William Harding

William Proctor Gould Harding (born May 5, 1864 in Boligee, Greene County; died April 7, 1930 in Boston, Massachusetts) was president of the First National Bank of Birmingham and chaired the Federal Reserve from 1916 to 1922.

Harding was the son of civil engineer and Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad superintendent Horace Harding, and the grandson of portrait painter Chester Harding. He attended private school and graduated from the University of Alabama at age 17 in 1881 and also completed a business course from the Eastman School of Business in Poughkeepsie, New York. He began his career at J. H. Fitts & Company's Tuskaloosa Bank in Tuscaloosa. He moved to Birmingham in 1886 and worked as a bookkeeper first for Robert Jemison, Jr, and then at the Berney National Bank. He was promoted to cashier in January 1894 and also served as a financial advisor to Congressman Oscar Underwood.

Harding married the former Amanda Moore on October 22, 1895. Harding was made a vice president of the First National Bank of Birmingham in 1896. and was named president after the retirement of N. E. Barker in 1902. As president of the bank, Harding oversaw construction of the 10-story First National Bank Building on the corner of 20th Street and 3rd Avenue North. As a member of the board of directors, he was instrumental in the bankruptcy reorganization of the Southern Steel Company in 1909. He also served on the boards of the Birmingham Railway, Light & Power Company and the Bessemer Coal, Iron & Land Company.

He constructed an imposing residence at Glen Iris Park, and was also an investor in the construction of the Tutwiler Hotel.

In August 1914 he was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to serve on the Federal Reserve Board. He became its second governor (chair) two years later. From 1918 to 1919 he also assumed the duties of manager of the War Finance Corporation.

Harding traveled to Havana, Cuba in 1922 to advice President ___ on his government's finances and accounting practices. He was made president of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank in 1923 and wrote a book on the history of the Federal Reserve System. He died at his home in the Algonquin Club in 1930.

Preceded by: N. E. Barker	President of the First National Bank of Birmingham 1902-1914	Succeeded by: Jack Barr
Preceded by: Charles Hamlin	Chair of the Federal Reserve 1916-1922	Succeeded by: Daniel Crissinger

Publications

• Harding, W. P. G. (1925) The Formative Years of the Federal Reserve System.

References

• Template:DuBose-1904
• Armes, Ethel (1910) The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama. Birmingham: Birmingham Chamber of Commerce