Voters went fishin’ in 1932 presidential election

In observance of Presidents’ Day on Monday, Feb. 17, we’re revisiting another of the “behind-the-scenes occurrences” associated with U.S. presidents over time. Today’s focus is on the 1932 presidential election…from the perspective of the legendary humorist Will Rogers.

Was the 1932 presidential election a referendum on “fishing” – saltwater versus freshwater?

That’s a simplistic view of it, but one political commentator was convinced that voters’ fishing preferences would tip the outcome.

This was the opinion voiced by the late William Penn Adair Rogers, the leading “political wit and the highest paid Hollywood film star” in this era.

He was known far and wide simply as Will Rogers. He was a Cherokee Native American born in 1870 near Oologah, Okla., in the northeastern section of the state.

(Today, Oologah has a population of about 1,350 and benefits from the presence of Lake Oologah, a reservoir on the Verdigis River, a tributary of the Arkansas River. The lake is the water source for the Tulsa metropolitan area, located about 30 miles southwest of Oologah.)

Rogers listed his occupation as “American stage and film actor, vaudeville performer, cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist and social commentator.”

He was admired and revered as an all-American “character.”

Rogers amused his fans with earthy anecdotes, and his folksy style allowed him to poke fun at everyone in the public eye…even himself.

He said: “When I die, my epitaph, or whatever you call those signs on gravestones, is going to read: ‘I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I didn’t like.’ I am so proud of that I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved.”

 

The 1932 contest for U.S. president pitted Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt of Hyde Park, N.Y., against Republican Herbert Clark Hoover of West Branch, Iowa, the incumbent. 

Rogers suggested that the election “will be settled on fish.”

Forget the Great Depression, Rogers said. The issue is: “Do you want a deep-sea fisherman (Roosevelt) in the White House – flounders and cod – or a big trout and perch man (Hoover)?”

As election day drew nigh, Rogers advised the candidates: “You two boys just get the weight of the world off your shoulders and go fishing.”

“Now instead of calling each other names…you can do everybody a big favor by going fishing, and you will be surprised, but the (nation) will keep right on running while you boys are sitting on the bank.”

“Then come back next Wednesday, and we will let you know which one of you is the lesser of the two evils,” Rogers said.

When the ballots were counted, Hoover carried only six states, primarily in the New England region.

Thus, Franklin Roosevelt’s victory wasn’t so much about the electorate’s “fishing preferences,” although Rogers’ predictions made for great theater.

Americans voted for Roosevelt’s promise of “New Deal” programs that would lift the nation out of the Great Depression. 

Roosevelt became the 32nd U.S. president, serving from 1933-45, the longest tenure of any commander in chief. He died early in his fourth term and was succeeded by his vice president Harry S. Truman of Lamar, Mo.

 As the nation’s 33rd president, Truman continued the tradition of “fishing presidents.”

Harry and Bess Truman enjoyed their time together fishing as a way to relax and get away.

James Slowes, a contributor to the White House Historical Association, opined: “Fishing will continue to be enjoyed by people across America. It is ingrained in our history and collective memory, and will always likely be a recreational activity that is appreciated by presidents searching for a respite from the pressures and duties of the nation’s highest public office.”

Rogers went a bit farther when he stated: “If all politicians fished instead of spoke publicly, we would be at peace with the world.”

Perhaps that inspired the late Doug Larson of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., a veteran newspaper columnist to write: “If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.”

 

Country music fans enjoy the wisdom of Earl Dibbles Jr., alter ego of Granger Smith, who says: “I got 99 problems and fishin’ solves all of ‘em.”

 

 

 

Stemming from the catchphrase “YEE YEE” first yelled by Earl Dibbles Jr., Yee Yee is an outdoor lifestyle apparel brand founded by brothers Granger, Tyler and Parker Smith of Georgetown, Texas.

Early U.S. presidents loved to fish

In anticipation of the observance of Presidents’ Day on Monday, Feb. 17, we’ll revisit some of the “behind-the-scenes occurrences” associated with U.S. presidents over time. Today’s focus is on Grover Cleveland of New Jersey, the 22nd and 24th president, who served from 1885-89 and again from 1893-97. (He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms.)

Stephen Grover Cleveland was born on March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, N.J., to Richard Falley Cleveland and Ann Neal Cleveland. He was the fifth of nine children.

Cleveland was 47 years old when he entered the White House as a bachelor. His sister Rose Cleveland joined him, acting as hostess for the first 15 months of his administration.

He met Frances Clara Folsom of Buffalo, N.Y., who was a student at Wells College in Aurora, N.Y. They were married on June 2, 1886, in the Blue Room at the White House. Cleveland was 49 years old at the time; Frances was 21. The Clevelands had five children.

 

In its January 1923 issue, Forest and Stream magazine ranked the U.S. presidents on the basis of their interests and abilities as “outdoorsmen.”

