Herbert Hoover
National Historic Site

West Branch, IA

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Herbert Hoover's Birthplace
In 1871, Jesse Hoover built this two-room cottage near his blacksmith shop and moved in with his wife, Hulda, and young son, Theodore. Herbert Hoover was born here on August 10, 1874. When "Bert" was two, his sister, Mary, was born.

In 1879, as Jesse prospered, the family moved to a larger, two-story house about one block south of here. That home is no longer standing, but a plaque marks its location.




Blacksmith Shop (looking from back porch of cottage)






Grave site




Friends Meetinghouse
The Hoover family worshiped in this building along with neighbors and relatives who were members of the religious society of friends, or Quakers as they are often called. West Branch was predominately a Quaker community in the 1850's when this meetinghouse was built in 1857. Silent meetings for worship were held here on first day and fourth day each week. Religion played a strong role in Herbert Hoover's childhood. His family were active participants in the society of friends where his mother, Hulda Hoover, was a recorded minister.


Presidential Library Museum


Herbert in a top hat
'trying to look 35 and 23".

Herbert Hoover (lower left)

Applying for an engineering position in Australia, young Hoover grew a beard and donned top hat and tweed suit to look older.

Hoover's first job out of college was shoveling ore in a Nevada City, California mine. His pay? Two dollars per ten hour shift. By spring of 1897 the London firm of Bewiek. Moreing was looking for a geologist at least thirty-five years old and with "a lifetime of experience"

Hoover fudged his age and bought a tweed dress suit to look older. Soon he found himself in the vast, arid Australian outback, where there was more gold than
water and the temperature often topped one hundred degrees at midnight. He put away the dress suit.

In roughhewn settlement like Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie, and Leonora, the twenty-three-year-old Yankee nicknamed "Hail Columbia" Hoover won the trust of rowdy Aussies by his take-charge ways and democratic habits. Bathing
in beer instead of water, living on a diet of sardines and cocoa. Hoover rode a camel through the spawning wastes of Western Australia looking for gold. One day he scouted out a rich vein which he persuaded his London employers to purchase for a million dollars. In time the famed Sons of Gwalia mine would return $65 million to Bewiek. Moreing.

In the spring of 1808 Hoover's salary was raised to $10,000 a year. His men bestowed a new title on the youthful American-"The Chief" It stuck to Hoover for
the rest of his life. So did memories of wild and wooly Australia, a land of "red dust. Black flies and white heat".




Flour Sacks
Since the Germans needed cotton to manufacture ammunition, the Commission for Relief in Belgium carefully monitored who received the flour sacks. The CRB then
divided the emptied ones between trade schools, sewing workrooms, convents, and individual artists. Recipients embroidered or painted the sacks for distribution to shops and organizations in England and America to raise funds for food relief and to aid prisoners of war.

To show their gratitude, the Belgian people sent hundreds of samples of their artwork to Herbert Hoover and CRB offices. The museum's collection of flour sacks includes about 350 embroidered pieces and 100 painted bay, as well as sacks sewn into purses, pillows, and clothing.








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