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United States of America – Marion, Ohio – Centennial Anniversary
Warren Harding & Eber Baker
1922 Bronze Token 33mm (17.37 grams)
WARREN HARDING EBER BAKER, Warren and Eber within ovals, building below, torch above.
1822 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY MARION, OHIO 1922, Wreath.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
 Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular U.S. presidents to that point. After his death, a number of scandals”including Teapot Dome”came to light, as did his extramarital affair with Nan Britton; each eroded his popular regard.
Harding lived in rural Ohio all his life, except when political service took him elsewhere. As a young man, he bought The Marion Star and built it into a successful newspaper. He served in the Ohio State Senate from 1900 to 1904, then as lieutenant governor for two years. He was defeated for governor in 1910, but was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1914. He ran for the Republican nomination for president in 1920, and he was considered a long shot until after the convention began. The leading candidates could not gain the needed majority, and the convention deadlocked. Harding’s support gradually grew until he was nominated on the tenth ballot. He conducted a front porch campaign, remaining for the most part in Marion and allowing the people to come to him, and running on a theme of a return to normalcy of the pre-World War I period. He won in a landslide over Democrat James M. Cox and the then imprisoned Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs and became the first sitting senator to be elected president.
Harding appointed a number of well-regarded figures to his cabinet, including Andrew Mellon at Treasury, Herbert Hoover at the Department of Commerce, and Charles Evans Hughes at the State Department. A major foreign policy achievement came with the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922, in which the world’s major naval powers agreed on a naval limitations program that lasted a decade. Harding released political prisoners who had been arrested for their opposition to World War I. His cabinet members Albert B. Fall (Interior Secretary) and Harry Daugherty (Attorney General) were each later tried for corruption in office; Fall was convicted though Daugherty was not. These and other scandals greatly damaged Harding’s posthumous reputation; he is generally regarded as one of the worst presidents. Harding died of a heart attack in San Francisco while on a western tour and was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge.
Eber Baker (April 27, 1780 – October 6, 1864), Marion, Ohio can be credited as being the founder of Marion, Ohio. Baker was born in either Litchfield or Bowdoin, Maine.
Baker and his first wife, Lydia Smith Baker, came to the vicinity of what is now Marion settling in two squatters log cabins near the south side of the plat. Eber Baker is a man of means and buy’s 160 acres for $310, April 3, 1822 as found in an affidavit where the site of Marion was to be founded. Alexander Holmes, DS, is contacted by Mr. Baker, makes the first plat for Marion. Holmes draws up and is signed by himself and Eber Baker on April 3, 1822 as it was witnessed. The plat was then received and recorded by the Delaware County Recorder April 18, 1822. Samuel Holmes a practical surveyor, was employed by Mr. Baker to survey the village plat. Samuel was a brother of Alexander Holmes. Eber Baker became agent (Proprietor) for selling off the village lots from the first town plat of Marion. The squatters log cabin was about 1/4 mile north of Jacobs Well, a natural spring well that had been dug during the War of 1812 by Jacob Foos, a surveyor for General William Henry Harrison.
The town plat was named Marion after its newly formed county of the same name, which itself was named for Revolutionary War General Francis Marion. The village of Marion was then chosen as the county seat of government, beating out nearby Claridon, Ohio to the east. A local middle school was named after Baker, serving in two Buildings until a school district realignment in the 2000s.
Baker would go on to serve in the Ohio House of Representatives. He also constructed and operated the Mansion House, in downtown Marion.
 Marion is a city in and the county seat of Marion County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in north-central Ohio, approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of Columbus.
The population was 36,837 at the 2010 census, and is estimated to be 35,883 in 2019. It is the largest city in Marion County and the principal city of the Marion, OH Micropolitan Statistical Area. It is also part of the larger Columbus-Marion-Zanesville, OH Combined Statistical Area, which has 2,481,525 people according to the US Census 2017 estimate. President Warren G. Harding, a former owner of the Marion Star, was a resident of Marion for much of his adult life.
The city and its development were closely related to industrialist Edward Huber and his extensive business interests. The city is home to several historic properties, some listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Marion County, Ohio.
 Marion currently styles itself as “America’s Workforce Development Capital” given public-private educational partnerships and coordination of educational venues, from four and two-year college programs to vocational and technical training and skill certification programs.
The mayor of Marion is Scott Schertzer.
