29. Warren Harding
Warren G. Harding was born November 2, 1865, in the family’s salt box farmhouse in Corsica (now Blooming Grove), Ohio. Harding’s father was a doctor, and his mother was a midwife who later became certified as a doctor as well. Harding was the oldest of six surviving siblings, and he was raised in a fundamentalist Christian household. The family moved to Caledonia, Ohio, when Harding was still a child. He helped with farm chores and enjoyed an outdoor village life of swimming, fishing, playing baseball, and riding horses. Harding, who would later be a successful newspaperman before entering politics, also worked as a printer’s helper in his youth. An Ohio State historical marker commemorates the site of Harding’s birth, but both his birth home in Blooming Grove and his childhood home in Caledonia have been destroyed.
--Andrew B. Leiter
All that is left of the Harding birthplace is a lone marker and a flagpole along a lonely stretch of road in the very middle of Ohio. It was a dry, sunny day with crisp light towards the beginning of the project. I was still not exactly sure how the project would come together, or if it would come together. At the site, I didn't think too much about this, only that it was a pleasure to be out in the world, learning something new, and taking pictures!