By Rachel Mason
President Warren G.
Harding’s trip to Alaska in the summer of 1923, followed by his sudden death in
California, has been well documented in various sources. Patricia Ray Williams,
one of very few people if not the only one alive who remembers President
Harding’s July 1923 visit to Seward, suggested that an appropriate June entry
for the 49 History blog might talk about Harding’s motives and preparations for
the trip. Pat’s father, L.V. Ray, was the mayor of Seward when Harding became
the first president to visit Alaska.
 |
President
Harding and Mrs. Harding returning to the White
House from Florida in 1923, greeted
by pet dog, Laddie Boy.
Photo by Herbert E. French, National Photo Company
collection,
Library of Congress.
|
In June 1923 Harding
started off on his trip across the country to Alaska, which he called the “Voyage
of Understanding.” Harding was not a very competent president, and his term in
office was marred by scandals and scoundrels. Before his westward journey
public confidence in the president was at a low point, and he wanted a chance
to make public appearances and presentations across the nation to regain the
people’s approval before he started running for a second term.
Harding’s health was also
at low ebb. Even though he had recently quit drinking, he continued to be a
heavy smoker and was quite overweight. Observers thought he looked tired; one
of his doctors thought that a trip away from Washington would relieve some of
his stress. Even before he left Washington, the president reported feeling
chest pains. Also before he left on the Voyage of Understanding, he sold his
newspaper business, the Marion Star, and he made out a new will.
First Lady Florence
Harding enthusiastically supported the Voyage of Understanding and accompanied
President Harding on his travels. Later, it turned out, Mrs. Harding was
suspected of having a hand in his death! Here, reprinted with permission, is June Allen’s article from Stories in the News, Ketchikan (www.sitnews.us), July 23, 2003.
A President's Ill-Fated
Trek to Alaska: What did kill Warren G. Harding?
By
June Allen
On Wednesday, August 1,
1924, First Lady Florence Harding locked herself and a very ill President into
the bedroom of the posh presidential suite of San Francisco's historic Palace Hotel
and refused to admit anyone into the room—including the president's five
attending physicians. It wasn't until the next day, August 2, that she opened
the door and left the room to announce that the president, her husband of more
than 30 years, Warren Gamaliel Harding, was dead. The headstrong first lady
refused to allow an autopsy, and the body was prepared for the lengthy
trans-continental funeral-train trip back to Washington D.C.
The nation was stunned by
the unexpected death! Harding was a comparatively young 58, a former newspaper
owner, handsome, charming and popular in those opening years of the roaring
20s. The cause of death was first announced by doctors as a stroke, later
modified as a probable heart attack. He had been feeling ill for at least a
week before his death, complaining of severe stomach cramps. Then it was
thought perhaps he had suffered shellfish poisoning from tainted crabs eaten on
the return voyage after a long expedition through the wilds of Alaska. There
was even a rumor that the bad shellfish might have been provided by irate
Alaskan fishermen. The cause of his demise was simply a mystery.
Was there more than met
the eye in this death? There were whispers concerning the fact that a scandal
of monumental proportions was about to break in the nation’s capital, exposing
the shenanigans of the president's cabinet officials, beginning with the Teapot
Dome disgrace. His Secretary of Interior Albert B. Fall was about to be exposed
(and convicted six years later) for taking a $100,000 bribe in return for a
lease on the federal oil reserve near Casper, Wyoming, a scandal gone down in
history as Teapot Dome. President Harding had been heard to grumble that his
enemies didn't give him any trouble, it was his friends who caused him grief!
And there was something
else, the raised eyebrows and exchanges of knowing glances among the First
Lady's acquaintances. The once-divorced Florence Kling Harding—called “The
Duchess” behind her back—had learned that her heretofore childless second
husband had not one but two mistresses as well as a baby girl by one of them.
Florence Harding was an uncomfortable five years older than her attractive
husband. She had been the driving force in his ambitious rise from Ohio
newspaper editor to senator from Ohio and then to President of the United
States.
The expedition to Alaska
had been Florence’s idea, the lengthy trip called by one of her biographers “the
great dream of the duchess.” The president was apparently happy to go along,
willing to enjoy the adventure and do a little politicking along the way in
anticipation of the second-term election the following year. For him, the trip
would be an eat-drink-and-be-merry excursion all the way. So the Hardings set
off on the rail trip to San Francisco, where they would board the U.S. Navy
transport the S.S. Henderson. It was
smooth sailing en route north, with card games for the men, jerky silent movies
enjoyed by everyone, books to read and plenty to eat and drink, in spite of
Prohibition.
And the couple was greeted
warmly in every stop along the way. The first port of call was Metlakatla where
Florence was startled by accomplished Native Alaskan musicians in their bare
feet playing for the presidential couple! They visited the grave of the world
famous Anglican missionary, Father William Duncan. (Future president) Herbert
Hoover, Harding’s Secretary of Commerce, was personally interested in the call
at Metlakatla. Hoover's uncle, the man who had raised him after the death of
both his parents, had been an Oregon Indian agent who later traveled to
Metlakatla to study Father Duncan's unique methods with the Tsimshian people.
The widower uncle, John Minthorn, had married a Metlakatla woman.
In Ketchikan the beaming
president and dignified first lady accepted tributes of gold and ivory jewelry.
