Hooked on History: President Harding's mistress had roots in Tuscarawas County

Nan Britton gained instant notoriety in 1927 with the publication of her book, "The President's Daughter," about her affair with President Warren G. Harding.

Britton never lived in New Philadelphia, but she was undoubtedly known here. Her mother, Mary Williams Britton, had been principal of West Elementary School, and her grandfather, Chauncey C. Williams, was a lifelong resident and a Civil War veteran, enlisting in the 51st Ohio Volunteer Infantry at age 16. He was long active in New Philadelphia's Memorial Day programs.

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Her mother's family had lived in Tuscarawas County for generations. The gravestones of Nan's great-grandfather, Napoleon Williams, and her great-great grandfather, Henry C. Williams, can still be see at New Philadelphia's Fair Avenue Cemetery.

Nan Britton was born Nov. 9, 1896, in Claridon, a small village about 10 miles from Marion, Ohio. Mary Britton had moved to Marion County to live with her maternal grandmother. While teaching at the school in Claridon, she met Samuel H. Britton, a physician. After their marriage, they moved to the city of Marion.

As Nan grew up, she developed an infatuation for Harding, a newspaper editor and rising politician in Marion. After she graduated from high school in 1914, she moved to New York City to work as a secretary. She claimed in her book that she began her affair with Harding at that time.

Return to New Philadelphia

Nan's father died in 1913, and sometime after that Mary Britton returned to New Philadelphia to resume her teaching career. She taught seventh grade at Central Elementary and was principal of West Elementary during the 1919-1920 school year. Nan would travel from New York to visit her mother.

"It was during my visit to my mother in New Philadelphia, Ohio, her old hometown where she was teaching in 1918, that I, desiring to see my mother settled in a larger city, wrote Mr. Harding for a suitable letter to use as an introduction to the superintendent of the Cleveland Public Schools," Nan Britton wrote in her book.

"I had talked this whole situation over with Mr. Harding in person, and the letter which I sent him from New Philadelphia was merely to advise him that I was now ready for the proffered letter of introduction in behalf of my mother. Of course I told my mother nothing about the previous talk with him."

At the time, Harding was a U.S. senator from Ohio.

He wrote letters of introduction to the superintendent of Cleveland Public Schools, as well as the president of the Board of Education.

"This matter of changing positions was entirely my own idea and not at all instigated by my mother," Nan Britton wrote. "Mr. Harding had smiled when I explained to him, 'If mother were in Cleveland, she would be on a direct line from New York. New Philadelphia is so inaccessible when I take my vacations.'"

Apparently Mary Britton didn't get the Cleveland job, because she remained in New Philadelphia until 1920. She resigned as principal of West Elementary that year to take a job teaching at the Ohio University normal school in Athens at almost double her salary.

"Her work was highly satisfactory and her departure is viewed with regret," the New Philadelphia Daily Times reported on Sept. 2, 1920.

Book publication scandalized the nation

On Oct. 22, 1919, Nan Britton gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Ann. Nan claimed that Harding had promised to support their daughter, but after he died in 1923, his widow, Florence, refused to honor that promise. So Nan wrote "The President's Daughter" to help support herself and her daughter and to champion the rights of illegitimate children.

Publication of the book scandalized the nation. According to the New York Times, Britton was "denounced as a 'degenerate' and a 'pervert,”' accused of lying for money and shamed for waging a 'diabolical' campaign of falsehoods against the president’s family that tore away at his legacy."

For years, many historians doubted her story of the affair. Nan Britton died in 1991 and her daughter died in 2005.

In 2015, genetic testing by Ancestry DNA confirmed that Harding was indeed the father of Elizabeth Ann.

Jon Baker is a reporter for The Times-Reporter and can be reached at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Nan Britton, mistress of President Warren G. Harding, had Tusc roots