#31. Hoover, Herbert Clark

Linda Lou Burton posting from Little Rock, Arkansas – Herbert Clark Hoover (1874 –1964) was the 31^st President of the United States from 1929-1933. Not re-elected, and ranked towards the tail-end of “good presidents” in this day and age, the guy pretty much gets the blame for the Great Depression, which began during his presidency. Many of us still feel the aftermath of “Depression Era” parenting: Clean your plate! People are starving! and a rash of frugalities that lingered in the memories of those who saw the “Hooverville” shantytowns and lived in fear of winding up there themselves. So how bad WAS Herbert Hoover, as a decision-making human being? From what I’m learning about the guy, I’d call him an Indiana Jones! Hat, jacket, trail blazing spirit, the works! For 55 years before those four years in the White House, and 31 after, Herbert did so many different things in so many daring and innovative ways, I see only one other person that was his match. And that was Lou Henry, the woman he married. You’re going to like this story. Make note: Herbert’s name is right there in the Australian Prospectors and Miners’ Hall of Fame. It’s also in the US National Mining Hall of Fame, and so is his wife’s, Lou Henry Hoover.

Did I Say Mining?

Yes, I did. Herbert got rich, I mean, very rich, as a mining engineer. Just how that happened is story enough. Herbert was born in West Branch, Iowa August 10, 1874, the middle child of Jesse and Hulda Minthorn Hoover. This was a Quaker community; Jesse was a blacksmith; “horse shoeing and plow work a specialty” said his ad in the paper; he usually added a joke or two. He sold all kinds of farm equipment, as well as buggies and sewing machines. And then in 1880 he died of pneumonia and heart failure at the age of 34. Hulda saved Jesse’s insurance policy for the children’s schooling; she supported them by sewing and renting to boarders. As a Quaker minister, she traveled to Friend’s Societies throughout the state to preach. And then she died from typhoid fever at the age of 35. The year was 1884.

Theodore (13), Herbert (10), and Mary (8), were orphans. The children were split; Theodore went to live with an uncle who offered to teach him about farming; Herbert (standing in the photo) wound up with a different uncle for a short while, until Uncle John Minthorn in Oregon, who had just lost a son, agreed to take him in. Little Mary, after some shuttling about in Iowa, was sent to live with her grandmother Mary Minthorn, also in Oregon. It didn’t take Theodore long to decide farming wasn’t for him; with a brother and sister already in Oregon, he determined to “go west where the future was” and by 1887 was sharing a room with Herbert at Friend’s Pacific Academy in Newberg, Oregon; Uncle John Minthorn was superintendent there. The brothers were back together, and eventually, all three children wound up graduating from Stanford University. Yes, they did.

Did I Say Stanford?

Herbert was a member of the inaugural “Pioneer Class” of Stanford University in 1891. He didn’t care much for the fraternity lifestyle, but he did serve as student manager of both the baseball and football teams. And he chose geology for his major after working for John Casper Branner, the chairman of Stanford’s geology department. During the summers before and after his senior year, he interned under economic geologist Waldemar Lindgren of the United States Geological Survey. That led to his career choice as a mining geologist. Another thing of major importance happened at Stanford. He met Lou Henry.

Lou Henry was born March 29, 1874 in Waterloo, Iowa; her mother Florence was a teacher, her father Charles a banker. She and her sister grew up moving westward, living in Texas, Kansas, and then California. She learned how to camp, and ride; she loved sports, and science. And then, she happened to attend a lecture by geologist John Casper Branner. Fascinating! She enrolled at Stanford to pursue a degree in geology.

Well then. Of course Herbert and Lou bonded. Both from Iowa. Both loved the out of doors, and sports, and science. Both got degrees in geology; Herbert in 1895, the first Stanford graduating class; Lou in 1898, the first woman ever to receive a degree in geology.

And Off To Work We Go

Herbert started with some low-level mining jobs in the Sierra Nevadas; he was a mine scout for a year. Then he was hired by Bewick, a London-based company that operated gold mines in Western Australia; they paid him a salary of $5,000 a year ($187,000 today) and sent him to Coolgardie, the center of the goldfields. Herbert described the rangelands of the Great Victoria Desert as a land of “black flies, red dust, and white heat.” He traveled constantly, evaluating and managing the mines; he convinced the company to purchase the Sons of Gwalia mine, one of the richest the company would own. He was promoted to junior partner and in 1898 given a chance to go to China.

But wait. Yes, he kept up a correspondence with Lou. They’d had an informal arrangement from the time he left the US in 1897. When he was hired as chief engineer of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company, he cabled her “Going to China via San Francisco. Will you go with me?” They were married February 10, 1899 at her parent’s home in Monterey; the next day they boarded a ship in San Francisco, reading extensively about China and its history as they traveled. Their ship arrived in Shanghai March 8.

