HARDINGS OWNED FIRST FURNITURE STORE

HARDING

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 11/18/2014 at 11:58:57

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Monday, June 01, 1953
Mason City Centennial Edition, Section 3

OWNED FIRST FURNITURE STORE

[Section 3, Page 12] Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Harding came to Mason City from Ohio in 1860. Harding, familiarly known as "Squire," was a cabinet maker and opened Mason City's first furniture store in 1862. "Many nights when I was a boy I held a lamp in father's shop while he made coffins," recalled the son, James H. Harding, who for many years was a painter for the Milwaukee Railroad. Mrs. W. S. Harding taught school in the old stone school house, which stood on the site of the new First Methodist Church.

James Harding, who died at 85 years of age in 1843 (sic, 1943), had a remarkable memory for the early Mason City scene. It was he who prepared the drawing of Mason City in Civil War day son page two of "The Mason City Story" section of this issue of the Globe-Gazette

James Harding, although only 7 years old at the time, had a vivid recollection of the John Henry Raid in Mason City in the spring of 1865. The group, made up mostly of southern sympathizers, molested the citizens and committed acts of thievery.

When the posse was formed to go after the offenders, his father had to tie the barrel of his rifle to the stock with a white rag to hold the thing together.

Photographs courtesy of Globe-Gazette
Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, November of 2014

Cerro Gordo Biographies maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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