Fordyce Cunningham Harding

Fordyce Cunningham Harding. Image Source: East Carolina Yearbooks, Tecoan, 1925. UA50-01. University Archives, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.

F. C. Harding served on the East Carolina board of trustees for over three decades, beginning in 1916 when he was appointed to fill the vacancy left by the passing of former-Governor Thomas J. Jarvis. Harding’s tenure on the board spanning the school’s early development as teacher training school, ECTTS, and then as a four-year teachers college, ECTC, is among the lengthiest in East Carolina history.

Though born in Pamlico County, Harding grew up in Aurora in Beaufort County before moving to Greenville in 1884. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1893, completed a law degree the following year, and began practicing in Greenville in 1895. In Greenville and Pitt County, he soon achieved standing as a prominent attorney and civic leader.

Harding was active in public life, serving as chairman of the Pitt County Board of Elections for four years, and as chair of the Democratic Executive Committee of Pitt County for six years. After serving as a state representative, he was elected to the N. C. Senate and served there for six years. In 1917, he was named president pro tem of the senate. He also chaired the Senate Committee on Education. He served for 12 years as a member of the board of trustees of the Greenville City Schools. Active in business as well, Harding served on the board of directors of the Greenville Cotton Mills and the National Bank of Greenville. He also served on the Eastern Carolina Council of Boy Scouts, including two terms as its president. During WWI, Harding chaired the Pitt County Council on National Defense.

Although a New South progressive, Harding’s life was decisively shaped by his family’s past. During the Civil War, his father, Maj. Henry Patrick Harding (1836-1912), served as a commissioned officer in the Confederate army. And F. C. Harding often led local initiatives remembering members of the Confederate military. In 1905, when the battle flag of the Plowboys, a Beaufort County regiment, was returned to North Carolina by descendants of the New Jersey Union soldiers who had taken it, Harding, the son of Maj. Harding to whom the flag had been first given in 1861, received it on behalf of his father.

In 1914, Harding served, along with Thomas Jarvis, F. G. James, and other community leaders, on committees related to the establishment of a Confederate monument on the grounds of the Pitt County Courthouse. Harding chaired the Confederate Monument Campaign soliciting $1,500.00 for the monument. Pitt County commissioners had earlier committed to matching that sum. According to the Eastern Reflector, the campaign Harding led raised the necessary funds in three days.

At the unveiling, Harding presented the monument, on behalf of the George Singletary Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy, to the Pitt County Board of Commissioners, represented by F. G. James, a local attorney. At the occasion, Harding delivered a public address describing the monument as “a fitting memorial to the valor of the Confederate Soldiers of Pitt County fashioned and furnished as a token of the love and devotion of the Daughters of the Confederacy.”

Harding was also a leader in historical remembrances related to East Carolina. In July 1921 at the ECTTS celebration of the school’s groundbreaking, he was the featured speaker. In his talk, Harding recalled the picture of the groundbreaking scene, contrasting it with what had once stood on the same ground. He briefly recounted the history of the school, the role of Greenville and Pitt County in it, and concluded with a forecast of the school’s future and its “great work” in “rebuilding the world,” in the wake of WWI, “inculcating principles of right and justice in the minds of children” so that “the time would come when law instead of arms will rule the world.”

In many respects, Harding’s approach to racial history and practices was among the more enlightened of his day. In 1921, he crossed lines of the segregated order by attending the “graduating ceremonies of the city colored schools” held at the Pitt County Court House, presenting student prizes on that occasion. In 1933, in an address to the Eastern Carolina Chamber of Commerce, he discussed the development of the South historically, dwelling at length on the Civil War and noting that, according to one account, it was “a blessing in disguise since it severed from the nation the ‘dark cancer of slavery.'” Even so, Harding’s support for progressive educational initiatives at East Carolina remained limited by the parameters of white supremacist thinking dominant during the first half of the twentieth century.

Sources:

• “Anniversary of Training School: Was Celebrated at Morning Assembly Hour Saturday – F. C. Harding the Speaker.” Greenville News. July 11, 1921. P. 1.
• “Announcements.” Eastern Reflector. April 10, 1914. P. 2.
• “Announcements.” Eastern Reflector. April 24, 1914. P. 2.
• “City Council of Defense Is Formulating Plans for Work.” Greenville News. March 30, 1918. P. 1.
• “F. C. Harding.” Charlotte News. October 26, 1956. P. 25.
• “F. C. Harding Out for Lieutenant Governor.” Charlotte Observer. April 14, 1920. P. 6.
• “Governor Craig is to Speak at Unveiling.” Eastern Reflector. November 6, 1914. P. 1.
• “Graduating Exercises Colored Schools Court House Tonight.” Greenville News. June 9, 1921. P. 1.
• “Judge H. W. Whedbee Presents Hon. F. C. Harding to the Democratic Voters of North Carolina for Lieutenant Governor.” Greensboro Daily News. May 9, 1920. P. 20.
• “Officers Chosen By Scout Council: F. C. Harding of Greenville Renamed President of the East Carolina Organization.” News and Observer. January 19, 1939. P. 11.
• “Present Proportions of the Monument Fund.” Eastern Reflector. April 17, 1914. Pp. 1, 2.
• “Stirred Hearts of Carolinians: Return of the Battleflag of the Plow Boys.” News and Observer. May 21, 1905. P. 1.
• Taylor, Raymond N. “Plow Boy Flag Back Home.” News and Observer. April 12, 1953. P. IV.6.
• “Trade Body Has Annual Dinner: F. C. Harding Chief Speaker at East Carolina Gathering; Resolutions Adopted.” News and Observer. April 13, 1933. P. 10.
• Tucker, John A. “Pitt County Courthouse’s Confederate Monument. ECU Chronicles. https://lib.ecu.edu/sites/chronicles/pitt-county-courthouses-confederate-monument/
• “Two New Members of Advisory Committee – Democratic State Chairman Warren Appoints Col. F. G. James and Dr. J. M. Parrott.” News and Observer. February 19, 1916. P. 5.
• “We Hate War but Love the Warrior: Governor Craig Delivers the Address of Unveiling.” Eastern Reflector. November 20, 1914. P. 4.

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