From the archives of the Portage County Historical Society.
Lawrence Asa Geer and the Funeral of President Warren G. Harding, August 8-9, 1923
[Editor's note: MCHS recently received the following by email from Roy Geer of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.]
I have been updating my family history and have this information regarding the Harding funeral and the hearse, which my grandfather drove. It may be of some use to you. The text below is taken from an audiotape of my grandfather's recollections in 1977. My mother was born in Marion and we still have relatives there.
My Grandfather, Lawrence Asa Geer, had the honor of driving the hearse for the funeral of the 29th President of The United States, Warren G. Harding, in Marion, Ohio.
At 22 years of age, L. A. Geer was a "mechanical engineer" for the Riddle Coach and Hearse Company in Ravenna, Ohio. His father, Asa Geer, also worked in the Riddle shops as a body builder. Asa was a cabinetmaker and carpenter by trade. Riddle purchased powered chassis direct from factories in Detroit and had crews drive them to the shop in Ohio from Michigan where they would carve and build elaborate wooden bodies to be married to the chassis. There are stories of long cold trips from Michigan back to Eastern Ohio in those unheated vehicles during the winter months. To this day, the painted sign for the coach and hearse company can be seen at the top of the building that was once the shop.
L. A. Geer was in Morgantown, West Virginia in early August of 1923 rebuilding the engine of a customer's hearse. On his way back to Northeast Ohio he stopped in Pittsburgh's South Side to pick up bring back another hearse to the shop in Ravenna for a major overhaul. He only had about 10 miles to go of over 100 when the ailing hearse finally gave out in Newton Falls. As luck would have it someone had started up a bus line between Akron and Youngstown and he was able to make it home that day. Mr. Riddle was waiting for him in front of the shops when he returned with his new assignment of delivering a hearse to Marion, Ohio to be used for the President's funeral. Many of the other guys working at the shops were hoping he wouldn't make it back in time so they could get the assignment themselves — little did they know they almost got their wish.
Grandfather and his co-worker, Joe Kirk, then went on their way to Marion, Ohio to deliver the hearse. When they arrived in Marion, the town was under martial law with police, military, and the President's security officers everywhere to be seen. The funeral director told them he didn't want to have anything to do with the hearse and it was up to them to drive it in the processions. So L. A. Geer and Joe Kirk flipped a coin to see who was going to drive where. Joe was to drive from the train to the funeral home and L. A. Geer would drive after the funeral to the cemetery. They were told to keep the car in the lowest possible gear for the processions which wound through the streets of Marion. The brick streets weren't in the best condition, and when they went through one of the numerous potholes along the way, the hearse would coast into it, lurch, and grind back up the other side. The town was packed with people, all walking, as everybody had to park outside of town and farmers were getting a dollar a car to let them park in their fields. Grandfather was waiting in front of the Harding Home when he was ordered to move the car down the street a little. A few minutes later a car pulled up with security all around it and President Calvin Coolidge arrived with his wife.
In the procession to the cemetery from the Harding home, the hearse was followed by a car with the President's father, Dr. George Harding, and the President's wife. When they came to the cemetery, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone were standing together waiting. Harding's casket was removed from the hearse and placed in a temporary tomb until a proper memorial would later be built. When the hearse was empty they told L. A. Geer to just pull over a short distance away as they were afraid that if they drove back through town with all the people about, they would start to chip away at the hearse souvenir hunting.
After the funeral was over, grandfather and Joe decided to get a steak dinner in one of Marion's better establishments only to find that the cupboard was nearly bare. They had a steak dinner all right, but that was it - no side dishes, no bread or butter, no coffee or dessert - just a piece of steak with a glass of water. L. A. Geer caught the Erie [Railroad] back to Ravenna, and Joe Kirk returned the hearse to Ravenna where it was given a few final touches, as it wasn't quite finished yet, and then it was delivered the next week to a funeral home in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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Riddle Coach & Hearse Company at Marion, 1923. Lawrence A. Geer, driver of President Harding's hearse in the funeral procession. Actual "official" ribbon on Geer's lapel in photo and military pass.
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