The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1920-11-06
HARDING FAMILY
TREE Charge Is
PROVED CANARD
Fllmsy Basis Is SANDER Seyenty-fiye
Years Old, Investigation
Has Disclosed.

mus DioNAVcN.
The whispering roorback directed
against Senator Harding from some
where In the Democratic camp took
for flimsy basis a SANDER seventy-five
years old originating from petty NAL
ice ma neighborhood fued Of the from
tier days. 1t was refuted three-quar-
tiers of century ago.
The authoritative geneaology of the
Harding family shows the falsity of
the canard with which poison
tongues" in the opposition have
sought to incite race prejudice.
Here Is the Story.
The following story of the matter
has, been checked up with Harry M.
Daugherty, Republican leader in
Ohio, and is considered authentic:
THE subterranean accusation about
Senator Harding's ancestry has been
current for weeks, its purpose well
known to the candidate, his advisers,
an dfrnends. Persons who had visited
the border states - Kentucky, Mary
land, Missouri, West Virginia and
Oklahoma epscially-knew weeks ago
that the SANDER was being whispered
and circulated by handbils and anon
ymous circulars. In some localities
me nan dwomen who answered their
doorbells alte at night were told has
tily by callers that Senator Harding's
blood was not pure white.
Canard Unworthy of RetOrt.
Senator Harding, chatting under the
falsehood, wanted to reply openly and
to denounce the lie, but was advised
by careful thinking friends to ignore
the canard on the ground it was I'M
worthy of retort.
AS the campaign neared its close
the efforts to discredit Senator Hard
ing have become more openly desper-
ate, and defamatory circulars were
widely distributed, particularly in Co
lumbus, Indianapolis and San Fran
cisco. The circulars were so-called
'genealogies' of the Harding family.
"Theer were three sets of these
manufactured family trees, all mali.
ciously false in their implication
which was that among the Harding
ancestors was man fcolored blood
They were abseudly incorrect in theil
genealogical references. For example
one of them referred to Amos Harding
(born 1894, died 1880 as black mar
and married to Hulda Trion, described
as passing for white
Where Charges Go Awry.
"As a matter of fact, these elder
Hardings we're not only of unimpeach'
able white blood, clearly traceable
through, the authentic history tof town
records and family Bible, but Hulda
Trion was not Amos Hardings wife
at all, but his mother.
"One of the vicious inventions-the
one attributed to Prof. William Esta-
brook Chancellor of Wooster univer-
sity states that this same Amos
Harding was West Indian Negro. 1t
is matter Of public record that Amos
Harding was born at Port Jarvis, n.
Y, March 10, 1894, and lived in the
Wyoming valley from 1910 to 1900
when he moved to Susquehanna coun-
ty, Pennsylvania, and thence to Rich
land coutny, Ohio, where he died in
1889
All the Family Facts.
1.-THE official statement isued by the
Republican national committee, based
on complete examination of the
Harding family records, contains all
facts concerning birthplaces anC
movements of the various Hardings
Trions, Trips, Crawfords, Stapletons
Madisons, Stevens, Dickersons, Var
Kinks and Curries-all folks of clear
pioneer starin Of the nurest Anglo
Saxon, German, Scotch-Irish an,
Dutch blood. It is taken by Senate
Harding and his friends to be as
straightforward q refutation of til,
current falsehoods as intelligent o
honest minds could wish for.
1T does not, however, explain hov
in the petty malice of a neighbors
quarrel in rural Ohio seventy-ir,
years ago the story originated tina
2 there was African blood in the Hard
ings. Any one who has lived in tn,
country knows how one family with
out definite reason will form lastinl
grudge against another family, some
times a mere children's quarrel beini
sufficient to start long fued.
Hotx tba Qfar. Cf.rlox