Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States and the eighth president from Ohio, served from 1921 until his unexpected death of a heart attack on August 2, 1923, while traveling through the American West.
Harding’s body was transported by train back to Washington, DC, where an honor guard escorted him to the White House. Harding’s body was later laid in state in the Capitol Rotunda. A funeral was held on August 8, 1923.
After the service at the Capitol, Harding’s funeral procession left Washington for Marion, Ohio. On August 10, 1923, an estimated 100,000 mourners gathered in Marion to pay their last respects to the president.
In attendance were his close friends Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, as well as politicians such as President Calvin Coolidge and Chief Justice Howard Taft.
In Columbus that day, the city observed a five-minute silence beginning at 3 p.m. The bells of Trinity Episcopal Church on Capitol Square rang as traffic came to a standstill and people stopped and removed their hats in Harding’s honor.
Dr. George T. Harding, the President’s father, was the first presidential father to survive his son and only the second to live to see his son’s presidency.
The Harding Memorial Association began raising funds for a memorial to the former president, eventually raising $978,000 to build the tomb where President and First Lady Florence Harding were reinterred in 1927.
Today, the Harding house is managed by the Ohio History Connection and is open for tours. Visitors can also visit the Harding Presidential Library and Museum and the Harding Memorial, where the president and his late wife are buried less than two miles away.
Angela O’Neal is director of the Local History and Genealogy Department at the Columbus Metropolitan Library.
