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Saturday, May 16, 2009

Warren Harding of Marion, Ohio

President Warren Gamaliel Harding was born 2 Nov 1865 near Marion, Marion County, Ohio (now Blooming Grove) the eldest of eight children to Dr. George Tyron Harding, Sr. and Phoebe Elizabeth (Dickerson) Harding. After Warren graduated from college, he purchased the Marion Daily Star. In 1891, Warren married Marion native Florence "Flossie" Mabel Kling, the only daughter of Amos Kling (the rival of Warren) and former wife of Henry De Wolfe. Florence had a son from her first marriage, Marshall Eugene De Wolfe.

In 1899, Harding was elected to the Ohio State Senate and served until he was elected Lt. Governor of Ohio and served from 1903 to 1905. Harding was elected to the US Senate in 1914 and served until his inauguration as President on 4 March 1921. During Harding's bid for the 1920 Presidency, he captivated the country with his "front porch campaign" where at his Victorian home at 380 Mt. Vernon Avenue in Marion, Ohio. The campaign was heavily covered by the press and it received widespread newsreel coverage, using Hollywood and Broadway stars & business icons like Henry Ford, who traveled to the Harding's front porch. Harding's campaign manager for the 1920 election was William Harrison Hays, who was later appointed by Harding as Postmaster General. After one year in office, Hays resigned to become the first president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of American (MPPDA).

While President, Harding appointed many to his cabinet who provided all sorts of scandals, resulting in a great amount of distrust among the Americans. Harding's Secretary of the Interior Albert B Fall, rented government lands to oil companies in return for personal loans, referred to as the "Teapot Dome Scandal" (see connections later, including one to Vern Dumas)


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