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.

10/17/2020

Sunday, October 17, 1920 (OHIO)

Bellefontaine, Ohio

This morning, Senator Harding is greeted by several hundred people in Bellefontaine:

While we make it a rule to have no political addresses on Sunday, it can do no harm, I am sure, to say to you how pleased Mrs. Harding and I are to have your cordial greeting. And there can be no harm in saying on a Sabbath morning that one rejoices in his friendships and his friendly relationships. It can do no harm to say that we are all interested alike in the good fortunes of all the people of our common country...

I want to take this opportunity of explaining to Bellefontaine that we did not know that on last Monday morning you were expecting to greet us as we passed through your city. No one would go through here without consideration for your thoughtful intent. We went through and never knew until some hours afterward that you planned to say "hello" and express your good wishes. That is one of the great difficulties of travel in this way -- we are not always kept in touch with the plans of the local people and it is not possible always to know precisely what is intended...

Marion, Ohio

The Harding train arrives in Marion at 11:30 a.m.

Sources:

  • "Harding Back From His Trip." Marion Star. 18 October 1920.


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