I collect postcard portraits of United States Presidents and their birthplaces, homes, tombs, and libraries. Ohio is the birthplace of seven U.S. Presidents, and an eighth president had resided in the state, making it a key state in presidential history. The last president from Ohio was Warren Harding (1865 – 1923), who was
serving as a Republican U.S. Senator when he won the 1920
Presidential Election.
Contemporaries described Harding as handsome and charismatic. A newspaper publisher, Harding owned the Marion Star. With the assistance and business acumen of his wife Florence Kling DeWolfe, whom he married in 1891, he turned the failing paper around and made it extremely profitable enabling him to enter politics. Mrs. Harding encouraged and helped manage her husband’s political career. Before he was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1914, Harding had previously served in the Ohio Senate for four years and was Lieutenant Governor for two years.
In June 1920, the Republicans met in Chicago for their National Convention. The frontrunners for the nomination were Major General Leonard Wood, Illinois Governor Frank Lowden, and California Senator Hiram Johnson.
Harding was one of several dark horse candidates who received votes during the first eight ballots. On the ninth ballot, Harding’s vote total almost tripled while Wood’s vote total was stagnant and support for Lowden and Johnson collapsed. At the end of four days, voting was deadlocked among six candidates, none close to a majority.
That night, Republican party chairman Will Hays invited senators and party leaders to his Blackstone Hotel suite. Over whiskey and cigars, with urgings by Ohio Republican boss Harry M. Daugherty, the GOP leaders settled on Harding as their candidate. He had finished no higher than third in the balloting but had no enemies, looked presidential, and came from a state that had voted for every Republican president.
The next day, after Harding was nominated at the convention, a United Press reporter wrote that he had actually been chosen in a “smoke-filled room.” The term has come to describe decisions made by political insiders outside of public view.
Like another president from Ohio, William McKinley, Harding stayed home in Marion and conducted a front porch campaign. Built in 1890, Harding designed the 2,500 square foot Queen Anne style home with his soon to be wife, Florence. They were married in July 1891 in the spacious entrance hall.
In addition to the hallway, the first floor featured a parlor, dining room, library, and kitchen.
The second floor had a master bedroom, three other bedrooms including one for a maid. There was also a bathroom.
In 1903, Harding replaced the original porch with a larger porch featuring a round, “bandstand” area where he made short speeches to visiting Republican delegations from across the country.
In contrast, Harding’s Democratic opponent in the 1920 election was Ohio Governor James M. Cox. Like Harding, Cox was also a newspaper publisher who owned the Dayton Daily News. Governor Cox conducted an energetic campaign visiting 36 states and delivering 394 speeches. Cox’s vice-presidential running mate, Franklin D. Roosevelt, also stumped across the country.
Harding’s campaign slogan of a “Return to Normalcy” resonated with American voters weary of the World War I upheavals. The Republican ticket of Harding and Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge for Vice President received 60% of the popular vote and 404 electoral votes. Cox and Roosevelt received 34% of the popular vote and 127 electoral votes. Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs received over 900,000 votes (3.4% of the votes cast) but no electoral votes. Debs ran his campaign from his cell at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary where he was incarcerated for advocating non-compliance with the draft during World War I.
President Harding died of a heart attack in San Francisco at the age of 57 on August 2, 1923, during a tour of Alaska and the West Coast. His passing was greatly mourned by the American public. However, the criminal activities of two members of the administration, dubbed the “Ohio gang,” by the press – Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall and Veterans Bureau Director Charles Forbes tarnished Harding’s legacy.
Harding’s Attorney General, and 1920 campaign manager Harry M. Daugherty was twice tried on a corruption charge, but both trials ended with hung juries. Before his passing, Harding realized he’d been betrayed by his friends. He reportedly said, “I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies in a fight. But my friends, my goddamned friends, they’re the ones who keep me walking the floor at nights!”
The most popular member of Harding’s administration was his dog, Laddie Boy. An Airedale terrier, Laddie Boy was presented to Harding in 1920 by an Ohio dog breeder, and Laddie Boy became the “First Dog” when Harding was elected president.
As the first White House celebrity pet, Laddie Boy was a 1920s media sensation. He was featured in newspaper and magazine articles as well as in movies. Harding’s wife, Florence, championed the cause of abused and neglected animals and helped publicize the issue. He even had a special seat at Cabinet meetings and accompanied President Harding when he played golf.
Harding’s widow Florence, due to her ill health, gave Laddie Boy to a Secret Service agent and his family. The once famous pet spent the rest of his life in Boston out of the limelight and died in 1929.
After the President’s death, the Harding Memorial Association was formed to raise money for a memorial and tomb for Harding. The association received $978,000 in donations from more than one million people across the United States. It is estimated that 200,000 American school children donated their pennies for the memorial.
Construction began on the Harding Memorial in 1926 and was finished in early 1927. It is designed in the style of a circular Greek temple with Doric marble columns built of Georgia white marble that are 28 feet tall and support the inner circular colonnade. Its center, known as the Hypaethros in ancient Greek architecture, is open to the sky and without a roof. Harding and his wife are buried in the sarcophagus in the center.
Harding’s Tomb was the last grand American presidential tomb constructed. Elaborate memorials were constructed for Abraham Lincoln, Ulyssess Grant, and William McKinley. Later presidents have opted for simpler burial places often at their presidential library.
Due to the scandals, Harding’s successor, Calvin Coolidge, declined to dedicate Harding’s tomb when it was completed. It fell to Coolidge’s successor, Herbert Hoover, to reluctantly deliver the dedication address in June 1931. Coolidge attended the dedication ceremony but did not speak.
The Hardings had no children, although Mrs. Harding had a son, Marshall, from a previous marriage, who lived intermittently with them and became a journalist like his stepfather.
Marshall died in 1915 and was unknown to the American public. Harding’s widow Florence (she died from kidney disease fifteen months after her husband), never returned to their house on Mount Vernon Avenue. Instead, she lived in a cottage on the grounds of a sanitarium in Marion.
She willed the house and its contents to the Harding Memorial Association. Restored in 1965 by the Harding Memorial Association, the Harding home has many of its original furnishings and reflects the tastes of the upper middle class at the turn of the century.
The Harding Memorial, located in Marion Cemetery, is 1.5 miles from the house. Marion is in north-central Ohio, approximately 50 miles north of Columbus.