Biography of L. C. Harding, pages 964/965.  History of DeKalb County, 
Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



L. C. Harding

For a number of years the subject of this review has been one of the 
leading business men of Butler, DeKalb county, Indiana.  He ranks among 
the representative citizens of his community and occupies a conspicuous 
place in the commercial world.  His connection with various lines of 
activity, involving important financial and industrial enterprises, has 
made him widely and favorably known, and since engaging in his present 
business his name had become intimately associated with commercial 
transactions which have brought him to the favorite notice of the 
public,  not only of his immediate community, but, in ever widening 
circles, to the uttermost parts of the country. L. C. Harding was born 
in Steuben county, Indiana, in 1873, the son of William and Mary 
(Andrews) Harding, he a native of Steuben county, Indiana, and she of 
St. Joseph county, Michigan. William and Mary Harding were among the 
early settlers of Steuben county.  The father was engaged in the 
mercantile business at Fremont, that county.  To them were born two 
children, Louella and the subject of this review. 	The subject 
received a good common school education, which was supplemented by a 
course in a business college, where he gained a special training for 
the lines of activity, which he followed in later life.  Coming to 
Butler, DeKalb county, shortly afterward, he accepted a position in the 
T. J. Knisely Bank, which occupied his time for the next seven years, 
at the end of which time he became the secretary and treasurer of the 
Butler Company, afterward becoming the president of this concern. The 
Butler Company, one of the leading institutions of this kind in the 
state, was organized in 1894, with a capital of forty thousand dollars, 
and the following officers: President, Roscoe Beams; secretary, T. C. 
Munger; treasurer, A. G. Jones, the other member of the firm being T. 
J. Knisely.  The factory at first engaged in the manufacture of 
bicycles and windmills, but in 1900 the bicycle department was 
discontinued and the manufacture of buggies taken up.  The business has 
had a steady and healthy growth until at the present time the output of 
buggies amounts to over twenty-five hundred a year, while the number of 
windmills annually marketed reaches about the same figure.  Besides 
these two leading lines, tanks and tank heaters are also manufactured.   
The present officers of the company are: President, L. C. Harding; 
vice-president, D. C. Henry, of Auburn, New York; secretary George A. 
Powers; treasurer, J. C. Baker.  The board of directors consists of the 
officers named and Samuel G. Stone and T. J. Knisely. L. C. Harding was 
married in 1898 to Dessie Knisely, daughter of T. J. Knisely, and to 
this union has been born one child, Helen B. Fraternally, the subject 
of this review is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, in which he 
has passed the chairs and been honored with election as a delegate to 
the grand lodge, and he also belongs to the Masonic fraternity, in 
which he is a member of the chapter and the commandery.



Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com