New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-06-26
The Fate of the Hardngs
Sturdy Pioneer Stock That Survived the Wyoming
Massacre and Nom Yields a Presidential Candidate
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

AZ lHe ILulIOr OIL Inc IflDune.
Sir: July 3 next will be the anniver-
sary Of the battle and massacre Of
Wyoming. On that date, LAP years ago,
Colonel John Buffers Rangers, with his
Tories and Senecas, defeated and
slaughtered the garrison of Forty Fort
and drove the settlers from the Susque-
hanna Valley. This fort had been built
by the Connecticut pioneers near where
Kingston and Wilkes-Barre, Pa, now
stand.
Three days before, on June 80, ITS,
small party of settlers, men and boys,
had left Fort Jenkins, which stood a
few miles up the river from Forty Fort,
and had gone to the corntield of Stephen
Harding jr. to hoe his corn. The party
was composed of Benjamin Harding,
Stukely Harding, Stephen Harding jr.
Harding carried their guns with them.
Two German Tories saw them at work
and carried the news to an advance
guard Of Buffers Indians, then ap-
:
After the Hardings had quit their work
for the day they started homeward,
their path lying through deep, narrow
ravine. Here they were ambushed by
the Indians and Tories, who fired upon
them and wounded Benz amin and Stuke-
ly Harding They promptly returned the
fire and then q bloody fight ensued
Hacked and Scolped
The Indians, with their spears and
tomahawks, rushed upon the Hardings
while the latter dubbed their guns and
fought fercely and bravely, resisting
until pierced through with spears, they
fell, and then We're hacked and cut to
pieces with tomahawks and scalped
John Gardner, cousin of the Hardings,
was carried away prisoner and died in
captivity. Stephen Harding jr and a
boy managed to reach the thick woods
and escaped
Rem ember the fate of the Hardings"
was the inspiring battle cry Of the 300
patriots who left Forty Fort three days
later, to fight against twice or thrice
their number of British and Senecas;
and with tina. cry on their lips, nearly
every one Of the 800 met like fate.
There were more than dozen of the
Hardings who were there in the Wyo-
ming Valley and early and active par
Elephants in the struggles of the from
tier. Among them were Abraham Hard
ing, his son, Amos, Lemuel Harding
Captain Stephen Harding Gin command
Of Fort Jenkins); his sons, Stephen
Thomas, Benjamin, Stukely, Israel,
Micajah, Elisha, John and William.
S'Prefer Death to Slarery''
There was not family in the coun-
try" writes Miner, the historian of
the Wyoming Valley, more ardently
devoted to freedom than the Hardings.
Those who fell at Exeter were taken
to burying ground near Jenkins
Ferry end inferred. Over their
graves the slab reads, Sweet re the
sleep of those who prefer death to
slavery"
Abraham Harding of this family,
who settled at Wyoming with his I'M
Gle, Stephen Harding ST., was the an
cestor Of Senator and future President,
Warren G. Harding.
One Of the first Hardings to arrive
In America was Abraham Harding, of
Bralntree, Mass, who came from Eng
land, possibly with Captain Georges,
in 1898. He married Elizabth Adams
in 1899. who came from England in
1880. He became proprietor at Med
tleld. Mass, in 1850 and died thera In