The president laid the cornerstone of the Masonic Temple, on the site now
occupied by the Ketchikan State Building on Main Street. The July 8 call at Ketchikan
was described by the sophisticated presidential national press corp as notable
for “hillsides of wooden homes decorated with Independence Day bunting and
misspelled signs.” At Wrangell, canoes paddled by Native Alaskans in colorful
blankets glided out to the ship, welcoming the presidential party. The Hardings
and guests spent three hours ashore there, seeing the sights.
At Juneau, the visitors'
sightseeing was guided by Alaska Governor Scott C. Bone, who had earlier joined
the party at its arrival in Southeastern. Gov. Bone had been appointed to the
Alaska governorship by his friend President Harding three years before. The
governor is remembered primarily for delivering the dedication address at the
Alaska Agricultural College—now the University of Alaska Fairbanks—at its
opening in September of 1922, and of making the decision in 1925 that relay dog
teams would be the fastest mode of travel to deliver the diphtheria serum to
Nome in 1925, an act memorialized in today's Iditarod Race.
Gov. Bone formally
entertained the Hardings at the governor's mansion, complete with 500 guests
and an outdoor dance. But it was Juneau's Sunday Capital editor Will Steel who
may have zeroed in on the president's mode of governance as well as his
marriage when he wrote, "The president freely expressed himself on matters
of state and politics, with frequent observations on the part of the first lady
of the land, whose mind is always alert and particularly keen on matters that
concern her husband and his administration." In short, Mrs. Harding was
definitely the woman behind the man behind the Presidential Seal.
Privately, and not so
privately, the president and his wife argued and battled the whole way north.
Harding was a reportedly quite genial man but with Mrs. Harding always on
watch. When they arrived in Seward July 13, they boarded the Presidential car.
[The Pullman car was recently refurbished and is open to the public at
Fairbanks' Pioneer Park, formerly called Alaskaland]. During the lengthy train
trip on the new railroad, the president was happy to engage his cronies in
poker games. Mrs. Harding, however, had special-ordered a steel-wheeled Dodge
roadster, modified to run on rails, where she sat alone to enjoy the
magnificent Alaska scenery as they traveled north! For company, she called on
James G. Steese, chairman and president of the federally owned Alaska Railroad.
She mentioned to him the President's heart condition, that he was not well.
From Wasilla to Willow the
president himself drove the train while the first lady sat in the fireman's
seat. But after yet another quarrel she retired to the baggage car. These
particular miles from Wasilla to Willow were the reason why the railroad had
been built in the first place - the rich gold strikes in the mountain chain
along the route that needed transport to saltwater. As the train traveled north
it entered coal-rich territory, another rich product of Alaska's mining wealth.
At Nenana the President drove the golden spike that ritually connected the two
ends of the railroad that reached it northern terminus in Fairbanks, itself a
center for a still gold-producing region.
From Fairbanks, where it
was reported that Mrs. Harding had suffered a bout of exhaustion, the
presidential party headed south for Seward via the era's automobiles, along the
Richardson Highway. It must have been a miserably long trip on a primitive
road. It surely appalled the first lady. The travelers boarded the Henderson in
Seward July 17. They crossed over for a stop at Cordova, and continued on to
Sitka where they stopped on July 23 for a festive celebration. A combined Navy,
Alaska Native Brotherhood and Firemen's Band greeted and tootled a welcome to
Sitka by the Sea. The party visited the Sheldon Jackson museum and school, St.
Michael's Cathedral and the agricultural experiment station. That afternoon the
visitors reboarded the ship.
It was shortly after that
the troubles began. The touring party members had been eating shellfish during
the entire sea voyage, going and coming. But it was two days out of Sitka that
the president first complained of sharp abdominal pains, but suffered no
vomiting. Shellfish was suspected. But in hindsight no one could remember how
the crabs had been delivered or by whom. And no one else became ill although
many of the party had eaten crab.
When the ship docked at
Vancouver B.C., the president managed to address a crowd of some 40,000
well-wishers, but he was still feeling weak and ill. More problems were to
arise. The following morning the Handerson's boiler room flooded and as all
hands were called to action, the passengers too ran on just deck in time to see
the big transport ram a smaller ship that sank in the fog. The president was
said to have lost his good nature and was heard to say, “I hope this boat
sinks.” On departing after a stop in Seattle, the ill-fated Henderson rammed
another vessel. It was not a pleasant voyage south! By the time the ship
reached San Francisco, the president was seriously ill. By that time it was
evident that the planned continuation of the voyage through the Panama Canal
and on to Puerto Rico would have to be postponed and possibly cancelled. The
Hardings retired to the hotel to await the outcome of the president’s illness.
Mrs. Harding accompanied
her husband's body back to Washington D.C. She immediately went into seclusion
and died the following year at the age of 64. She had been a faithful wife and
she felt great rage and grief over her husband's infidelities. But she was
courageous - the first wife of a president to fly in an airplane. She adored
and courted Hollywood celebrities as well as the rich and famous. She loved her
position as First Lady. She did not live to see the 1927 publication of the
best seller "The President's Daughter" by Nan Britton, the story of the
young woman's seven-year affair with Harding and the birth of their daughter, a
book dedicated to "all unwed mothers." The love letters of Harding
and his other paramour, Carrie Phillips, are sealed by the Library of Congress
and by court order may not be opened until the year 2014.
But it is Mrs. Harding,
the Duchess, who in death has the satisfaction of lying beside her husband in
Harding Memorial Park in Marion, Ohio, the wife of a President of the United
States.
