For the first nine years of his life, he lived in the small town. His Quaker father, Jessie Clark Hoover, suffered a heart attack and died when Herbert was six years old. Three years later, the boy's mother, Huldah Minthorn Hoover, developed pneumonia and also passed away, orphaning Herbert, his older brother Theodore, and little sister Mary. Passed around among relatives for a few years, Hoover ended up with his uncle, Dr. John Minthorn, who lived in Oregon.
When Hoover was born here in West Branch, Iowa, in 1874, the family homestead was a free-standing, three-room board and batten cottage. It had been built four years before by his father, a Quaker blacksmith, and was home to the future president for the first six years of his life. Eventually, R. Portland Scellers bought the …show more content…
He attended Friends Pacific Academy in Newberg, Oregon, earning average to failing grades in all subjects except math. Determined, nevertheless, to go to the newly established Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, Hoover studied hard and barely passed the university's entrance exam. He went on to major in geology and participated in a host of extracurricular activities, serving as class treasurer of the junior and senior student bodies and managing the school baseball and football teams. To pay his tuition, Hoover worked as a clerk in the registration office and showed considerable entrepreneurial skill by starting a student laundry