During the 10 a.m. ceremony in Hewes Library, an officer’s sword, a family Bible, an engraved walking stick and a photographic portrait by Matthew Brady will be among the items presented to college president Mauri Ditzler by family members of Gen. Abner Clark Harding. The public is welcome.
A brief Monmouth College history of Gen. Harding:
Harding (1807-1874) was one of the principal founders of Monmouth College in 1856, having donated the land for its first building and the endowment for its first professorship. Born in Connecticut, he settled in Monmouth in 1835, where he plied his trade as an attorney until failing eyesight made him abandon that career. In 1851 he formed a company to build a railroad from Peoria to the Mississippi River, eventually selling the route to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy line for a tidy profit.
At the age of 55, despite poor eyesight and health, Harding enlisted as a private in the Union Army, but was immediately elevated to colonel and took command of the 83rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, a regiment populated heavily with Monmouth College students. Assigned to guard the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, he held off a Confederate force that outnumbered his troops 10 to 1 at the Battle of Dover in 1863, a feat that resulted in a field promotion to brigadier general.
Following the war, Harding successfully ran for Congress on the Republican ticket. One of his most significant accomplishments during two terms in office was personally securing the charter to build a railroad bridge across the Mississippi at Burlington. He also served as first president of the National Bank of Monmouth. He is buried in the Harding family plot in Monmouth Cemetery.
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