Background
Jesper Harding was born on November 5, 1799, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of George and Mary (Hudd) Harding.
(Jesper Harding started his business in 1815 at the age of...)
Jesper Harding started his business in 1815 at the age of 16; eleven years later he purchased printing company; he retired in 1859. Many beautiful engraved pictures make this Bible a nice possession. Phillip E. B. Hartig; Portland Conn. has a label on the Family Register Page; otherwise, registry is bland.
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Jesper Harding was born on November 5, 1799, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of George and Mary (Hudd) Harding.
At an early age Jesper was apprenticed to Enos Bronson, the publisher of the United States Gazette, and was so apt a learner that at the age of sixteen he was able "to buy his time” and to engage in the printing business on his own account.
An early imprint of Jesper Harding may be found on a pamphlet history of the organization of St Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, dated 1818, when he was but eighteen years old. By 1820 his business was very successful and he added book binding to his activities. In 1829 he purchased the Pennsylvania Inquirer which had been established but a short time, soon thereafter acquired the Democratic Press, and in the next ten years absorbed several other contemporary journals. On January 1, 1842, Harding acquired another important contemporary journal, the National Gazette, and the Inquirer was enlarged to nine columns, expanding again in 1851 to ten columns.
In connection with his printing and publishing business he became interested in the manufacture of paper, and in 1835 erected a mill in Philadelphia. This plant was equipped with the best machinery then available, and it is said that it was not unusual to have rags enter the mill and be converted into paper which was printed and circulated in the shape of newspapers within six hours. In 1840, in order to take advantage of the greater water power of the Delaware, the mill was moved to Trenton, New Jersey, and was operated by him in that place until his retirement in 1859.
Upon the passage of the Internal Revenue Act (1862), President Lincoln appointed Harding collector of the First District of Pennsylvania, which position he held until shortly before his death. He died in Philadelphia.
(Jesper Harding started his business in 1815 at the age of...)
(1857. Royal Quatro Edition. 10x12" dark brown leather har...)
As the first editor of the Inquirer Harding supported the administration of President Andrew Jackson and took a prominent part in the heated controversy between the President and the directors of the Bank of the United States. For a time the paper attempted the difficult task of supporting both the President and the bank, but when the government withdrew its funds from the bank, the Inquirer allied itself with the anti-Jackson wing of the Democratic party, supporting Harrison in 1836, and supporting the “Harrison Democrats” in the presidential campaign of 1840. Later, however, the editorial policy favored the Whigs and continued to do so until the party went out of existence.
Harding was a man of unusual enterprise, a characteristic which was exemplified by the fact that during his administration of the Pennsylvania Inquirer he obtained the advance sheets of several of Charles Dickens’ novels for publication, thus presenting some of the work of this author to American readers for the first time.
Early in life Harding married Maria Wilson. One of his sons, William White Harding succeeded him as proprietor of the publishing business; another, George, attained distinction as a patent lawyer.