People

Jesse Hoover, father of the future president, earned a living in his blacksmith shop and later opened a farm implement business.

Herbert Hoover’s grandmother, Mary Wasley Minthorn, was born and raised in Canada. After marrying Theodore Minthorn in 1842 they lived in a Quaker community in Ontario with their seven children. In 1859 the Minthorns emigrated to Iowa.

Herbert Hoover's journey along what he called the "slippery road of public life" was not traveled alone. At his side was his wife, Lou.

Herbert Hoover did not mention his grandfather Eli by name in his memoirs, but they shared an important trait. Eli is the earliest Hoover known to be interested in mechanical things. He passed on that interest with his sons Jesse and Joseph and, later, to his grandsons Theodore and Herbert.

After his father's death, Herbert Hoover's mother Hulda earned and saved money for the children's schooling.

Mary Blanche Hoover was born in 1876 in the same two-room cottage as her older brother, future president Herbert Hoover.

Henry John Minthorn, physician, educator, missionary, and businessman, was the older brother of Hulda Minthorn, Herbert Hoover’s mother. Young Herbert lived with Dr. Minthorn and his family in Oregon from 1885 until 1891.

Allan Henry Hoover was the second son of Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover. In 1935 the younger Hoover bought his father's birthplace in West Branch, Iowa, and with his mother Lou restored it to its 1870s appearance.

Herbert Charles Hoover was the first son of President Herbert Hoover. An engineer and businessman, Herbert Jr. served as Under Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Like Herbert Hoover, the president's older brother Theodore was a Stanford graduate and engineer. His recollections of their father's blacksmith shop are the basis for a similar building at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site.

Herbert Hoover first singled out Mollie Brown Carran for special attention as his teacher when, as Secretary of Commerce, he made a speech to the students of the West Branch High School in 1923.

Charles Curtis was Herbert Hoover's vice president, and the only person with significant Native American heritage to ever hold executive office in the United States.

One West Branch resident whom Herbert Hoover said inspired him when he was young was Dr. William H. Walker, the town dentist.