After being educated in the local schools, Harding learned the printing trade from the publisher Enos Bronson. After first starting his career in the office of the United States Gazette he started his own business in 1815 at the age of 16. Eleven years later, in November 1829, he purchased the Pennsylvania Inquirer newspaper from John Norvell and John R. Walker. About the same time he began printing Bibles and became the largest publisher of Bibles in the U.S.