Herbert began developing gold mines near Tianjin (Tientsin) on behalf of Bewick and the Chinese-owned mining company. Lou stayed with a missionary couple at first while Herbert was out working; she picked up the language fast. By September they had their own home at the edge of the colony. Lou purchased a typewriter and began writing scientific articles on Chinese mining, working closely with Herbert through both writing and field work. In November their safety was threatened by the beginnings of the Boxer Rebellion, an uprising to drive foreigners out. Herbert wanted Lou to leave; she would not. During the Battle of Tientsin she worked as a nurse; she rode a bike to take supplies to soldiers, carrying a revolver along with the supplies. In one incident a bullet struck her tire, in another shells struck their home; an obituary was mistakenly printed about her. Herbert and Lou left China in 1901 soon after the Rebellion ended; Bewick called him to London as a new operating partner.

Around The World Rich and Famous

Son Herbert Jr was born in 1903, son Allan in 1907. Herbert’s work with Bewick took him to many countries throughout Europe and beyond – Australia, Burma, Ceylon, Egypt, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia – Lou and the boys traveled too; by the time Herbert Jr was two he’d been around the world twice. In 1908 Herbert sold his shares in the company and became an independent mining consultant specializing in troubled mining operations; he called himself a “doctor of sick mines.” Herbert’s lectures at Columbia and Stanford were published in 1909 as Principles of Mining, which became a standard textbook.

Lou’s expertise in geology had her fully participating with Herbert and his colleagues; she took the lead in translating into English a 16^th century work by German Georgius Agricola, De Re Metallica (The Nature of Metals). In 1912 she and Herbert published the translation, detailing the history of mining laws and safety; they donated the book to students, and mining experts. Together the Hoovers played a huge role in standardizing modern mining operations. With investments on every continent, and offices in San Francisco, London, New York, Paris, Petrograd, and Mandalay, by 1914 the Hoovers personal fortune was estimated at $4 million ($122 million today).

So How Did We Get Into Politics?

Herbert’s comment (later): “I did not realize it at the moment, but on August 3, 1914 my career was over forever. I was on the slippery road of public life.” What happened? World War I. Germany invaded Belgium. Herbert immediately organized assistance for American travelers fleeing the war. By October food supplies in Belgium were nearly exhausted. American ambassadors persuaded the British to allow the importation of food under American supervision; Herbert was asked to lead the project. He established the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB), working 14-hour days from London, administering the distribution of over two million tons of food to nine million war victims in German-occupied Belgium. He crossed the North Sea forty times to meet with German authorities and persuade them to allow shipments; he helped ensure the German army did not appropriate the food.

In 1917 the United States entered the war and the Hoovers returned stateside. President Wilson appointed Herbert head of the new US Food Administration. Remember those “Meatless Mondays” and “Wheatless Wednesdays” during Wilson’s term? That was Herbert’s idea, to help conserve food supplies. After the Armistice was signed in November 1918, President Wilson appointed Herbert to head the American Relief Administration; he channeled 34-million tons of American food, clothing and supplies to the starving millions in war-torn Europe, preventing the collapse of the Allied Powers. Herbert gained a following in the US as an expert administrator and symbol of efficiency.

On To The Presidency

Next up, Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. Herbert was an unusually active Cabinet member, known as “Secretary of Commerce and Under-Secretary of all other departments.” He won the Republican nomination in the 1928 presidential election and defeated Democratic candidate Al Smith in a landslide.

March 4, 1929, Herbert was sworn in by Chief Justice (and former President) Taft; yes there was a celebratory parade and numerous inaugural balls around the city. And then, October 28, the stock market crashed. The “Great Depression” dominated Herbert’s presidency to the end. He was decisively defeated by Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.

Herbert and Lou retired to Palo Alto in 1933 but maintained an apartment in New York. Lou died of a heart attack January 7, 1944 in New York at the age of 69. Herbert lived another 20 years; he died in New York October 20, 1964 at the age of 90, following several illnesses. He was honored with a state funeral; Presidents Johnson, Truman and Eisenhower attended. He and Lou are buried in West Branch, Iowa today, on the grounds of the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site.

Much of the humanitarian work Lou did only came to light after Herbert’s death; and much of what he knew he didn’t uncover until after her death. She believed that private charity was preferable to public assistance; she opposed publicized philanthropy and gave funds to the needy throughout her lifetime without telling others. During her four years as First Lady, she refrained from hostessing lavish parties and instead invited individuals to dine with them; she erased traditional boundaries of “who was acceptable” to enter White House doors. She refused press conferences, making speeches via radio, directly to the public. She carefully restored many rooms in the White House using her own funds.

She, and Herbert, were bruised by the negativity that settled over the Hoover name during those “bad times” early thirties. Herbert’s name shined up again in later years; he had ideas that both Truman, and then Eisenhower, made use of; they asked him to head the Hoover Commission, a massive study into reducing government waste and increasing efficiency. Both Herbert and Lou strongly opposed Roosevelt and the New Deal; they believed in the strength and resiliency of the individual. After all, remember, Herbert started out as an orphan with a suitcase.

I haven’t asked the question yet – would I invite Herbert, and Lou, to a party at my house? You already know the answer.