Charles Henry Hardin (D)

Overview

At a Glance

• Reduced state debt by more than $600,000 by eliminating wasteful practices, refusing to assume county war debts, and refinancing bonds
• Issued "Grasshopper Proclamation," a state day of prayer after grasshoppers ravaged crops throughout the state (1875)

Personal History

Charles Henry Hardin was born in Trimble County, Kentucky, in 1820. Shortly thereafter, Hardin’s family moved to Missouri when he was still an infant. The following summer they established their permanent home in Columbia, where Hardin attended primary school. When his father died in 1830, he worked with his mother in the family's tannery business. In 1837, he attended the University of Indiana at Bloomington. Two years later, Hardin transferred to the University of Miami in Oxford, Ohio, where he and seven friends founded Beta Theta Pi fraternity. After graduation, he returned to Columbia and obtained his license to practice law. With his admission to the bar, he moved to Fulton and established his own law firm.

On May 16, 1844, Hardin married Mary Barr Jenkins, a graduate of Bonne Femme College. Throughout their lives she was his most trusted advisor and friend. Hardin entered public service for the first time as an attorney in the Second Judicial Circuit in 1848. Soon after, he was voted into the state legislature.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Hardin returned to Audrain County where he and his wife had a farm. After the war, the Hardins moved closer to Mexico, Missouri, where they built a home and Hardin established a new law firm. He also co-founded the Mexico Southern Bank, where he served as president.

After Hardin’s term as governor, the family returned to Audrain County and took up their favorite causes, in particular, Mexico's Hardin College and Conservatory of Music, which they had founded four years earlier. Hardin also established a city park and supported the Mexico Military Academy. Many of Hardin’s friends credited him with being one of the state's greatest philanthropists. After his death, his wife published his biography in 1896, hoping it would inspire others. Hardin was buried in Jewell Cemetery in Columbia.

Political History

Voters elected Hardin to serve as a Whig state representative in 1852, 1854, and 1858. He entered the state senate as a conservative Unionist in 1860. While there, he drafted a resolution calling for a state convention to decide Missouri's stance in the Civil War, but he also included a provision that required voter approval for secession. When Gov. Claiborne Fox Jackson, who hoped to secede from the Union, called a legislative meeting in Neosho while fleeing federal troops in October 1861, Hardin attended. He was the only senator present who voted against secession. Despite his vote, the following year Hardin, like one-third of the Missouri voting population, was considered a Southern sympathizer and was disenfranchised.

Voters returned Hardin to the state senate in 1872, where he served as the chair of the Judiciary Committee for the second time. Two years later, when the Democrats met in Jefferson City to select their candidates, Hardin was nominated for governor, barely securing the 159 votes needed to secure the nomination. That fall he won the election with a more sizable margin. On January 12, 1875, he took office as Missouri's twenty-second governor. Fulfilling a campaign promise, there was no dancing or drinking allowed at his inaugural reception.

Gov. Hardin faced a considerable state debt left from Civil War expenditures and funding for railroad construction. Hardin reduced the debt by eliminating wasteful practices, refusing to assume county war debts, and by refinancing bonds.

During his administration grasshoppers ravaged the state, stripping vegetation and "eating everything but the mortgages" as one farmer reported. In the hope of ending the plague, a woman wrote to the Governor pleading that he set aside a day for prayer. Hardin shared the letter with his devout wife, who agreed. On May 17, 1875, the Governor issued the "Grasshopper Proclamation." On the appointed day, June 3, 1875, people gathered in their churches across the state to pray. Within days it began to rain, and the grasshoppers moved northward out of Missouri.

Historical Significance

After the Civil War, Missouri was mired in debt. However, Gov. Hardin's responsible fiscal management was responsible for reducing that debt. Although his initial day of prayer to rid the state of grasshoppers was followed by rainfall which drove away the grasshoppers, the success was short lived. The grasshoppers returned the following two years; nevertheless, Hardin’s "Grasshopper Proclamation" continues to be part of the 22nd governor’s legacy.