Harding, Patrick James

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Captain P.J. Harding, (1864-1938), Chicago Police Department

By Kathleen Case Paluch

Patrick James Harding was born in a small cottage in Peru, Illinois. When Pat was three years old, his mother, Hannah, died in a horse and buggy accident, in a rig she had borrowed from her brother. Pat and his baby brother John F. later the creator/owner of the famous Harding’s Colonial Room Restaurant,(21 S. Wabash Ave.) survived the accident. (There was a Harding's at the Howard Street “L”, where a kid could get "glorious mashed potatoes and gravy, heavenly macaroni and cheese, and fresh muffins.”)

Unable to care for the children, their father, John, split up the boys and sent them to live with different relatives. Eventually John Harding, Sr. remarried and put his family back together on a farm in Ivesdale, Illinois. When the second Mrs. Harding passed away, Pat was sent back to Peru, to live with an aunt and uncle. When his schooling ended, at age 14, Pat knocked about working first in the coal mines in Kankakee, Illinois and then in a glass factory/bottle works in Streator, Illinois, until he was 18.

In 1882, Pat moved to Chicago and began working for some cousins, the Fitzpatrick Bros., soap manufacturers and makers of the famous Kitchen Kleanser®. Fitzpatrick’s lived in a home on Chicago’s South Side; Pat stayed with them for nine years. At the age of 21, Pat met and married Margaret Elizabeth Meehan. Five years later, he joined the Chicago Police Department. Walking a beat out of the Maxwell St. Station for just one year, he was promoted to plain-clothes detective and given pickpocket detail at the Columbian Exposition, a.k.a. the Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1893.

Afterwards, Pat rose to the rank of Lieutenant, then Captain. He was put in charge of the Shakespeare Police Station in 1906 (now District 14, 2150 N. California Avenue), and stayed there until 1927 when he was transferred to the Rogers Park Police Station (now District 24). In August 1928, the Rogers Park police force consisted of 93 police officers. The district, which included Rogers Park and North Town, had one of the lowest crime rates in Chicago (and it still does). However, Pat became more and more concerned with the increase in prostitution in Chicago and, with a squad of policemen under his command, closed a well-known "house of ill repute", the Everleigh Club on the near north side. Carter Henry Harrison, Jr., Mayor of Chicago, along with other politicians viewed this act as overzealous and unnecessary. As a result, Pat was suspended from the Chicago Police Department. After a short while, he was reinstated and remained in charge of the Rogers Park station until the end of his career. As the senior Captain in Chicago (at that time), he was transferred less than any other captain.

After 45 years of service, 24 of them as Captain, Patrick Harding was forced by new legislation to retire in 1937. Patrick’s retirement celebration was a dinner dance thrown by grateful citizens at the beautiful Sovereign Hotel, 1040 W. Granville Avenue. Three hundred friends and fellow police officers attended the testimonial dinner. Not long after the party, Pat was rehired by the Chicago Police Department as an investigator.

Investigator Pat Harding

Pat Harding’s new duties would take him from the Golden Gate of California to Vienna, Austria. On one case, he apprehended a notorious bank robber, whom he escorted back to Europe for trial. He received a reward in this case, and a testimonial to him hangs at City Hall in Mladá Boleslav, Bohemia, (now part of the Czech Republic).

Headline from the Howard News, June 16, 1935:

Harding Solves $51,000 Bohemia Bank Robbery

The Lambert Wilt case took him to Europe in 1898: $49,000 recovered

One of Captain Harding’s most interesting cases and the one which took him farthest afield was that of Lambert Wilt, the Bohemian bank cashier, who in 1898, robbed the National Savings Bank of Boleslav, Bohemia of $51,000.

In July 1898, Lambert Wilt went on a month’s vacation with his wife and aunt. He wrote a number of postcards, each with consecutive dates and addressed them to the president of the bank where he was employed. Each card told the president how much he was enjoying his visits and what good times he was having. After paying a boy to mail the last post card for him, Wilt and the two women left for Germany.

