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Curriculum Units

Dreams of a Barefoot Boy: 1890 - 1911

In the days of the independent farm and the horse and buggy, where each family was almost self sustaining, certainly the community was self sustaining. We grew our corn and we grew our meat, we grew our vegetables, and the local mills ground the flour and we didn't have much connection with the outside world.

--Dwight D. Eisenhower

     The town-building boom in the American Midwest in the last half of the nineteenth century can be traced directly to events thirty-five years earlier. At the end of the Civil War, a great migration was set in motion that would continue unabated for the next quarter century. It would not subside until 1890, when the United States government declared the frontier officially closed.

     The furious pace of settlement was spurred on by a variety of factors. Farmland in the East was increasingly scarce and very expensive. In 1862, the Homestead Act, which granted 160 acres to anyone who would settle it for at least five years, was a powerful lure to settlement. The railroads, earlier granted public lands by the government as an incentive to lay track, now cashed in on their windfall. In highly-inflated language, pamphlets touting a frontier paradise that was ". . . healthy, fertile, well-watered, well-wooded, and rapidly growing"¹ flooded the East and Europe. Wealthy land speculators waged a fierce competition to populate their freshly platted towns. Their offers to subsidize new businesses and donate lots attracted necessary goods and services. Each town waged a vigorous campaign to become the county seat or state capital in an effort to survive. In response, the people of the Midwestern plains existed in a state of upheaval-pulling up stakes, moving on, and starting over, ever optimistic about the future.

     Along rail lines all across the Midwest, new towns were constructed on the same model. The business district emerged beside the railroad tracks, and building lots were priced based on their proximity to the train station. As the population grew, the downtown's shabby one-story wooden buildings were replaced by more substantial two- or three-story, red-brick structures. Still, downtown lacked pavement and curbs, traffic lights, and street signs. Rickety wooden sidewalks reflected a height convenient for customers stepping out of a horse-drawn wagon. At either end of the block were steps that led down to street level. Heavy spring rains transformed dusty streets into a muddy morass, but by late summer, sprinkler wagons were necessary to bring temporary relief to a dust-choked downtown.

     This was the age of the horse. Horses and evidence of horses were everywhere: hitching posts, watering troughs, livery stables, wagon ruts, and, of course, the inevitable droppings in the streets. Each town hired a man whose job it was to patrol the streets, armed with a shovel, broom, and wheel barrow, in a nearly futile effort to keep the streets clean. It would be 1910 or so before streets were paved and curbing installed, street signs and house numbers appeared, and the automobile eventually replaced the horse.

     The Midwestern towns founded in the late 19^th century were populated by middle-class Americans with a fervent faith in the values of democracy, equality, and the American dream for the common man. Small-town inhabitants felt a shared sense of belonging to the community and experienced the benefits of togetherness. People spoke to one another in passing, and news of a stranger in town spread quickly. Whenever there was hardship or tragedy, the community responded swiftly and generously. Over time, the collective memory of places, stories, and unique characters became the town's beloved folklore.

     There was another side to small-town life, however. These were communities that were predominately Protestant, middle class, and white. Consequently, their customs and values became the norm. Obedience to community standards was expected, and deviations were punished. A fine sense of togetherness could deteriorate rapidly into "nosiness" and neighborly concern into the aggravation of unwelcomed scrutiny. Gossip of "uppity" behavior, poor judgment, and scandal spread as quickly as other community news. In most instances, the public's disapproval or, worse, ostracism served as a swift and certain justice.

     The Midwestern small town was, at least in theory, based on the American ideal of the classless society. The reality was that class lines did exist; however, they were flexible barriers that could be penetrated by ambition and hard work. The equality of Midwestern culture was based far more on an equality of opportunity than on equality of condition. Regardless of class, the town's citizens tended to mingle freely. Ambitious and capable families moved up quickly. To cross class lines in a generation or less was not unusual; however, anyone who then "put on airs" was the object of criticism. The expression "living across the tracks" was a common reference to explaining social class distinctions in Midwestern towns. Doctors, bankers, lawyers, and businessmen did well financially and socially and lived on the "right" side of the railroad tracks. Teachers, ministers, and laborers made less money and didn't enjoy the same social status as the town's professional and moneyed elite.

     Named "David Dwight" at the time of his birth, Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas on October 14, 1890. He was the third of seven sons and the only one born outside of Kansas. When Dwight, as he was called, was a year and a half old, the family returned to Abilene.

     The Abilene Dwight knew had a population of less than 4000. Founded in 1857, it boomed a decade later as a cattle town at the terminus of the Chisholm Trail. Abilene was but one generation removed from its rough and tumble frontier days as Dwight grew up. Tales of Tom Smith's bravery and the flamboyant style of Wild Bill Hickok captivated him, and any reference to "the war" was understood to mean the Civil War.

     Abilene was a typical Midwestern town. Her citizenry considered themselves progressive, boasting six newspapers, a creamery, a telephone company, two business colleges, cigar, organ, and carriage factories, and, most exciting to a young Dwight, the C.W. Parker Amusement Company which made merry-go-rounds and had a circus and skating rink. In 1902, a sanitary sewer system was constructed, and Abilene's streets were paved in 1910. A flood and fire in 1903 damaged much of the town.

     Dwight D. Eisenhower's formative years in Abilene shaped and guided him. Throughout his life, he would retain a deep affection for his hometown and the people, events, and scenes of his boyhood. Dwight and most of his childhood friends lived south of the Union Pacific tracks, the "wrong" side. Although aware of the social and economic shortcomings of his south-side status, Dwight embraced life with an engaging grin, optimism, and great ambition for his future.

     After World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower would return home, the most admired and loved man in the world, to declare: ". . . the proudest thing I can claim is that I am from Abilene."

     Suggested Readings from At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends: 64-69, 74-75, 80-81.

     ¹Lewis Atherton, Main Street on the Middle Border (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1954), p. 5.

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