Earl E. "Pete" Harding is one of four children born July 25, 1914 near
     Nashville, Kansas to D.E. "Ed" Harding and Christine Margaret (Suhler)
     Harding. Earl was known in the area as "Pete", the nickname given him by an
     uncle at an early age.
          Earl, his older brother, Walter, and one sister, Delavinia Harding
     Guthrie, grew up in the Isabel-Nashville area. One brother, Leslie Morton,
     died in 1922 of diptheria and scarlet fever at age two years, two months and
     eleven days.
          On August 6, 1932 Earl married Margaret Thompson at Medicine Lodge,
     Kansas. She was born May 6, 1916 one of a family of nine, on a farm near
     Isabel. She has a twin brother, Orman E. Thompson, of Andover, Kansas. Of the
     nine children only Margaret and Orman, sister Mary Thompson Patterson, and
     Donald Thompson are living. Margaret resides with Earl in Pratt, Kansas,
     Orman with wife, Beulah, in Andover, Kansas and Donald and Mildred in Isabel,
     Kansas.
          Earl and Margaret farmed in the Isabel community for 54 years before
     retiring and moving to Pratt in August 1986. Earl drove a school bus for
     many years and also was trustee (assessor) of Gove Township for a number of
     years. He also was a custom wheat harvester for several years, beginning at
     Okeene, Oklahoma and finishing the run in Minden, Nebraska. He worked on a
     pipeline project in the early 1960's to help supplement the farm income,
     while Margaret worked several years at the Medicine Lodge Hospital for the
     same reason.
          Earl and Margaret have five children: Mrs. Evelyn Joyce (Jack) Jessup 
     of Fort Worth, Texas; Shirley Earlene Wood of California; David Earl Harding
     of Moore, Oklahoma; Mrs. Vicki (Dennis) Chinn of Pratt; and Vernon Douglas
     Harding of Wichita, Kansas.
          Margaret and Earl had the misfortune of losing a darling and beautiful
     grandaughter, Taryn Noel Wood of Lomita, California in a car accident July
     7, 1979. She was 13 1/2 years old and was the only daughter of Shirley and
     Glenn Wood of California.
               
     Source: Isabel, Kansas - The First 100 Years, 1887 - 1987,  pg. 86 
     
     Submitted by: Earl E. Harding