiast, common citizen of the United States, shook hands with about one hundred Coffeyville people...as his train stopped twenty minutes at the M. K. & T. depot. The train carrying Senator Harding and his party was delayed two hours by a wreck on the south end of the Katy division and did not reach here until 8:30 o'clock. It was scheduled to arrive here at 6:27... He didn't make speech. He never does on Sunday."

Nevada, Missouri

"Nevada was unexpectedly visited by a candidate for president Sunday... [Up] until about nine o'clock Sunday morning no one in Nevada knew that the Republican candidate and his party were going to make Nevada a visit... About three or four hundred Republicans and Democrats gathered at the station to give the distinguished visitor and his wife a Nevada welcome... The train stopped here just one minute, coming in at 11:05 and leaving at 11:06... The senator was instantly recognized...with the possible exception that he does not look quite so cold and stern as his photographs show him":

Of course you do not expect me to make a political speech this morning. We in America are very insistent about the observance of the proprieties and the increased reverence with which we keep the Sabbath day.

Parsons, Missouri

"Warren G. Harding...paid Parsons a visit Sunday morning, shook hands with 2,000 people and addressed 3,500 others from the rear platform of his special car... The senator's stay in Parsons was only of 30 minutes duration, but it gave the people an opportunity to see what the sort of a man this city and county will give their overwhelming majority to in November... Mrs. Harding, who was slightly ill, did not present herself to the crowd." (Parsons Daily Sun)

The train is expected at 7:35 but arrives an hour late.

Sedalia, Missouri

"Katy Passenger train No. 4, carrying the Harding party...made one of the fastest trips ever made between Parsons and Sedalia, covering the whole distance in three hours and thirty-one minutes. The train left parsons and hour and twenty-three minutes late and got into Sedalia twenty-eight minutes late... On the trip through Missouri after leaving Parsons both Senator and Mrs. Harding rode a distance of 20 miles on the engine..." (Parsons Daily Sun)

St. Charles, Missouri

"...about 150 citizens had assembled to greet the candidate. Senator Harding's party had not expected the ovation and were taken by surprise. He spoke a moment from the platform and received a bouquet of roses..." (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Harding tells the crowd in St. Louis, "About 150 girls came clear back to the end of this twelve-car train to greet me [in St. Charles]. It was a shame not to be able to make a speech to all of those enthusiastic Missourians along the way." (St. Louis Star and Times)

St. Louis, Missouri

"Senator Warren G. Harding...spent one hour and 10 minutes in St. Louis...arriving at 7:40 from Oklahoma City and departing for Marion, O., at 8:30, completing a speaking tour in the Middle West which covered points in Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. He was greeted at Union Station by several hundred persons... [Harding excused himself] from a formal speech with the remark that there may be no impropriety in speaking on the Sabbath, but he did not wish to 'offend the sentiment of the country.'" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Sources:

  • "Harding, in City an Hour, Greets Station Crowds." St. Louis Star and Times. 11 October 1920.
  • "Harding Is Given a Rousing Welcome." Parsons Daily Republican. 12 October 1920.
  • "Harding Shakes Hands with Many at Union Station." St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 11 October 1920.
  • "Harding Visits Here." Coffeyville Daily Journal. 11 October 1920.
  • "Harding Visits Parsons; Talks." Parsons Daily Sun. 11 October 1920.
  • "Harding Visits Nevada." Southwest Mail. 15 October 1920.
  • "Harding Will Not Make Address Here." Parsons Daily Republican. 10 October 1920.

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