The President's Daughter (Britton)/Chapter 1
The
President's
Daughter
I was born in Claridon, Ohio, a very small village about ten miles east of Marion, Ohio, on November 9th, 1896. My father, a physician, was at that time practising under the supervision of his cousin, an older physician who had an established practice of long standing. My mother, who had received some of her high school training in Marion, where she had come from New Philadelphia, Ohio, to live with her maternal grandmother, was teaching a country school in Claridon when father met her. I was still a baby and my older sister Elizabeth about three when we moved to Marion, where we settled permanently.
Inasmuch as this book has much to do with President Harding and myself, I may sketch briefly the friendly relations which existed early between our families:
While my father was working up a practice in Claridon, Mr. Harding, then in his twenties, was struggling with Marion's now well-known newspaper, The Marion Daily Star. Father, being himself somewhat of a writer, often wrote humorously to Mr. Harding of his experiences among the country-folk, and these letters were edited by Mr. Harding and published in his paper; I remember Mr. Harding's telling me how delighted he always was to receive them.
My father always spoke of Mr. Harding with warmest affection, and, later on, was one of Mr. Harding's strongest advocates despite the fact that my father was a Democrat. It is very likely that they developed mutual regard and affection for each other back in those days of ambitious editor and country doctor. Certainly no finer tributes could be paid any man than those which I have myself heard from Mr. Harding concerning my father.
Mr. Harding's father was a physician also, and this fact may have strengthened the bond of friendship which early grew to warm regard. As far back as I can remember Dr. Harding had his office in the old Star Building, right across the hall from his editor-son. I believe it is only recently that he has discontinued active practice. I know he has passed his eighty-second birthday.
My mother's attitude in the matter of my relationship to Mr. Harding has not been conducive to discussion with her about her own early acquaintance with the Harding family, but this I know: she must have been attending high school at the same time that some of the Hardings were, because she is only a few years Abigail Harding's senior.
There were, as Miss Abigail Harding has often told me, three "sets" of Harding children: first came Warren, the eldest, then Charity, these two forming the first set; then came "Deac" (Dr. George Tryon Harding III, only brother of Warren) and presumably Mary, the sister who was almost blind and who died about 1910, I think, soon after Warren Harding's mother passed on; then came Abigail, known to everyone as "Daisy" Harding, and lastly Carolyn, the "baby" of the family. It seems to me there was a child who died very early, though I am not sure about this.
My mother had a sister Della who also lived a good part of the time with mother's and her maternal grandmother, Mrs. Mary Richards, in Marion, and, I believe, went to school there also. Della Williams married a missionary to Burma, India, Howard E. Dudley. Some time after, Carolyn Harding also married a missionary to Burma, Heber Herbert Votaw. Up to that time "Carrie" and "Dell" had been friends, if not intimate at least upon the friendliest kind of terms.
However, their husbands were missionaries of decidedly different denominations. Carrie Harding married a Seventh Day Adventist and my Aunt Dell married a Baptist. So from then on their paths diverged. Diverged indeed so widely that my first recollection of hearing the Hardings discussed at any great length is identified with a heated argument between Aunt Dell and my older sister Elizabeth. I remember that Aunt Dell was almost ferocious in her condemnation of the Seventh Day Adventists and their religion which, to her certain knowledge, she said, was a detrimental influence upon the natives wherever it was promulgated.
At that time Mrs. Carrie Harding Votaw's cause was warmly espoused by my older sister who, then in high school and in the English class of Miss Abigail Harding, had met and had developed a girlish "crush" upon her sister, the missionary. I cannot forget that argument, which resulted in more or less of a family quarrel (for even my parents' loyalty was divided) and was responsible for my aunt's sudden departure. She took occasion to denounce the Seventh Day Adventist religion before a group of her own denomination at a camp meeting and almost immediately flounced out of the city with her very picturesque family.
This must have been about 1908 or 1909. The following year, 1910, I entered high school and my English teacher was Miss Abigail Victoria Harding. Curiously enough, I thought that I could see in this sister of the missionary mannerisms which were decidedly peculiar to my Aunt Dell, whom I had quite adored in spite of the family incident recited above. Up to this time I had remained neutral.
However, seeing Miss Harding day after day, and agreeing heartily with the general dictum that she was a very beautiful woman, I came to idolize her. And thereafter my respect for her sister's religion was a matter of course. English became my favorite study—a study for which I would neglect if needs be all other assignments. As a matter of fact, Miss Harding inspired me with such pride in my ability to excel that during
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(now Mrs. Ralph T. Lewis)
the President's sister
that year I was made exempt from all final examinations, having kept my grade standing 90 or above.