President Hoover Visits Nappanee

Hello, A little something different today at Bill’s History Corner.

Our boss had this picture in his collection for a long time, so long that he doesn’t remember where it came from. What we have is a photo of Nappanee people standing at the Train station listening to President Herbert Hoover as he makes a campaign stop during a trip through the Midwest on Nov. 4, 1932.

I’ve been looking at this picture for about an hour by now and have a couple ideas. Instead of me attempting to explain this picture, I’m going to suggest things that you can do if you are interested in finding more information.

First, you can now do Google internet searches, I did, and found several listings for this event. You almost never have an exact picture in your mind of what you will find on the internet. I find that I’m usually surprised by what stuff is on the net. You can read what President Hoover said from the train’s rear platform.  I’ll bet there were “newsreel” films of the stops along the way.

No doubt, the Nappanee News had reporters covering this event and pictures published in the local papers. In 1932, this was big news in Nappanee. This event was only 86 years ago, so it may be possible that some local people were at the event - if they remember the event- it will depend on how young they were, but this may lead to the discovery of some family photos taken this day. I do see a couple young children in the lower right of the picture.

I hope I have encouraged you to take a larger interest in your history. I don’t have all the answers. I also don’t have all the questions that should be asked. Your help would be appreciated. If you find any new information about this picture, I hope you will share it with us so we can post it for all to see. Remember my motto, HISTORY MAKES YOU SMART, HERITAGE MAKES YOU PROUD.