Florence Harding was a woman with deep secrets.

Florence Kling: Lonely, Angry Girl

Florence Kling (1860-1924) was born to Amos Kling, a middle-class businessman in Marion, Ohio, just as the Civil War was getting underway. She was eldest, with two younger brothers, Clifford and Vetallis. By the time she was ten, her father had begun to prosper, becoming proprietor of other businesses and even a bank. Some considered him the wealthiest man in town. Most considered him the nastiest.

Amos Kling

That included his family. Louisa Bolton, Florence’s mother, always remained a shadowy figure. Perhaps in response to her domineering husband, she found whatever relief she could by taking to her bed with the vague illnesses that plagued many unhappy wives of that time. She seems to have been supportive to her daughter, but played little role in her upbringing.

Amos Kling’s house – after he made his money!

Florence was a bright enough student, with the usual female opportunities, which included piano lessons, something she always enjoyed. She also helped out as a clerk in one of her father’s business after school. But Amos Kling was a harsh man, and ruled the roost with an iron hand. One of the rare stories of her teens involves his determined edict that Flossie be home by ten o’clock. That’s when the door was locked. She was late a couple of times, and forced to spend the night with a friend.

By the mid 1870s, roller skating had become a popular pastime for the younger set, and roller rinks were established in most towns. As with most popular pastimes, they were considered scandalous by the older generation – which included Amos Kling. Flossie like the roller rinks.

She also liked the roller rink manager.

Henry Atherton DeWolfe

A year her senior, Henry “Pete” DeWolfe had a local bad-boy reputation as a heavy drinker by the time he was twenty. But he was also handsome and possessed of a rakish personality, which attracted the local girls. Including Flossie. She began frequenting the skating rink.

When she discovered she was a few months pregnant, they eloped – out of town. A legal record of a marriage license has never been found, so it is generally surmised that the marriage was common law. When their son was born, however, he was given the DeWolfe name, and there is a birth record indicating a marriage of some kind.

Henry DeWolfe’s grave.

Pete had a hard time finding work, although he did hold a warehouse job for a short while in Gallion, Ohio, where they lived as man and wife. But his drinking became excessive, and his employment was terminated. Florence, perhaps more like her father than she cared to admit, had her own domineering ways, and those who knew her attested to her unpleasant, whining voice. The marriage suffered.

Two years later, Pete DeWolfe deserted Florence, leaving her with a toddler – and no money. Somehow she managed to get back to Marion, with her little boy, Marshall Eugene DeWolfe.

Barely Managing

Refusing to seek any help from her father who had predicted doom and gloom for her marriage, she found a cheap room in a cheap boarding house, and began giving piano lessons for 25-cents an hour. She had a few students, and somehow eked out a bare existence, trying to care for a baby and trying to redeem her sullied reputation.

Marshall DeWolfe’s grave.

Things were not improving despite her mother’s surreptitious financial help. But after a few years of struggling, she had a surprise visitor. Her father. Amos King knew all about Flossie’s struggles, and perhaps had some grudging admiration for a young woman who was determined to make her own way, no matter how difficult. Her made her a devil’s bargain: he would take the boy off her hands, raise him as his own, but Florence had to relinquish all parental rights. If she had any misgivings or angst about it, it is undocumented. Her maternal instincts were never that strong.

So Marshall went to live with his paternal grandfather “in the big house.” Florence filed and was granted a divorce on charges of desertion, and reclaimed her “Kling” name. Over the years, she maintained a pleasantly affectionate relationship with her son – but never close. Meanwhile, Henry DeWolfe died a few years later, from alcohol-related disease.

Mrs. Harding

Young Warren Harding – a good looking guy!

When Flossie was in her late twenties, she met Warren Harding, a young man come-to-town to drum up business for a nascent weekly newspaper in which he had a partnership. His kid sister Carolyn was one of Miss Kling’s piano students. It was only a matter of time before the piano teacher met the newspaper fellow. He was handsome, with a rakishness not unlike Henry DeWolfe.

She was immediately attracted; he, perhaps, not so much. Nevertheless, after some time, they married. She was 30, he 25. From that time on, she was entirely Mrs. Harding. Miss Kling, disappeared. And Mrs. DeWolfe was never mentioned.

The Harding House in Marion, OH

Warren Harding certainly knew about Marshall, who at the time, was around 10. For the rest of their married life, he was a friendly step-father-ish to the young man, and periodically tried to help guide his future.

Unfortunately, Marshall carried many of his father’s genes, including a thirst for whiskey, and died at 35. He had married, however, and had two daughters. Florence genuinely like her daughter-in-law and the children, and stayed in pleasant sporadic touch.

Ah….But…

As Warren Harding’s political stars rose high, there was mild interest in Mrs. Harding, especially since she was perceived to be very politically savvy and important in her husband’s career. She never denied that she had been married before – but always added that her first husband had died before she met Harding. The never-said implication was that she had been a widow. And she always admitted being a grandmother, if and when it suited the occasion.

But while she may have been a FLOTUS of the “twenties,” it was always as if Florence Harding’s personal “twenties” never existed.

Sources:

• Anthony, Carl Sferrazza –First Ladies 1789-1961, William Morrow,1990
• Anthony, Carl Sferrazza – Florence Harding: The First Lady, the Jazz Age, and the Death of America’s Most Scandalous President – William Morrow & Co., 1998
• http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=30