His father was one of four brothers who emigrated from England to Canada and then to Philadelphia where he became a ship's carpenter and acquired significant property.
[1] After being educated in the local schools, Harding learned the printing trade from the publisher Enos Bronson.
After this, Harding's newspaper became an advocate for the cause of the Whig party, until it was weakened by internal divisions in 1852.
Harding died on August 21, 1865, at the residence of his eldest son in Chestnut Hill.
"[3] Through his son William,[6] he was a grandfather of Jessie Harding Morris (1865–1952), wife of Alfred Hennen Morris,[7] and J. Horace Harding, was a financier and married Dorothea Barney, a daughter of Charles D. Barney and granddaughter of Civil War financier Jay Cooke.