CAPT. JOHN R. HARDING, of the firm of Wright & Harding, dealers in books, stationery, pictures, etc., No. 115 Stephenson street, Freeport, Ill., is a native of England, and was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, on the 18th of July, 1835. His parents were Charles and Elizabeth Harding. He attended the common schools of his native land until he was thirteen years of age, when he began learning the trade of a tailor with his father, at which occupation he worked until 1857, when in February of that year he sailed for America, and arrived in the city of New Orleans during April. From New Orleans he journeyed north to St. Louis, and thence to Dubuque, Iowa, and from there to Freeport, Ill., where he secured employment and went to work at his trade for the firm of Stine Bros. He worked for them one summer and then went to Kansas City, where he engaged in business.

At about this time the trouble in Kansas and Missouri over the question of whether there should be slavery in the Territory of Kansas was at its height. Capt. Harding being a Free-State man, his residence in Missouri was anything but pleasant, for in that State at that time the pro-slavery sentiment was almost universal. In the fall of 1860, he left Kansas City and returned to Freeport. In the spring of 1861, he enlisted in Co. A., 11th Ill. Vol. Inf., and immediately with that command started South by the way of Cairo, and was in the campaigns of Tennessee and Mississippi, which included the battles of Ft. Donelson, Shiloh, siege of Corinth, and the campaigns in front and rear of Vicksburg, and the memorable forty-seven days’ siege which followed. After these engagements he was detailed by Gen. McPherson to assist in the organization of a colored regiment, but through a blunder was discharged from service. He remained out of the service for a time, when he was commissioned First Lieutenant, and four months later was promoted to a Captaincy in the 48th United States Colored Troops, in which rank he actively served until Jan. 4, 1866. During this term of nearly five years of service he received but one slight wound.

Capt. Harding was mustered out at Baton Rouge, La., in January, 1866. He then went to Freeport and served twelve months as clerk in the post-office under Postmaster Smith D. Atkins; then opened a merchant tailoring establishment in the building where the German Bank now stands. Here he continued business eighteen months, and then entered into partnership with Benjamin Noble, of Lanark. While there he accepted a situation as Postal Clerk on the Illinois Central Railroad, which position he held for eighteen years, beginning in 1868 and retiring in 1886. He was relieved from his position for “offensive partisanship.” Returning to Freeport at the close of his service in the Postal Department he received the Republican nomination for County Clerk, and although he made a gallant race was defeated by a small majority; immediately after the failure of this political adventure he purchased the interest of I. F. Kleckner, of the firm of Wright & Kleckner in 1887, and is now a partner in the firm of Wright & Harding.

Capt. Harding was married in 1864 to Elizabeth A. Wurtz, who died in May, 1879, leaving three children, two daughters and a son – Carrie, John R., Jr., (deceased) and Nellie. Carrie is a graduate of the Freeport High School. Capt. Harding is a member of the Masonic fraternity and G. A. R.

Contributed by Carol Parrish - Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. (1888), p. 262-63