Two Iowa City Presidential Whistlestops – 1948 & 1952.

Welcome to The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific (CRI&P) Railroad Depot located on Wright Street in Iowa City! For much of its 70+ years as a passenger railway station (1898-1970), this depot was Iowa City’s Grand Central Station – the transportation hub for Johnson County, Iowa. You can read more here.

In 1836, William Henry Harrison became the first presidential candidate to give speeches from the back of a train. However, it was Theodore Roosevelt who, over six decades later (1900), launched the practice that would become known as the whistlestop campaign. Roosevelt’s high-energy succession of rapid-fire, trackside rallies reached deep into America’s heartland and fundamentally changed the way candidates interact with the electorate.

***Pictured above: (left) Theodore Roosevelt (1900) and (right) William Howard Taft (1909).***

The term ‘whistlestop’ was borrowed from the railroads’ practice of signaling stops at small, occasionally used railway stations. Incoming trains announced their approach with a blast of the steam whistle. If passengers, mail, or freight were waiting to be picked up, the depot master raised a tower signal alerting the engineer to stop. If no stop was necessary, a different signal told the engineer he could pass on through. Similarly, as presidential candidates criss-crossed the country by train, the engineer whistled his approach to the station, the candidate addressed crowds from the rear platform of a private railcar, and the train traveled on to the next town. The entire stop might last only ten to twenty minutes.

***Pictured above: (left) Herbert & Lou Henry Hoover (1928) and (right) Franklin D. & Eleanor Roosevelt (1932).***

After the sudden death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, Vice President Harry S. Truman – from Independence, Missouri – took over the office. In 1948, the Republican governor from New York – Thomas E. Dewey – looked like a shoe-in for the Presidency, but history shows that Dewey greatly under-estimated Truman’s Midwestern-bred likeability. That popularity was magnified across the nation with several whistlestop tours Truman took during the 1948 campaign. On Saturday, September 18, 1948 – on one of his first campaign trips outside the White House – the underdog – President Truman – brought his whistlestop campaign into Iowa City’s CRI&P Wright Street station.

According to The Iowa City Press-Citizen (above), there were 5,000 people lined up outside the depot very early that morning, waiting expectantly for President Truman’s 7:22 a.m. scheduled arrival.

According to The Press-Citizen, “Immediately after the President finished his address, he said, ‘I have a member of my family with me. Would you like to meet her?’ Amid loud applause, his daughter, Margaret (Truman), appeared on the rear platform.” (see pics below)

Margaret Truman, the Truman’s only child, was a crowd-favorite across the country, and it was her presence at these whistlestops that truly helped bring the young people of America on board the Truman campaign.

What a proud day for Johnson County – with nearly 3,000 people meeting President Truman for his next whistlestop in Oxford, a crowd of nearly 8,000 turned out on Saturday, September 18, 1948. Beloe: of course, one of the most infamous photographs in U.S. political history is this one of President Harry S. Truman, standing at the rear of his campaign train at his Chicago whistlestop, holding up the erroneous November 3, 1948 edition of The Chicago Daily Tribune.

Exactly four years after President Harry S. Truman brought his whistlestop to Iowa City, General Dwight D. Eisenhower – the Republican candidate for President in 1952 – had the exact same plan!

So, on September 18, 1952, thousands gathered at the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific (CRI&P) Railroad Station to hear the World War II general speak about his vision for America.

Eisenhower’s arrival was set for 11:30 am, and a huge crowd gathered in the rain. Of course, one of the more popular people on the train that day was the Iowa-native – Mamie Eisenhower.

***On that same whistlestop tour in September 1952, Mamie Eisenhower is shown here, speaking to the crowd gathered in downtown Cedar Rapids.***

While we can’t find any newspaper accounts of Presidential Whistlestops in Iowa City after Eisenhower’s 1952 visit, it’s obvious – from the photos provided by The National Railroad Hall of Fame, that the idea didn’t die easily – running even into the 21st century. Enjoy the pics!

Actually, presidential candidate – Senator John F. Kennedy – flew into Iowa City in November 1959 to drum up support for his 1960 campaign. Read more here.

Above: (left) John F. Kennedy (1960), (top right) Lyndon B Johnson & Lady Bird Johnson (1964), and (bottom right) Richard M. Nixon (1968).