West Branch, Iowa
A walk through West Branch, Iowa, is a walk through the past. Herbert Hoover was born in this little cottage in 1874 and spent his childhood here.
He would go fishing in this stream which flows near his house. Looking in the distance he would see the unbroken tallgrass prairie.
Perhaps he would saunter over to Jess Hoover's blacksmith shop and watch his father shoe a horse or make a hinge.
On Sunday he would go to this Quaker church with his parents and brother and sister; probably he wasn't too happy about this, because it meant sitting quietly for a long time. . . a long, long time for a boy.
Then his father died; two or three years later his mother died also. His brother and sister went to live with relatives nearby, but Bertie was put on a train to go live with his aunt and uncle way off in Oregon.
He turned out pretty well, though. His uncle was a schoolmaster, so Bertie earned a good education. He went to college at Stanford, became an engineer, traveled the world building mines and making money. He was a millionaire at forty. He organized food relief for millions of starving Europeans after World War I. He was appointed Secretary of Commerce for presidents Harding and Coolidge. In 1928 he ran for president and won. On March 3, 1929, he was arguably the most successful man in the world.
A few months later came the crash of 1929, then the depression. Hoover, the man who had organized the feeding of Europeans, now refused to do so for Americans. His presidency was pretty much a failure; it took many years for him to regain prestige and be honored as Mr. President.
The Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch, Iowa, tells the story of this remarkable man.
Bertie was President of the United States when I was born (1930).
Photos and text
©D.L. Mark 2002
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