Editing Herbert Hoover (section)

==Early life and education==
{{stack|float=left|[[File:Herbert Hoover birthplace.jpg|left|thumb|Hoover's birthplace cottage in [[West Branch, Iowa]]]]}}

Herbert Clark Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in [[West Branch, Iowa]].{{efn|Hoover later became the first president born west of the [[Mississippi River]], and remains the only president born in Iowa.{{sfn|Burner|1996|p=4}}}} His father, Jesse Hoover, was a [[blacksmith]] and farm implement store owner of German, Swiss, and English ancestry.{{sfn|Burner|1996|p=4}} Hoover's mother, Hulda Randall Minthorn, was raised in [[Norwich, Ontario]], Canada, before moving to [[Iowa]] in 1859. Like most other citizens of West Branch, Jesse and Hulda were [[Quakers]].{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=5–10}} Around age two "Bertie", as he was called during that time, contracted a serious bout of [[croup]], and was momentarily thought to have died until resuscitated by his uncle, John Minthorn.<ref>Burner, p. 6.</ref> As a young child he was often referred to by his father as "my little stick in the mud" when he repeatedly got trapped in the mud crossing the unpaved street.<ref>Burner, p. 7.</ref> Herbert's family figured prominently in the town's public prayer life, due almost entirely to mother Hulda's role in the church.<ref>Burner, p. 9.</ref> As a child, Hoover consistently attended schools, but he did little reading on his own aside from the Bible.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=13–14, 31}} Hoover's father, noted by the local paper for his "pleasant, sunshiny disposition", died in 1880 at the age of 34 of a sudden heart attack.{{sfn|Burner|1996|p=10}} Hoover's mother died in 1884 of [[typhoid]], leaving Hoover, his older brother, Theodore, and his younger sister, May, as orphans.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=17–18}} Hoover lived the next 18 months with his uncle Allen Hoover at a nearby farm.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.dglobe.com/community/history/4314528-column-president-spent-days-his-boyhood-only-90-miles-away |title = Column: President spent days of his boyhood only 90 miles away|date = August 19, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/presidents/bio31.htm| title = National Park Service – The Presidents (Herbert Hoover)<!-- Bot generated title -->}}</ref>

[[File:Herbert Hoover in 1877.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.57|Hoover in 1877]]

In November 1885, Hoover was sent to [[Newberg, Oregon]], to live with his uncle John Minthorn, a Quaker physician and businessman whose own son had died the year before.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://hoover.archives.gov/timeline#event-/timeline/item/hoover-moved-newberg-oregon |title = Timeline|date = December 6, 2017}}</ref> The Minthorn household was considered cultured and educational, and imparted a strong work ethic.{{sfn|Burner|1996|p=12}} Much like West Branch, Newberg was a frontier town settled largely by Midwestern Quakers.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=20–21}} Minthorn ensured that Hoover received an education, but Hoover disliked the many chores assigned to him and often resented Minthorn. One observer described Hoover as "an orphan [who] seemed to be neglected in many ways".{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=22–24}} Hoover attended Friends Pacific Academy (now [[George Fox University]]), but dropped out at the age of thirteen to become an office assistant for his uncle's real estate office (Oregon Land Company)<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://hoover.archives.gov/timeline#event-/timeline/item/hoover-worked-oregon-land-company-salem-oregon |title = Timeline|date = December 6, 2017}}</ref> in [[Salem, Oregon]]. Though he did not attend high school, Hoover learned bookkeeping, typing, and mathematics at a night school.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=4–6}}

Hoover was a member of the inaugural "Pioneer Class" of [[Stanford University]], entering in 1891 despite failing all the [[Educational entrance examination|entrance exams]] except mathematics.{{sfn|Burner|1996|p=16}}{{efn|Hoover later claimed to be the first student at Stanford, by virtue of having been the first person in the first class to sleep in the dormitory.<ref name=e1>{{Citation | first = David 'Dave' | last = Revsine | url = https://www.espn.com/college-football/columns/story?columnist=revsine_dave&id=2680873 | title = One-sided numbers dominate Saturday's rivalry games | newspaper = ESPN | date = November 30, 2006 | publisher = Go | access-date = November 30, 2006}}</ref>}} During his freshman year, he switched his major from mechanical engineering to geology after working for [[John Casper Branner]], the chairman of Stanford's geology department. During his sophomore year, Sam Collins proposed founding, ''Romero Hall Boarding Club'', the first student cooperative boarding house at Romero Hall, for "sociability and economy", which Hoover and [[Hidden Houses|William Foster Hidden]] co-founded.<ref name="Lane">{{cite book |last1=Lane |first1=Rose Wilder |title=The Making of Herbert Hoover |date=1920 |publisher=The Century Co. |location=New York |pages=130–139 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924030938983 |access-date=November 2, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Irwin |first1=Will |author1-link=Will Irwin |title=Herbert Hoover: A Reminiscent Biography |date=1928 |publisher=[[Century Company]] |url=<!-- https://books.google.com/books?id=7n1BAAAAIAAJ -->https://archive.org/details/herberthooverare007945mbp |access-date=September 15, 2024 |via=[[archive.org]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lockley |first1=Fred |title=History of the Columbia River Valley from the Dalles to the Sea |date=1928 |publisher=[[S. J. Clarke Publishing Company]] |page=498 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7AxNswEACAAJ |access-date=September 15, 2024 |language=en |chapter=W. Foster Hidden (William Foster Hidden (1871–1963)) |quote=In 1891 he was among the first high school pupils to receive diplomas in  Vancouver and next matriculated in Leland Stanford University, becoming a  member of the class of 1895, with which Herbert Hoover was also identified.  While a sophomore in that institution he helped to establish the Romero Hall  Boarding Club, of which Mr. Hoover also became a member. |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ccgs-wa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/V45.pdf|title=Trail Breakers – Vol. 45, July 2018 to June 2019|access-date=October 29, 2024}}</ref> Hoover was a mediocre student, and he spent much of his time working in various part-time jobs or participating in campus activities.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=35–39}} Though he was initially shy among fellow students, Hoover won election as student treasurer and became known for his distaste for [[fraternities and sororities]].{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=6–9}} He served as student manager of both the [[Stanford Cardinal baseball|baseball]] and [[Stanford Cardinal football|football teams]], and helped organize the inaugural [[Big Game (American football)|Big Game]] versus the [[University of California, Berkeley|University of California]].<ref>Big Games: College Football's Greatest Rivalries&nbsp;– Page 222</ref> During the summers before and after his senior year, Hoover interned under economic geologist [[Waldemar Lindgren]] of the [[United States Geological Survey]]; these experiences convinced Hoover to pursue a career as a mining geologist.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=39–41}}