(May 18 - 21, 2017) Abilene, Kansas, Independence
and St. Joseph, Missouri
Professor Mydland, my close friend and former
neighbor, and I hit the road for a long weekend to the Presidential Museum
sites in Kansas and Missouri. A special exhibit on the Chisholm Trail provided
the perfect excuse to get away to visit General and President Eisenhower’s
boyhood home and Presidential Museum complex in Abilene, Kansas,
Abilene, Eisenhower’s hometown, is also the
terminus of the historic Chisholm Cattle Trail. I feel a connection with the
Trail, as my hometown, Fort Worth, was the Trail’s jumping off point. Both Fort
Worth and Abilene currently are celebrating the Chisholm Trail’s
Sesquicentennial.
We left Sioux Falls just after noon on Thursday,
a bright and fairly warm South Dakota spring day. We headed south on Interstate
29, looping around Omaha and west onto Interstate 80 before heading south again
and through Beatrice, Nebraska toward Kansas on the two-lane. Crossing into the
Jayhawk State, the weather changed dramatically. Mother Nature greeted us to
Kansas with a combination of “The Wizard of Oz” and “Twister.”
The rains came, then the winds, the skies
blackened, followed by our cell phones sounding their sirens with imminent
weather warnings. We arrived in Abilene in a downpour with flash flooding; two
and one-half inches of rain in twenty-five minutes. Fortunately the twister did
not touch down in Dickinson County.
Uniquely with the Eisenhower Museum you get a
double, covering both a distinguished military career and the Presidency. The
impressive Eisenhower historical campus includes Visitor Center, Grave Site, Boyhood
Home, Library, and Museum.
Ike’s World War II Chief of Staff, Walter Bedell
“Beatle” Smith, organized the early creation and development work on the
complex. Smith began work on the Museum prior to Eisenhower’s Presidency,
organizing and raising funds from the multitude of Eisenhower associates,
admirer’s and many of the soldier’s who served with Ike. Smith contributed
$79,000 to the museum’s founding and his papers are housed in the Eisenhower
Library.
After the War, Smith served as Ambassador to the
Soviet Union (1946-1948) and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1950-1953)
in the Truman administration. In the Eisenhower years he became an Under
Secretary of State going on to serve in the Executive Office of the President.
Our first stop was a brief guided tour of
Eisenhower’s boyhood home. The six-room home that housed Ida and David
Eisenhower and their five sons contained a rarely used parlor, three bedrooms,
a kitchen, a den, and one closet. The home was utilitarian. Young Ike liked the
out of doors. His favorite pastimes were hunting, fishing, and playing
football. The future President also liked reading history. His childhood heroes
were Hannibal, George Washington, and Robert E Lee.
The guide emphasized the strong work ethic of the
five Eisenhower sons. Ike’s four brothers while they would not become Supreme
Allied Commander or U.S. President were also successful. Edgar was a corporate
lawyer in the Pacific Northwest; Milton an educator who became the President of
Kansas State College, Pennsylvania State (Milton was instrumental in Penn State
becoming a University), and Johns Hopkins University; Earl an electrical
engineer for a suburban Illinois newspaper chain and member of the Illinois
State House of Representatives; Arthur a banker in Kansas City.
Dwight Eisenhower was in the spotlight on the world
stage for twenty years, as long if not longer than any American President. His
museum reflects his long career and dedicated service. There is almost as much
exhibit space dedicated to his military career as to his Presidency.
The museum is laid out topically and well
organized appropriate for a General. Early in Eisenhower’s military career his superiors
identified his organizational skills and strategic military abilities. The most
important U S Military leaders, Generals Fox Connor, John J Pershing, and Douglas
McArthur, mentored him.
The museum told of Eisenhower’s close friendships
with George Patton, Omar Bradley, and Abilene school classmate Swede Hazlett.
Television came of age during the Eisenhower
presidency, including the 1952 campaign and how issues were framed. The museum
covered in depth the important issues of the 1950s: the Cold War, McCarthy and
the Red Scare, Civil Rights and Integration, Sputnik, and the Interstate
Highway System.
I learned during the 34th President’s
eight years in office he played a lot of golf, in fact eight hundred rounds. A
putting green was installed on the White House grounds nearby the Oval office,
and Augusta National Golf Club built for the President a cabin on the grounds
of their historic course where he frequently vacationed. Another impressive
fact was Congress passed an act in 1961 restoring Five Star General Dwight
David Eisenhower to active duty.
Eisenhower quotes I liked”
On organizing the White House and Sherman Adams,
White House Chief of Staff,
“I shouldn’t have to
be my own Sergeant Major.”
On security,
“If all that Americans
want is security, they can go to prison.”
Coincidently my travel on this outing centered on
trails, Eisenhower’s vision and leadership in building the Interstate Highway
System may be judged by history as the most important trail built in
America. I touched on the story of Eisenhower and the Interstate System, a few years ago on my political blog.
My greatest impression, reinforced the next day
with my visit to the Harry Truman Museum was the imense Character of Eisenhower
and Truman. History will judge if their character was caused by their times or
by where they were raised. Was it Time or Place?, I say both!
Chisholm Trail and the Cowtown that Raised a
President – Abilene was a Cowtown essentially as a result of the Chisholm Trail.
Life in Abilene was the personification of the Wild West. Though wild, it was
at a time nearing the closing of the western frontier. The CT was simply a
product of economics. Cattle in Texas were worth $4 a head and at the railhead
in Abilene were worth $40.
Given the costs of a cattle drive, manpower,
provisions, and loss of livestock, it was a profitable endeavor. The Texas
Longhorn was the breed of choice because of its disease resistance and ability
to withstand the drives.
The cowboys typically spent between two and three
months herding the steers from Fort Worth to Abilene. Besides spending each day
in the saddle, the cowboys crossed Indian Territory (what is now Oklahoma) at
some person risk of attack. After their monotonous days in the saddle living in
the dust from their herds, when they arrived at their destination and payday
were looking for a good time and what was call hell raising. This meant baths,
a bed, good food, whiskey, gambling, and girls. The cauldron of hell raising,
money, and bad men who wanted the cowboy’s money produced Trouble. Abilene is
also known for their famous Marshall, James Butler Hickok.
As the railroads moved further south and west the
cattle drives on the Chisholm Trail ceased. However some of the cowboy culture
remained. In 1870 one of the owners of the local stockyards, and a local
realtor, Theodore “T. C.” Henry became Mayor of Abilene. Mayor Henry hired as
Marshall Tom Smith who brought law and order to Abilene. As the cattle drive played out, Henry began
promoting the crop “winter” wheat. The Kansas soil and climate were perfect for
the wheat crop. A result of his success Henry became known as “The Wheat King
of Kansas.”
A bonus of our visit to the Eisenhower campus was
White House correspondent, Paul Brandus, who lectured in the Visitor Center’s
auditorium. Brandus also a White House historian, lecture topic was “Under This
Roof: A History of the White House and Presidency.” Essentially his “lecture”
was a series of anecdotes about several of the Presidents and First Ladies
interaction with the physical White House. Brandus was a very polished and
informed speaker but his anecdotes were simply facts lacking the analysis I
hoped for. Brandus impressed me enough to add him to my Twitter feed.
The lecture included a very nice free sandwich
buffet lunch compliments of the local Eisenhower historical group.
