William Estabrook Chancellor - Research

Research

Chancellor's theory on Harding's lineage was based upon affidavits provided by aged Crawford County, Ohio residents that Harding was of mixed race. Chancellor claimed that Harding had a great-grandmother, Elizabeth Madison, who was black. The affidavits by elderly residents in Galion, Ohio, served as the basis for Chancellor's book. Unless Chancellor's sources had intimate knowledge of Harding's genealogy, the rumor is probably untrue.

Harding was born in 1865 near Corsica (now Blooming Grove), Ohio. Harding's father, Dr. George Tryon Harding, was a homeopathic physician; Harding's mother Pheobe Dickerson Harding was a midwife who later qualified for an Ohio medical license. Dr. Harding relocated his family to Caledonia in eastern Marion County when the younger Harding was a young boy.

Relying upon the affidavits, Chancellor moved forward with his book, which lacked primary source records to validate his claim. Chancellor could not produce an Ohio birth record for Harding (who was born in 1865) because Ohio did not mandate the recording of births until 1867. Furthermore, Chancellor could find no court records, deeds, or other legal documents that could prove that Harding was of mixed race. Chancellor also could not verify his position through U.S Census records because popular schedules made prior to 1850 did not provide a complete enumeration by name and race of all people in a given residence. Instead, 1840 and earlier census records only listed the name of the head of household and counted by "hash-mark" the age-group and sex of other persons living with that head of household.

After Harding was elected, Chancellor published his biography of the president; however, federal agents acted immediately to suppress the distribution of the book. Chancellor was also monitored by federal agents. Unable to research or find a teaching position, Chancellor moved to Canada.

In the spring of 1922, Chancellor was in Dayton, Ohio (his hometown as well as that of 1920 Democratic Presidential candidate and prominent newspaper publisher James Cox) long enough to publish a biography of Warren Harding. In it Chancellor developed the race rumors at great length. He included some additional research, including the first notice of Harding's poor cardiovascular health. The book is normally credited to Chancellor, although no explicit claim of authorship is made, nor is the additional research obviously Chancellor's. After it was published, a statewide organization sold the book door-to-door during the midterm election year.

In 1927 Chancellor was hired by the University of Cincinnati, and he taught there until his retirement. He died in Cincinnati in 1963, aged 96, having given several interviews to journalists over the years in which he denied writing either book or pamphlet. He never suggested who might have been responsible.

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