Thursday, May 7, 2015

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, West Branch, IA

Herbert Hoover, mining engineer, humanitarian, statesman, and 31st president of the United States, was born August 10, 1874, in a simple two-room cottage in West Branch, Iowa.  His Quaker family had helped settle the town, and their principles of honesty, hard work, simplicity, and generosity guided Hoover throughout his life of service to the nation and the world.  He was the second of three children born to Jesse and Hulda Hoover.  He was orphaned at the age of 11.  His father died of a heart attack in 1880 and his mother died of pneumonia in 1884.  The children were sent to live with various relatives.


Birthplace Cottage

 
Similar to fathers blacksmith shop
 
Schoolhouse
 
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Meetinghouse
Services of silent meditation with men seated on one side and women and children on the other
 
Statue of Isis
The children and citizens of Belgium gave Hoover this bronze statue of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of life, in gratitude for his work on their behalf during and after World War I.
 
Presidential Library and Museum
 
Gravesite of Hoover and his wife
 


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