Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States and the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II, was really not a city boy.  When he thought about a place to spend his retirement years, he chose, of all places, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  The Eisenhower Farm at Gettysburg was the only home he and his wife, Mamie, ever owned.

Dwight David Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas during a severe thunderstorm on October 14, 1890 to David and Ida Stover Eisenhower – both children of the Civil War who were orphaned at early ages.  Ike, as Dwight came to be called, was the third of seven sons.  Before his second birthday, his parents moved to Abilene, Kansas, where the six surviving Eisenhower boys grew up.  Ike appreciated his small-town roots and his close family ties.¹  

Because there wasn’t money for him to go to college, Ike instead procured a military education at West Point, where he graduated in 1915.  It was during his sojourn as a cadet that Ike first came to Gettysburg – where the future military leaders studied the Civil War tactics that were still useful decades later.  Shortly after he graduated, he met Mamie at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.  The couple married the following summer, on July 1, 1916.²

During this turbulent time, Europe and parts of the British Commonwealth in other areas of the world were embroiled in the first World War.  While the United States attempted to remain neutral, by 1917 our nation decided to join the terrible fight.  By this time the Eisenhowers welcomed their firstborn child, a son named Doud Dwight.  In 1918 the young family found themselves in Gettysburg, where Eisenhower was commissioned as the commander of Camp Colt.  The camp was situated at Gettysburg because the battlefield was much like that of the Ardennes in France, where most of the fighting took place.  It was ideal ground for tank warfare – the newest weapon of the early 20th century.

The Eisenhowers survived the war and the terrible influenza epidemic that devastated Gettysburg and other places in the world.  They soon experienced the worst of tragedies when their son died just after the holiday season of 1920, of scarlet fever.  He was three years old.³

As the years passed, Ike and Mamie, and their second son, John, were sent around the world in various bases, apartments, and houses provided by the military.  Ike served as an aide to General Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines for much of the 1930s.  When Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941 – thrusting the nation into World War II, Ike was, at that time, stationed in San Antonio as Chief of Staff of the Third Army.  Holding the rank of Brigadier General, Ike was promoted to Major General in March 1942 and sent to Europe as commanding general of U.S. forces there.  John attended West Point and Mamie remained in Washington, as Ike felt that since other military leaders had to leave their wives to serve, he should not receive preferential treatment. It was a lonely time for Mamie.⁴  

At war’s end, the couple reunited.  For the next three years, Ike was the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army.  With his days of active duty at a close, the Eisenhowers were ready to find a home of their own.  From 1948 to 1950 he was President of Columbia University in New York City, but Ike and Mamie were not accustomed to being city dwellers.  He would have settled back in Kansas, but both his parents had died, and his brothers were scattered with lives and families of their own.

While visiting their longtime friends, George and Mary Allen, in Gettysburg, the Eisenhowers confided in them their desires to purchase a farm.  These close friends, who wanted Ike and Mamie to live nearby, told them about an old farm south of town, not far from their own property.  The Redding Farm needed work, but Ike and Mamie decided to buy it in 1950.  It took nearly four years to restore it and make it livable to their expectations.  In the interim, Ike ran for and won election to the office of the President of the United States.  With his Gettysburg farm close to Washington, D.C., Ike and Mamie were even more thrilled to escape the U.S. capital whenever they could, enjoying a respite – however brief – at their Gettysburg home.  Ike entertained many heads of state at his farm, including Winston Churchill and Nikita Khrushchev.⁵

In 1955, President Eisenhower suffered his first serious heart attack, and needed months of recuperation at his Gettysburg farm.  He continued his work as Commander-in-Chief at the farm, and at his office at Gettysburg College.  He also lit the White House Christmas tree from remote control at Gettysburg that year.⁶

On January 20, 1961, a snowy and excessively cold day in Gettysburg, crowds lined the streets in Lincoln Square to welcome home their favorite citizen.  The Eisenhowers had come home to the farm – their own Gettysburg address.⁷

