Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello, I’m Margaret Hoover, great-granddaughter to Herbert Hoover,
the 31st President of the United States of America. I am at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
and Hoover Presidential Library-Museum located in West Branch, Iowa.
Great-grandfather wanted this place to be an inspiration to everyone who comes to visit. Please join me
on a journey into the past and enjoy a remarkable story about an orphan from a small town in
Iowa who grew up to become President of the United States.
Great-grandfather was born in this two room cottage which was built by his Father Jesse in 1871.
He lived here with his Father, Mother Hulda, brother Theodore and sister Mary. This entire home is about the size of a standard living
or family room today. It's hard to believe that the Hoovers all shared one bedroom and that
their bathroom is outside with no heat or water. They only had this cook stove for heat
which also served as their stove for food, heating water for cleaning up and, well, just
about everything that required heat.
My great-grandfather and his brother and sister had many chores
including gardening and gathering wood and, of course, getting the water from the well.
My great great-grandfather, Jesse Hoover, also built a blacksmith shop
near the cottage. West Branch had about 500 people then but, there was enough business
to keep three such shops busy. A blacksmith did a variety of jobs, including shoeing horses,
repairing farm machinery and making tools.
These Hoovers were a very devout Quaker family
and they worshipped at this meetinghouse on Sunday and Wednesday. The Society of Friends
(which they were called) had no paid minister or priest at their meetings so church members
sat silently, thinking or praying, and any adult who felt moved by the Spirit could share
his or her feelings with the others.
In West Branch, the Quakers contributed the community’s first small school in 1853.
Originally, the building was used as a one-room schoolhouse where children of all ages were taught by one teacher.
They didn’t even have pencils or paper. Students learned the basics
of reading, writing and arithmetic, doing their work on slates. The teacher also was
expected to clean the building and to keep the fire stoked in the winter. Jesse Hoover
died when my great-grandfather, or Bertie as he was called back then, was only six years
old. His mother Hulda died only three years later. Family members held a meeting and Theodore,
Bertie and Mary were sent to live with a relative. Little Bertie lived for a time with his aunt
and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Allan Hoover, on a nearby farm. When great-grandfather was 11,
he was sent to Oregon to go live with an aunt and uncle. Of course, there were no airplanes
or cars then so he traveled all by himself boarding an immigrant train. I can only guess,
but I bet he was very scared, homesick and especially missed his brother and sister.
You know that the relatives who sent him on this unforgettable journey did not realize
that this timid orphan would become a successful mining engineer, organizer of food relief
operations, Secretary of Commerce, and the 31st President of the United States.
-– Music --
What does library mean to you? I've always thought it was a place to
get books but Presidential Libraries are very different than libraries where you get books.
A Presidential Library, like the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum, is a place where
the written and video record, as well as the physical history of our presidents is kept
and preserved. This kind of library can take you back on a journey into the life and times
in which each President lived and served our nation. Come on in and let's begin the Hoover
Presidential Library-Museum journey in his life and times---- Working very hard to earn
his keep at his aunt and uncle's place in Oregon, great-grandfather didn't have time
to go to school during the day. As a matter of fact, he did not graduate from high school.
However, his parent's upbringing and his Quaker background taught him that education was very
important so he attended night school in Salem after work each day. He convinced his uncle
to let him attend a new college called Stanford University. And, as it turned out, he was
a member of the first graduating class at Stanford, getting a degree in geology. He
also met his future wife and my great-grandmother Lou Henry while he was there.
Anxious to put his knowledge
to good use, great-grandfather Hoover became a mining engineer. He traveled all over the
world to Australia, China and Great Britain turning old mines of gold, silver, lead and
zinc into very profitable moneymaking businesses. His work as a mining engineer made him a very
wealthy man. But when World War I began in 1914, he gave up his business career to help
feed the starving people of Belgium. From that moment, he dedicated his career to serving
the public and he refused to take a penny of salary for his efforts.
