The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1920-07-23
EARLY HARDINGS
IN PIONEER DAYS

July 3 next will be the anniversary
of the battle and massacre of Wyom-
ing. On that date, 142 years ago, Col.
John Buffers Rangers with his Tor
les and Senecas, defeated and slaugh-
tered 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 Wilkesbarre, Pa,
now stand.
Three days before, on June 80, 1778,
a small party of settlers, men and
boys, had left Fort Jenkins, which
stood a few miles up tn river from
Forty Fort, and had gone to the corn
field Of Stephen Harding, Jr., to hoe
his corn. The party was composed OF
Benjamin Harding, Stukely Harding,
Stephen Harding, Jr., and nine others.
Benjamin and Stukely Harding car
| ried their runs with them. Two Ger
man Tories saw them at work and
carried the news to an advance guard
of Buffers Indians, then approaching
the settlement from Toahoga. After
the Hardings had quit their work for
the day they started homeward, their
path lying through a deep, narrow
ia vine. Here they were ambushed by
the Indians and Tories, who fired up
on them and wounded Benjamin and
Stukely Harding. They promptly re-
turned the fire, and then a bloody
fight ensued.
The Indians with their spears and
tomahawks rushed upon the Hardings,
while the latter dubbed their guns and
fought fiercely and bravely, resisting
until, pierced through with spears,
they fell and then were hacked and
cut to pieces with tomahawks and
scalped.
John Gardner, a cousin of the Hard
ings, was carried away a prisoner and
died in captivity. Stephen Harding,
Jr., and a boy managed to reach the
thick woods and escaped.
Remember the fate Of the Hard
ings,' was the inspiring battle cry of
the 300 patriots who left Forty Fort
! three days later to fight against twice
their number Of British and Senecas,
and with that cry on their lips nearly
every one of the 300 met a like fate.
There were more than a dozen Of
the Hardings who were there in the
Wyoming valley and early and active
participants in the struggles of the
frontier. Among them were Abraham
Harding, his son Amos, Lemuel Hard
ing, Captain Stephen Harding, in ON
mand of Fort Jenkins, his sons Ste
phen, Thomas, Benjamin, Stukely, Is
rael, Micajah, Elisha, John and Will
liam.
"There was not a family in the
country" writes Miner, the historian
of the Wyoming valley, "more ardent
ly devoted to freedom than the Hard
ings. Those who fell at Exeter were
taken to a burying ground near Jen-
kins' Ferry and inferred. Over their
graves the slab reads Sweet be 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, Sr, was the an
cester of the senator and future pres
ident, Warren G. Harding.
One of the first Hardings to arrive
in America was Abraham Harding of
Braintree, Mass, who came from Eng
land, possibly with Captain Gorges
in 1923. He married in 1889 Elizabeth
Adams, who came from England in
1880. He became a proprietor at Med.
field, Mass, in 1850, and died there
in 1866, leaving a son, Abraham, who
was born in that year.
A near relative of the first Abra
: ham was Stephen Harding of Brain
t tree and Providence. He was born
about 1924 and married Bridget Els
5 tan Tor Estance), a sister or othe,
near relative of Thomas Estance o
Swanzey, R. l. Thomas Estance wa,
a Welshman and came to Americ;
. from Hertfordshire, England. She
phen Harding was admitted to mem
bership in the Baptist church at Swan
sey. He was a blacksmith. Later h
died February 20, 1893.
His son, Abraham Harding died i
G Providence, November %, 1894, leay
e ing a widow, Deborah, and seven chi.
dren, one of whom, Stephen. was Dor
n in Providence in 1851. He had 81
children, five of whom were sons. Tw
e of these, Abraham and Stephen, wer
n the sons who settled in Wyoming va
e ley.
Abraham was born at Warwick,
e l., in 1920. He removed to Waterfor,
j. Conn, in 1882, and in 1851 to Orang
county, New York. He married Ann
Dolson and died in Susquehanna cour
ty, Pennsylvania, in 1906. Abraham
Hardinu Saryad in tha R~ayo1utionor