Harding, George

Born: 1827-10-26 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Died: 1902-11-17 New York, New York

Flourished: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

George Harding, patent attorney, received his early education in public schools then graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1846. He read law with John Cadwalader and was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1849. Harding developed a national reputation as a patent attorney through work defending patent rights for inventors such as Samuel F. B. Morse. In 1855, Harding was a member of the defense team in the case of McCormick v. Talcott et al. which represented the Rockford, Illinois firm of Manny & Company against a charge of patent infringement by mechanical reaper manufacturer Cyrus H. McCormick. Abraham Lincoln was also retained for the defense in the case, but Harding and fellow defense attorney Edwin M. Stanton blocked Lincoln’s participation in the trial. Harding married Charlotte Kenner in 1857 and the pair had four children that lived to adulthood.

Francis S. Philbrick, “Harding, George,” Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1964), 4:2:249-50; James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, eds., “Harding, Jesper,” Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: D. Appleton, 1887-1889), 3:79-80; John Hill Martin, Martin’s Bench and Bar of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Rees Welsh, 1883), 275; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Locust Ward, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA, 178; McCormick v. Talcott et al., Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=137741; The Daily Picayune (New Orleans, LA), 8 April 1857, 2:3; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 22, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA, 30; The Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), 21 November 1902, 8:6; Gravestone, Saint James the Less Episcopal Churchyard, Philadelphia, PA.