When the United States declared war on Germany in April of 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked great-grandfather Hoover to manage the
food grown in our country. Following his plan, millions of Americans conserved food so that
more could be shipped overseas to soldiers and the starving people of those countries.
Hoover's programs allowed citizens to make sacrifices for others without being forced
to do so by the government. When World War I ended in 1919, great-grandfather Hoover
was back in Europe as director of the American Relief Administration, which fed 350 million
people in 21 countries. Many adults and children sent gifts of thanks to him. Women decorated
sacks that held the flour sent from American mills, while school children wrote poems,
drew pictures and marched in parades to repay him for his kindness. In 1921, he became Secretary
of Commerce under President Warren G. Harding. During the next seven years, he helped create
safer highways and airplanes, better health care for children, and rules that allowed American
businesses to make better products. He helped to make radio a popular pastime and he appeared
on the very first television broadcast from New York City to Washington, D.C. in 1927.
When the Mississippi River flooded that year, great-grandfather organized 600 boats and
60 airplanes to rescue 325,000 people who had been forced from their homes by the raging
waters. He traveled to 91 towns asking citizens to set up camps in which the victims could
eat and sleep.
By 1928,
Herbert Hoover was one of the most well-known and respected men in the United States. In
November of that year, he was elected as our 31st President and he planned to bring new
ideas and programs to the American people. But in October 1929, only seven months after
he and his wife, Lou, moved into the White House, the New York Stock Market crashed.
Due to the resulting financial panic, many workers lost their jobs, banks and businesses
failed, and many people became homeless and hungry. Known as the Great Depression, this
period was a difficult one for great-grandfather Hoover, who was unable to solve the problems
created by the financial panic. Years earlier, he had warned President Calvin Coolidge that
such an even might occur, but his opinion was ignored and people continued to buy and
sell stocks in a dangerous way. He always believed the American people could prevail
by banding together to help one another in their own communities. He also
created new programs to help banks, businesses and farmers; but these efforts were not enough
to end the hard times, made worse by the drought that occurred in 1930. When
he ran for reelection in 1932, he was defeated by Franklin Roosevelt, who served as President
for the next 12 years. In 1933, great-grandfather moved back to California where he kept busy
reading, writing and spending time with his family. Well known as an expert fisherman,
he also found time for his favorite hobby. After Franklin Roosevelt passed away in 1945,
President Harry Truman invited great-grandfather, now in his 70s, back to the White House. When
World War II ended, later that year, Truman chose him to help the starving people of Europe
once again. “I have a job for you that nobody else in the country can do,” Truman told him.
In 1946, great-grandfather traveled to 38 countries in an uncomfortable airplane called
The “Faithfull Cow.”
After he finished this important job, he worked with Presidents Truman and
Eisenhower to improve our country s government. He also continued to serve as chairman of
the Boys Clubs of America, helping to open 500 new chapters throughout the United States.
Lou, his beloved wife and my great-grandmother, passed away in 1944 at the age of 69.
She had been president of the Girl Scouts of America. For the rest of his life my great-grandfather
continued to work, writing 14 books and many speeches, appearing on television, and helping
to open his own Presidential Library and Museum in 1962. He believed that people could learn
about their history, their presidents, and their country by visiting the Library and
Museum, which holds many objects, letters, and documents connected with his life and
work. Two years after the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and
Museum opened, my great-grandfather died at the age of 90 on October 20th, 1964. Five days
later, he was laid to rest on this hill near the cottage where he was born. Although some
people remembered him as the man who was president during the Great Depression, he had earned
the respect of millions by working hard to help people all over the world.
I hope you have enjoyed this short introduction into the life and times of Herbert Hoover,
our nation s 31st president. I invite you to come for a visit soon to learn more about
his presidency, your state and your country. I'll leave you with great-grandfather's
words of wisdom which I hold dear----- No matter how deeply we feel at
the present moment, our vision must stretch over the next 100 years and we must write
now into history such acts as will stand creditably in the minds of our grandchildren.
Music