Description

by Stuart J. Koblentz

Published 2004, Softbound, Illustrated,128 pp.

Best known as the home of President Warren G .Harding and his Front Porch Campaign of 1920,Marion was also the home to many other national leaders. As early as 1839, Judge Ozias Bowen made the landmark decision to free an escaped slave, almost sparking a civil war.

Marion was also home to these prominent and influential women: First Lady Florence Kling Harding; Miss America if 1938, Marilyn Meseke Rogers; and 40th Treasurer of the United States, Mary Ellen Withrow. Edward Huber designed revolutionary harvesting equipment and supplied capital for the Marion Power Shovel company whose power shovels dug the Panama Canal and whose creepers move NASA’s rockets. Marion has contributed to the progress of the United States in industry, nation building, and politics unlike any other community of its size.

With the assistance of the Marion County Historical Society and individual collectors, Stuart J. Koblentz has assembled a unique look back at Marion and its community. Raised in Marion, Koblentz is a member and past President of the Marion County Historical Society and also of the Marion Area Genealogy Society.