West Branch Times, West Branch, Iowa, Thursday, February 28, 1929
Transcribed by Sharon Elijah, November 1, 2018

FORTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF HOOVER’S MOTHER’S DEATH

     Someone has said that “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world;” and across the chasm of nearly a half century the hand of Hulda Randall Minthorn Hoover is stretched to aid in shaping the destinies of a nation.

     From the story of this wonderful girlish Quaker minister and mother comes a clearer understanding of those remarkable qualities which have played so great a part in the career of her illustrious son, the president-elect of the United States.

     The twenty-fourth of February, 1929, was the forty-fifth anniversary of the death of Mrs. Hoover. Her obituary, copied from the West Branch Local Record of February 28, 1884, says of her:

     “Died on Sunday morning, Feb. 24, 1884, at her home in West Branch, of typhoid fever and pneumonia, Hulda R. Hoover, aged 35 years.

     She was sick only about nine days; was taken ill while holding meetings in Springdale. A minister and prominent worker in the Society of Friends, she will be greatly missed in the church and Sabbath school. A loss that falls heavily on the Young People’s Prayer Meeting of this place, of which she was the founder and leading spirit. ‘

     In the very strength of her days death has laid his cold hand upon her, and has taken from our community a worthy, useful and exemplary Christian. Her form has disappeared, and her spirit is resting in the mansions above, prepared for her; but the influence of her life still lives and will continue to entreat and invite those who are left, to a purer and holier walk with God.

     Mrs. Hoover was the widow of Jesse Hoover of this place, and leaves three orphan children, aged from 7 to 14 years. Funeral services were held in the Friends church on Wednesday the 27th at 2 p.m.; a large concourse assembled, and numerous testimonies were given in remembrance of the devoted one.”

     Theodore and Mary Minthorn were the parents of seven children: Ann, Ellen, Agnes, Hulda, John Phoebe and Pennington. All but Ann were at home at the time of their father’s death, which seemed to be the turning point in the religious life of the family, Hulda especially seeming consecrated at that time. Of the seven Minthorn children, four, Ellen, Hulda, John and Phoebe, were all recorded ministers in the Society of Friends.

     Hulda attended school at West Branch and at a select school east of the town. She attended the State University of Iowa the first semester of 1867 and then had to leave. At that time, it is said, she was inclined to be stout, was a medium blonde, had very pleasing manners, was studious, sensible, and not in the least frivolous. When she had to leave the university a friend expressed regret, to which Miss Minthorn replied: “I am fully competent to teach and my father is not able to send me to the university any longer.” It was a simple, honest reply, and one that showed no false pride concerning the family’s circumstances.

     Miss Minthorn taught school one year at the old Bloomington school a few miles north of Muscatine. She had eighteen pupils during that winter term. She also attended the nearby meeting at the Bloomington church, or meeting house as the Friends preferred to call them. There she frequently preached, or “spoke in meeting,” and astonished the older Friends by her habit of occasionally bursting forth in song, hymn signing being at that time frowned upon by the Quakers. Miss Minthorn was the first person to sing in the Bloomington church. Later, when she was widowed, she created a sensation by singing at her husband’s funeral. Being a woman who was strongly moved by the spirit, in the language of her sect, she spoke or sang in meeting as she felt inspired, and she was a powerful leader in the church at that time.

     Although she was a serious minded woman, deeply religious, those who remember Mrs. Hoover say that she was a very pleasant person to meet. Especially fond of children, she had always a smile and cheery word for the little folk. And the boys who used to play with Bert Hoover remember well and hungrily the generous slices of bread and butter and brown sugar which she handed them for “pieces” after school.

     In the early days, during her girlhood, Hulda Minthorn wrote in the memory book of a friend, the following verse, which, as the fourth of March approaches, bringing with it the inauguration of her son as president of the United States, carries a tender message across the years.

     She wrote, in a prim, graceful hand:

“The evening winds are sying,
Sying o’er the plains;
Moonbeams now are shining
Like a silver rain.
Stars are brightly shining
In the azure sky.
I am fondly dreaming
Thou art nigh.”

Hulda Minthorn 2 Mo. 22, 1865.