Orlando B. Harding

HARDING, SANDS, MOVER, BARKHUFF, HALL

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/5/2007 at 21:47:23

Biographies from the 1914 "Past and Present of O'Brien and Osceola Counties of Iowa"

ORLANDO B. HARDING.

A retired farmer of Sibley, Iowa, who has been identified with the history of Osceola County for more than forty years is Orlando B. Harding. He is one of the men who came to this county when it was a trackless prairie and by ability and industry won a success through his farming operations. He has not only contributed to the material advancement of his county, but during the course of an honorable career he has been an influential factor in bettering the moral, social and intellectual welfare of his community.

Orlando B. Harding was born in Pennsylvania September 20, 1847, and is the son of Curtis and Elizabeth (Sands) Harding. Curtis Harding was born and reared in Pennsylvania of English parentage and in 1868 came to central Wisconsin from the state of Pennsylvania, where he lived until his death. Curtis Harding was twice married, and by his first marriage had six children, while to the second marriage nine children were born. Five of the children by his second wife finally settled in Iowa.

Orlando B. Harding was a son of the second marriage of his father and was reared and educated in the schools of Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1868 he was married and he and his young wife came with his father and the remainder of the family to Wisconsin, where Orlando and his wife settled in the central part of the state and lived there until 1873. He then moved to Osceola County, Iowa, and settled on section 2, township 98, range 41. Here they lived for twenty-seven years and reared their family to majority. They passed through all the experiences incident to the "grasshopper" period and although there were many times when things looked very gloomy, they remained with the farm and made a success of it. In 1900 the father and mother moved to Sioux City, where they lived until 1907, when they moved to Sibley, where they are now living. Mr. Harding still owns three hundred and twenty acres of fine land in Osceola County, having sold two hundred and forty acres in 1911 at a good price.

Orlando B. Harding was married May 17, 1868, to Emily Mover, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Mover, of Pennsylvania. To this marriage have been born seven children: E. L., who is on the father's farm in Osceola County; G. M., who is living in Idaho on a ranch: Mrs. Almira Barkhuff, of South Dakota; W. L., who is lieutenant-governor of Iowa, and is a candidate for re-election: C. E., who graduated from the University of Iowa and is now publisher and postmaster in Church's Ferry, North Dakota; Mrs. Stella Hall, whose husband is a farmer in Osceola County, and W. W., an architect of Sioux City.

W. L. Harding, one of the sons of Mr. and Mrs. Orlando Harding, was born in Osceola County in 1875. After receiving a good common school education, lie studied in Morningside College, later studied law in the State University of South Dakota, then located in Sioux City, Iowa, where he has been a prosperous lawyer. He has served three terms in the Legislature from Woodbury county and in the fall of 1912 was elected lieutenant-governor of the state.

Politically, O. B. Harding is a Republican and has held various township offices at the hands of his party. He and his family are loyal members of the Methodist Episcopal church and have always taken an active part in all the activities of that denomination. Mr. Harding is one of the industrious pioneers of the county, who has always been firm in his convictions, whether religious, political, intellectual or financial, and it can be said that he has always taken the right stand on every important question. He and his wife have reared a large family to lives of usefulness and have the satisfaction of knowing that their children are performing well their part in the world of today.

© 2005 Osceola County Iowa USGenWeb
Return to Osceola Co., USGenWeb