When the cards stopped coming, bank officials telegraphed Wilt, but, received no answer. Suspecting something was wrong, an accountant was called in to check Wilt’s accounts. They were found to be short $51,000. Bohemian detectives traced him to Germany where they learned that, on August 22, the party had taken passage for New York City.

One of the Bohemian bank officials immediately wired his brother who owned a musical instrument shop in Chicago. Because Patrick Harding had recovered some stolen instruments for him, the man went immediately to his friend for help in apprehending Wilt. Harding, then a sergeant, got permission from his station captain to take the case and began the search.

After three days scouting in Chicago, Sergeant Harding was sure that the Wilt party had never been here, but learned that Wilt had an uncle living in Cleveland, Ohio. Arriving there on October 26, he secured the aid of a Bohemian detective and located the uncle, who said the party had left three days earlier for Buffalo, New York.

Not satisfied with this explanation, Harding traced their baggage and found it checked through to St. Louis by way of Chicago. So, three days behind the party, he started back west again. Arriving in St. Louis, Harding made a thorough search of hotels and boarding houses, finally locating the three in a hotel at 16th and Olive Streets. With the aid of two St. Louis police officers, Harding placed Wilt and the two women under arrest.

They were at once taken to headquarters and searched. Five thousand dollars was found on their persons, $2,000 of it concealed under Mrs. Wilt’s corset.

Another famous case solved by Harding was the Chris Merry murder case. On November 28, 1897, Paulina Merry 's body was found in a ditch along 87th Street near Western Avenue. Her husband, Christian (sometimes also referred to as Christopher), was finally apprehended and arrested in Princeton, Kentucky, and brought to Chicago on December 19, along with James Smith, who was charged as an accomplice. Merry was hanged on April 22, 1898.

Pat Harding was active in various Rogers Park organizations, having been a member of the Lions Club and Clark and Howard Association. He was one of the leaders in the Rogers Park Emergency Relief Association, and was instrumental in organizing the Roger Park Chamber of Commerce. Pat, one of the community’s most active leaders in civic affairs, held membership not only in business and improvement organizations, but church and school organizations as well. The Hardings attended St. Ignatius Catholic Church, 6559 N. Glenwood Avenue, and owned a home at 1317 W. Greenleaf Avenue, which is still standing today. Before his death at 73, Pat lived with his wife Margaret and their five children, Mary, Irene, Nell, Stoddard, and Harold. In 1935, at his retirement gala, seventeen children called him grandfather, and I am proudly one of his many, many great grandchildren.

Their five children were: Mary, Irene, Nell, Stoddard, and Harold. Headline from The Daily Post Tribune, Thursday, May 5, 1938.

Life Ends for Former Foe of Underworld

Former Capt. Harding Dies

Mile-Long Cortege at Funeral, Saturday

Mayor Edward Joseph Kelly, State’s Attorney Thomas J. Courtney, Police Commissioner James P. Allman, and many other city leaders attended the wake for Captain James P. Harding Friday night, before his burial Saturday morning. Among them were judges from city, county, and state courts, aldermen, ward committeemen, and police captains from all over the city. Hundreds attended the services at St. Ignatius Church Saturday and formed a funeral procession almost a mile long, that proceeded by special permit up Sheridan Road from the church to Calvary Cemetery. A motorcycle escort accompanied it. Pallbearers were Captain John Essig of Rogers Park, Captain Martin Mullen of the gambling squad and former Sixth Division commander and now retired police Captain Martin O’Malley, formerly of Summerdale Police District (now 20th District-Foster), Max Danner, and John E. Ptacek.

Captain Harding’s death last Thursday morning in St. Francis Hospital followed the first illness of his life. At his bedside were his widow Margaret Elizabeth, his son Stoddard of Maywood, and two daughters, Mrs. Mary Tourtelot, 1317 W. Greenleaf Avenue, and Mrs. Irene Killgallon, also of Maywood.

Thanks to Elizabeth Tourtelot Grosswendt, Elizabeth Killgallon Fund, and Gertrude Killgallon Crowley for their research and family stories.