Evansville and the President—the 19th Century
Millard Fillmore stayed at this hotel in 1854 when it was known as the Sherwood House. Purportedly, a reception was held for James Polk at this establishment at the southeast corner of First and Locust Streets nine years earlier.
Evansville and the President—the 19th Century
Though it is only the spring of 2023, we are already barraged by the talk of the 2024 presidential election and who may run for our nation’s highest office. Whether you enjoy this ongoing politicking, turn off your television at the very sound of the conversation, or are totally indifferent, there is no debating it is an ongoing part of our culture. What may be of interest to you no matter your political interest, is that through the history of Evansville several men who have held the presidency have visited our city. Some came before they held office, others after their service, and a few while they were president of the United States. In this blog, 19th century presidents who visited Evansville are highlighted.
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James K. Polk
The Evansville Journal and The Evansville Courier recorded president-elect James K. Polk’s 1845 stop in Evansville in different manners.
According to accounts in the 1845 The Evansville Journal, a weekly newspaper aligned with the Whig Party, Polk, who was a Democrat, arrived aboard the steamboat China on February 2 while enroute to his inauguration in Washington D. C. Large crowds, dressed in their best clothing, gathered at the riverfront to greet the next president of the United States. They were disappointed when the captain of the China refused to wake the sleeping president-elect and The Journal reported that the expectant people left without meeting their future leader.
Recalling the visit in 1899, The Evansville Courier, a paper more aligned with the Democrat Party, reported that Polk’s party stopped in Evansville to facilitate repairs to their steamboat. The Courier stated that Polk and his wife disembarked their boat and were subsequently greeted at a hastily arranged reception at the Sherwood House Hotel at First and Locust Streets. Purportedly, many of Evansville’s leading citizens attended the reception and the president-elect made a few remarks. At nightfall, Polk and his party departed for Louisville.
The truth of the story remains unresolved.
Millard Fillmore
Former president Millard Fillmore arrived at midnight on March 19, 1854, aboard the steamboat Robert J. Ward and stayed at the Sherwood House Hotel. At 11 a.m., he gave a speech to an overflow crowd at Apollo Hall near the hotel before continuing his steamboat trip.
The Evansville Daily Journal reported: We never witnessed more earnest hearty good feelings among our citizens—a feeling which extended fully to the ladies, and was even caught up by the boys—a feeling utterly free from all party prejudice. Every one seemed disposed to do him honor. So far as Evansville is concerned, the man and his past history could have no higher eulogium than that bestowed by the enthusiasm yesterday.
Benjamin Harrison
This advertisement appeared on September 8, 1876, in The Evansville Journal newspaper. John Harlan served in the Union Army during the Civil War from Kentucky. He was later an Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court and was the lone dissenter in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision.
On September 8, 1876, future president Benjamin Harrison, then a prominent member of the Indiana Republican Party and a former Civil War general, visited Evansville. He stayed at the St. George Hotel (the present site of the McCurdy) and spoke to a large crowd at the Salt Well—a popular spot for recreation and relaxation in the city—on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes.
Twenty years later, on October 20, 1896, a crowd of thousands greeted the former president who came to Evansville to campaign on behalf of Republican presidential nominee William McKinley. Harrison arrived at Union Depot at Eighth and Main Streets followed by a trip down Main and to the Old Courthouse where he stood on the north entrance steeps to watch a parade in his honor. He then spoke to a full Evans Hall—a public hall located at the present site of the Koch Family Children’s Museum of Evansville (cMoe).
This headline appeared in The Evansville Journal newspaper on October 12, 1899, the day following President McKinley’s visit to the city.
William McKinley
William McKinley was the first sitting president of the United States to visit Evansville. He came to address the thousands gathered in the city for the Blue and Gray Reunion—a meeting of veterans of the Civil War. McKinley—accompanied by the secretaries of state, treasury, agriculture, Navy, and the postmaster general—arrived aboard a Chicago & Eastern Illinois train just before 9 a.m. on October 11, 1899. As a heavy rain fell in Evansville, McKinley and his party boarded carriages for a procession from the depot at Eighth Street down Main Street and portions of the surrounding downtown area. Despite the deluge, 20,000 people lined the flag and bunting adorned thoroughfares, including 5,000 school children massed on First Street between Cherry and Adams.
At Camp Farragut—just east of downtown on Washington Avenue and the site of the Blue and Gray Reunion—a 21-gun salute greeted the president. Though the camp was a sea of mud as rain continued to fall, those gathered at the reunion attentively listened to McKinley’s short speech. The rain came and went with McKinley as the precipitation ended 15 minutes after his departure.
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It should also be noted that in 1828, a young Abraham Lincoln, who then lived in Spencer County, Indiana, passed by Evansville on the Ohio River during his flatboat trip with Allen Gentry on their way to New Orleans. The next year, a three-steamboat armada decorated in patriotic regalia carried president-elect Andrew Jackson past Evansville as part of his journey from his home near Nashville, Tennessee, to the nation’s capital for his March 1829 inaugural.