Marion is both the hometown and burial location of President Warren G. Harding and First Lady Florence Harding. It is also the birthplace and childhood home of Norman Mattoon Thomas, four-time candidate for President of the United States under the Socialist Party of America ticket and co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
 Harding’s sister, Carolyn Harding Votaw, also lived in Marion. During Harding’s administration, she was appointed to head the social service division of the U.S. Public Health Service, while her husband was named Superintendent of Prisons and chairman of the boards of parole at each institution. Mrs. Votaw also served as an advisor to the Federal Board of Vocation Education within the Veterans’ Bureau, which caused her name to arise during testimony in the successful prosecution of the Bureau’s director, Charles R. Forbes, on corruption charges.
Elsie Janis, the Broadway musical theatre star, Hollywood screenwriter, composer and actress, and “Sweetheart of the American Expeditionary Forces” (AEF) during World War I, was a native of Marion County.
In 1938, local tap dance instructor Marilyn Meseke, was crowned Miss America 1938-the first year that talent was considered part of the annual competition.
Mary Ellen Withrow (née Hinamon), Treasurer of the United States from 1994 until 2001 is a Marion County native. Withrow is the only person in the history of the United States to have held the governmental position of Treasurer on the local (Marion County Ohio Treasurer), state (Treasurer of the State of Ohio) and Federal levels of Government.
Jim Thorpe spent time in Marion County as the coach and lead player for the Native American-led National Football League Oorang Indians. While the team was based in LaRue the Indians played at “home” in Marion.
Other notable people who lived in Marion include:
- Brian Agler, former head coach of basketball’s Columbus Quest and current head coach for the Los Angeles Sparks
- Bob Allen (shortstop) (1867-1943), shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Beaneaters, and Cincinnati Reds, manager with the Phillies and Reds; as a youth, he played baseball with Warren G. Harding
- Eber Baker, founder of Marion
- Larry Barnett, umpire 1969-1999 Major League Baseball; worked infamous Game 3 of 1975 World Series and 1996 American League Championship Series that involved fan young fan Jeffrey Maier
- James A. Beckel, Jr., composer
- Ozias Bowen (1805-1871) was an Ohio Supreme Court Judge 1856-1858; his residence is owned by the Marion County Historical Association, which operates it as the Stengel-True Museum
- Nan Britton, author of The President’s Daughter and mother of President Warren G. Harding’s only child
- George H. Busby, member of the U.S. House of Representatives
- Jack (John) Cade, Civil War spy, who had a bounty placed on his head by the Rebel Army
- John Courtright, pitcher at Duke and first professional pitcher to face Michael Jordan in the minor leagues; pitched in one Major League game May 6, 1995 for the Cincinnati Reds
- Daniel Richard Crissinger, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and 14th Comptroller of the Currency
- John Dean, lawyer, Nixon Administration official, Watergate key witness, historian on Warren G. Harding, and critic of President Donald Trump
- Jeanne Dietsch, New Hampshire state senator; former tech entrepreneur & journalist
- James H. Godman, Ohio state auditor (1864-1872)
- Tommy Griffith, player for Cincinnati Reds
- Toby Harrah, MLB player, 4-time All-Star, coach with the Detroit Tigers
- Steven Hicks, front office, Minnesota Vikings
- George Hogan, baseball player
- Edward Huber, industrialist and inventor of the gasoline-powered tractor
- Aubrey Huff, Major League Baseball player for the San Francisco Giants
- Elsie Janis, early 20th Century singer, songwriter, actress, and screenwriter. First female announcer for the NBC radio network.
- John A. Key, member of House of Representatives
- Florence Kling DeWolfe Harding, wife of Warren G. Harding, First Lady of the United States, 1921-1923
- Huey Lewis, singer and songwriter, lived in Marion from 1951-57
- Ed McCants, basketball player, college All American and Horizon League player of the year 2000, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee “All Decade Team” (2000)
- Walter McClaskey, member U.S. House of Representatives
- O.J. McDuffie, football player, wide receiver for Penn State and NFL’s Miami Dolphins
- Rick Mills, glass artist
- Steve Mills, juggler
- Grant E. Mouser, U.S. House of Representatives (1905-1909), who in 1905 and 1906 added a total of $95,000 in appropriations to build the Old Post Office
- Grant E. Mouser Jr., U.S. House of Representatives (1929-1933)
- Gerry Mulligan, saxophonist, composer, jazz artist also known as “Jeru”
- Taya Parker, model
- George Pfann, football coach, elected to the College Football Hall of Fame
- Carrie Phillips, mistress of Warren G. Harding, only woman known to have blackmailed a major American political party successfully
- Doug Sharp, Olympic bobsled medalist
- Bill Sims, blues musician
- Frederick C. Smith, member of House of Representatives and physician
- John Vornholt, author of Star Trek novels and screenwriter
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