J. Eugene Harding

Who was J. Eugene Harding?

John Eugene Harding was a businessman and member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio.

Harding was born in Excello, Ohio, the son of paper manufacturer Abram E. Harding and his wife Christine. He attended the public schools in nearby Amanda Village, and the Pennsylvania Military Academy at Chester. He graduated from the University of Michigan.

He engaged in business and industrial enterprises in Middletown, Ohio, including the family paper business, Harding Paper Company, which had a mill at Excello.

He was elected member of the Ohio Senate in 1902. In 1906 he was elected as a Republican to the Sixtieth Congress from Ohio’s Third District. He was defeated as an independent candidate in 1908. He was a delegate to the Republican State convention in 1910.

Retiring from public service, he engaged in the paper business in Chicago, Illinois, until he moved to New York City, where he was associated with the Pure Oil Co. from 1921 to 1926. He engaged in industrial enterprises until he retired in 1949.

Harding died in New Haven, Connecticut, aged 82. He was interred in Woodside Cemetery, Middletown, Ohio.