Dwight David Eisenhower

As did most United States Senators, Joseph L. Bristow of Kansas annually received numerous requests from constituents for appointment to America's military academies. The year 1910 was no different. Among the applicants were ones of a young man from a poor but honest family in the mid section of the state and one from the son of a career soldier in the northeastern section.

The first prospective candidate, being financially unable to obtain a college level education otherwise, applied for both West Point and Annapolis, knowing full well, historians believe, that he was too old for the naval academy. Consequently his letter of application indicated he was a year younger than he really was. The other candidate's father, being familiar with government red tape, was not satisfied with a single application but also sought a presidential at large appointment for his son. Strangely enough, he received both-the senatorial and the presidential appointments-based on preliminary examinations conducted in Topeka on October 4 and 5, 1910. The young man from central Kansas did not qualify for Annapolis, the son of a political supporter of the senator received that distinction, but his pre-exam grades were so high that he was named first alternate.

By some quirk of fate, however, the son of the soldier elected to attend West Point on his presidential at large appointment. This removed him from the Kansas senator's list and the appointment went to the first alternate, Dwight D. Eisenhower of Abilene.

David and Ida Stover Eisenhower, the parents of the future West Point graduate and 34th President of the United States, were students at Lane University when they were married at Lecompton, Kansas, in 1885. The Eisenhower family had settled in Dickinson County in 1879, and after leaving Lecompton David Eisenhower ran a store at Hope, Kansas, where the couple's first two sons were born. When the business failed in 1888, he moved his family to Denison, Texas, where their third son, Dwight David, was born on October 14, 1890. The following year, the family moved back to Kansas, this time settling in Abilene. Thus, "Ike" spent his boyhood in Abilene, attended schools there, and graduated from Abilene High School in 1909.

After his West Point graduation in 1915, Eisenhower was commissioned a second lieutenant and, of course, embarked on a long and distinguished military and civilian career. General Eisenhower directed the allied invasions of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy in 1942-1943, and was named Supreme Commander, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. In this position, General Eisenhower was in charge of the planning and execution of the Normandy Invasion, June 6, 1944. This major allied offensive ultimately led to victory in Europe the following May. Eisenhower subsequently served as president of Columbia University (1948-1949) and NATO (1950-1952) commander and before accepting the 1952 Republican Party presidential. After winning and serving two full terms as president, Ike retired to his Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, farm in January 1961. On March 28, 1969, Eisenhower died at Washington's Walter Reed General Hospital. His body was returned to Abilene and buried at the Eisenhower Center.

One can only conjecture what would have happened to United States and world history if the young man from Leavenworth, George Pulsifer, had elected to accept Senator Bristow's offer. Most likely, however, Ike would never have been a student at West Point. Thus, but for that little "quirk of fate," Dwight David Eisenhower of little Abilene, Kansas, would not have been commander of allied military forces in Europe during World War II and probably would never even have seriously aspired to the nation's highest elective office.

Eisenhower's letters to Senator Bristow and the results of his examination are in the manuscript collection of the Kansas Historical Society.