Ike and Mamie spent their sunset years together at their farm.  Ike raised prize-winning Black Angus cattle.  He golfed – often at the Gettysburg Country Club.  Additionally, he had a private putting green in his backyard.  He authored two memoirs from Gettysburg, usually writing at his office at Gettysburg College.  When not working, Ike, a gifted artist, sometimes painted landscapes and still life, and gave many of his paintings to friends.  On the glass-encased back porch, Ike continually had an easel and canvas placed.  The couple traveled too.  The Eisenhowers wintered in Palm Springs after the holidays, always taking the train, as Mamie disliked flying.⁸

When the Bay of Pigs caused a quandary for the new President, John F. Kennedy, he turned to Ike for advice.  The former President and the man who was perhaps America’s greatest general officer of the 20th century spent his last years consulting with statesmen, foreign dignitaries and Presidents who followed him in office.  “He knew the importance of peace,” said his pastor and friend, the late Bob MacAskill, “because he had seen war up close.”⁹

Ike was the preferable cook to Mamie.  As a socialite, she grew up in a privileged home, whereas her husband had not.  “I’m not a cook,” she admitted.  “I was never permitted in the kitchen as a girl.” Although during their twilight years they had a valet and a cook (Sergeant Moaney and his wife, Delores), Ike and Mamie were true homebodies at their Gettysburg farm.  They spent New Year’s Eve watching television, and often played bridge with their friends, the Allens.  Their son, John, and his family made regular visits as well.  David, their only grandson, often spent summers with his grandparents at their farm.¹⁰

Suffering from heart disease, Ike weakened during the last years of his life, and he knew that his time was growing short.  Because his life had been shaped by his free education at West Point, the former President wanted to leave his beloved farm to the American people.  In November 1967, Ike quietly signed the papers on his farm, without ceremony.  The only people present were Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, Mamie Eisenhower, the Moaneys, “a couple of reporters and Horace Busby” the last one being a member of then-President Johnson’s staff.  It was a solemn occasion.  “My son tells me,” Mamie said that day, “the Farm and the porch have lengthened Ike’s life twice already...I don’t suppose you could ask for more.”¹¹

Just over a year later, Ike left his farm forever, spending the last months of his life at Walter Reed Medical Center, where he died on March 28, 1969.  Mamie survived him by ten years, and lived alone at their Gettysburg Farm for much of that time.  She died on November 1, 1979.

Today, walking through the house that Ike and Mamie called home, their presence can still be felt.  While there are vestiges of privilege in the living room and formal dining room, most of the house exudes the comfort of a home where two people were able to settle down at last.  From Mamie’s bright pink bedchamber and equally pink linens in the closet and Ike’s wood paneled study filled with books (including numerous historical tomes and paperback westerns), to the enclosed porch where they enjoyed much time together, one feels a warmth and a welcome. 

The boy from Kansas could have chosen anywhere in the world to make himself at home – and he chose Gettysburg.  He chose well.

Sources:  Angelo, Bonnie.  First Mothers: The Women Who Shaped the Presidents .  New York: HarperCollins, 2000.  Birkner, Michael J., ed. “The Eisenhowers at Twilight: A Visit to the Eisenhower Farm, 1967.” Adams County History, The Adams County Historical Society, 2007.  Eisenhower, David.  Going Home to Glory: A Memoir of Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961-1969 .  New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.  Eisenhower, Dwight D.  At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends .  National Park Service: Acorn Publishing, 1981 (reprint, first published in 1967). Interview with Bob MacAskill, 13 April, 1999.  Whitney, David C. and Robin Vaughn Whitney. The American Presidents .  New York: Doubleday & Music Clubs Inc., 1993 (reprint, first published in 1985).  Additional information found at the Eisenhower National Historic Site, Gettysburg (hereafter ENHS).

End Notes: 

1.  Angelo, p. 92.  Whitney, p. 291.

2.  Eisenhower, Dwight D., pp. 112, 122. 

3.  Ibid., p. 181. 

4.  Whitney, p. 291.

5.  Information from ENHS. 

6.  Eisenhower, David, p. 174. 

7.  Ibid., p. 3. 

8.  Birkner, p. 70. 

9.  Bob MacAskill Interview, 4-13-1999. 

10.  Angelo, p. 101.  Eisenhower, David, pp. 118,   142-144.  Additional information from ENHS.  There were three Eisenhower   granddaughters.

11.  Birkner, pp. 69-70.