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.

10/14/2020

Thursday, October 14, 1920 (TENNESSEE AND KENTUCKY)

From the Marion Star: "Well pleased with his reception in this strongly Democratic state, Senator Warren G. Harding left Tennessee today, striking northward into Kentucky on the second lap of his hurried invasion of the political border states."

"Senator Warren G. Harding made rear-platform speeches in Spring City, Rockwood, and Oakdale, Tenn., today, before crossing into Kentucky. At Dayton, also, a crowd had gathered to hear him, but his train did not stop... At Oakdale, a railway division point, a group of railway employees heard him praise the Cummins-Esch railway bill, declaring it contained a new bill of rights for labor." (Buffalo Courier)

Oneida, Tennessee

Spring City, Tennessee 

Rockwood, Tennessee

Oakdale, Tennessee

Again from the Marion Star: "Kentucky has just been 'r'arin'' to get a chance at Senator Harding and today had that chance."

Stearns, Kentucky 

Somerset, Kentucky 

Danville, Kentucky

"The special train on which Senator Warren Gamaliel Harding...is making a trip through Kentucky stopped in Danville this afternoon for half an hour. About 2 o'clock the speaker appeared on the platform erected on the football grounds at Centre College and spoke for a few minutes to a crowd estimated at 3,000 persons." (Danville Advocate-Messenger)

This "was an especially big meeting, although the Democrats had torn down the stand erected for Harding during the night and had scattered the lumber about town. Center college boys took the senator to the football field and he spoke there. Some of the boys rooted for Harding, while a group in another corner of the field took up the challenge and rooted for Cox. The candidate did not like this and reminded the boys that while loyalty to a leader was a fine thing they must not forget that they were 'Kentucky gentlemen'..." (Marion Star)

Harrodsburg, Kentucky  

Lawrenceburg, Kentucky 

Shelbyville, Kentucky 

Louisville, Kentucky 

"Talking into a magnavox to 15,000 voters who packed the Armory...and reading from a manuscript, Senator Warren G. Harding flayed the Wilson Administration because of its 'foreign trade attitude,' and after many left because they could not hear, began to talk of the League of Nations." (Louisville Courier-Journal)

Sources:

  • "Chattanooga Hears Harding." Marion Star. 14 October 1920.
  • "Great Crowds in Danville to Hear Harding." Danville Advocate-Messenger. 14 October 1920.
  • "Harding to Speak at Oneida, Tenn." Chattanooga Daily Times. 14 October 1920.
  • "League Yet Unplanned, One Harding Favors, He Tells 15,000 Republicans Here." Louisville Courier-Journal. 15 October 1920.
  • "Makes Rear Platform Speeches." Buffalo Courier. 15 October 1920.

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