The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1920-11-18
HARDING ROSE FROM
FARM TO PRESIDENCY
Typical American Career Of
Struggling YOuth-Then Pros
perity-Successful Pub
Usher.

In him the nation will have once
more chief executive whose ca
reer can be described as typical
American. The story of his strug-
Cling boyhood, of his days on the
farm and at the printers case, of
his fight for the life of country
newspaper, of his ultimate busi-
ness and political success has of
ten been told, but it is the sort of
story that always bears retelling.
He was born on Nov. 2, 1865
SIX months after the close of the
civil war-on his grandfather's
farm, where his father then lived,
outside the village of Blooming
Grove, Monroe county, Ohio. He
was the eldest of eight children.
The father, DR.. George A. Hard
ing, village physician, came of
Scotch ancestors, who settled in
Connecticut and then moved on
to Wyoming Valley, Pa. The
mother, Phoeba Dickerson, came
from a Holland Dutch family, the
Van Kinks.
DR.. Harding had lived in two
room log house he had built with
his own hands in pioneer days. He
had little means and to piece out
his income as a physician farmed
it on small scale. So young
Harding was distinctly farm
boy. Woodland was all around
him. Little by little the clearing
of it enlarged the area of the farm
land. Every child did his share.
Warren Harding learned to fell
trees, chop wood, split rails, plant
and hoe corn. In the winter he
had his chores to do before and
after school. He grew up big and
strong of body and sunny of dis
position.
From College to Type Case.
At the age of IA he entered
Ohio Central College-really Of
academy grade-at Iberia. At in
tervals he stopped in order to earn
money to go on and all his vaca-
tions were devoted 4, to earning
money. He cut corn, painted a |
barn. drove team for a gang
grading the roadbed of the Tole-
do & Ohio Central Railway and |
taught a district school. One
summer he raised 18 bushels of
wheat on half an acre of ground |
which his father gave him. Hef
played a slide trombone in the
Iberia brass band but that was a
labor of love.
But. most important of all to
him he learned to set type in a
tiny printing Office and came un-
der the smell of printers ink. He
still carries as his luck piece the
printers rule he~used when stick
ing type. AS editor of the college
paper he showed an aptitude for
journalism. When he was 19
years old his family moved to Ma
rion, in the adjoining county.
There he got job in the office of
a small democratic weekly, the
Marion Mirror. Just before this
he had been reading law, selling
insurance and teaching school.
But from the moment he went to
Marion he was determined to be a
newspaper man. For the owner
of the Mirror he did everything
from scrubbing out the office and
setting type to writing editorials
and hustling advertisements and
subscriptions.
Although the paper was demo-
cratic his republicanism was Tun-
f1inching. The embarrassment of
this situation became acute when
he not only Joined the Blaine
Club, but insisted on wearing a
Blaine hat to work. 1t has often
been said that Harding was fired +
for this but that is not true. He
was too valuable to. his employer.
Not only did he know the mechan- /,
ics of the trade but he had a pleas
ant way of writing pieces aboutI
births, weddings and other local
events that pleased the public and
made friends for the Mirror. /
There was little daily called
the Star which had been started
by a former peanut vendor. It
went under the sherif's hammer.
employer, owner of the
democratic Mirror, had advised
the owner of the other democratic
paper, the Independent, to buy |
the Star and junk it, else it might
arise to plague the Independent.
This the owner of the Independ-l
ent refused to do. Nettled by the
rejection of this advice, the owner
of the Mirror called in Harding
and told him to go over to the
court house and buy the Star
'Tve nothing to buy it with
said Harding.
"You go over and do what | tell
you and it will work out all right, I"
said the boss.
Buying the Marion Star.
On the following day, Nov. 26,
1884,, this announcement appear
ed in the Star:
1--WE have purchased the Star
and will stay.
"The Star Publishing Co."
The company consisted of War
rem Harding and his chum, Jack
Warwick. Thus began Harding's
career as newspaper publisher.
For several years he lived a
slaves life. First the property
had to be paid for. Harding ram
sacked Marion for news and adj
vertisements. When his writing
was done he helped his partner set
type, make up the paper, turned
Or fed the creaky little press and
got the carrier boys out. When