Reporter Alexander Stoddart selected Grover Cleveland as the “greatest fishing president,” with Chester Alan Arthur a close second.

In an article for Sports Illustrated magazine, published in 1956, John Durant wrote: “It’s difficult to think of the slow-moving, corpulent President Grover Cleveland, who weighed 240 pounds and loathed exercise (having once said “bodily movement alone...is among the dreary and unsatisfying things of life”), as an active outdoorsman…and a fresh-and salt-water fisherman.”

 

“Yet he was…and spent so much time fishing and hunting – more than any other president – that he was constantly criticized in the press,” Durant commented.

“Cleveland considered the barbs nothing more serious than gnat stings suffered on the banks of a stream. As far as my attachment to outdoor sports may be considered a fault, I am...utterly incorrigible and shameless,” Cleveland admitted.

 

As a fly fisherman, Grover Cleveland learned to tie his own flies.

Cleveland grew up in Fayetteville, N.Y., a village near Syracuse, where he “formed his lifelong fondness for fishing,” Durant said.

One of his loyal fishing buddies remarked: “Grover ‘will fish when it shines and fish when it rains.’” (That’s akin to what we hear from present-day Carteret County, N.C., fishermen who say “the best time to fish is when it’s rainin’ and when it ain’t.”)

Cleveland’s favorite fish was the smallmouth black bass. “I consider these more uncertain, whimsical and wary in biting, and more strong, resolute and resourceful when hooked, than any other fish ordinarily caught in fresh waters.”

Cleveland and his new bride, Frances, began a vacationing tradition in 1887 when they spent their first wedding anniversary in the Adirondacks on Upper Saranac Lake, N.Y., staying in a rustic cabin…and going fishing.

 

One of the local fishing guides told the story that when President Cleveland “first threw his line into the lake, there was quite a commotion among the fish. A great trout stuck his head out of the water and asked, ‘Is that you, President Cleveland?’” Came the reply: ‘Yes, my name is Cleveland.’”

The trout said: “All right, Mr. Cleveland, I am at your service.” The fish leaped out of the water and landed at the president’s feet.

Perhaps a more reliable account was filed in a report published in 1892 in Current Literature magazine. Fishing guide Jake Cronk said: “Mrs. Cleveland made some wonderful catches.” She hooked a big one, and the president asked: “Frances, shall I take your rod and land him for you?”

Frances laughed and muttered: “Many thanks, dear sir, but I’m quite capable of landing him myself.” And so she did. The trout weighed more than 6 pounds.

 

Upper Saranac Lake has a lot of romantic charm. What could be more memorable than a wooden boat wedding?

Fish tales abound among White House occupants

 

President Grover Cleveland’s reputation as the king of the White House fishermen has been reaffirmed by history buffs who believe fishing was “an absolute obsession” for Cleveland.

Cleveland not only loved the sport, he studied the traits and habitats of a plethora of species of fishes.

 

Capt. Sean Williams of Key West, Fla., is a regular contributor to the FishingBooker.com, and he asserts that Grover Cleveland was the nation’s foremost “angler in chief.”

“Cleveland was one of the nation’s loudest fishing advocates,” Capt. Williams wrote. “The critics of the time labeled fishermen as lazy, often inclined toward profanity and dishonesty.”

“President Cleveland would hear nothing of it. He stood up for the American angler, proclaiming him the ‘virtuous backbone of the country.’”

 

President Chester Alan Arthur of Fairfield, Vt. (shown below), the nation’s 21st president (who served from 1881-85), was generally regarded as the second most famous White House fisherman.

 

The archivist at the Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Historical Society reported: “In 1883, President Arthur journeyed on the fishing trip of his lifetime – a visit to the world-class wonders and trout streams of Yellowstone National Park.”

“Arthur had tested northern waters in Canada and those of the American South in Florida. Salmon, trout and bass had all filled his creel. Indeed, throughout most of his life, Arthur found solace and relaxation in plying various waters with line and reel.”

For a time, Arthur held the record for the largest Atlantic salmon catch on the Cascapédia River in Quebec Province, Canada – a 50-pounder.

Among the 20th century presidents, Herbert Clark Hoover of West Branch, Iowa, the 31st president (1929-33) was an impressive sight, according to Capt. Williams. President Hoover’s favorite fishing attire was “a blue-serge suit, double-breasted and with a high collar.”

 

Hoover said: “Presidents have only two moments of personal seclusion. One is prayer; the other is fishing – and they cannot pray all the time!”

 

As a boy in Abilene, Kan., Dwight David Eisenhower would walk seven blocks from his house along the Santa Fe railroad tracks to Mud Creek.

“There, with a willow shoot, a length of string, a 5-cent hook from the general store and the worms that he collected while hoeing the family corn patch, he could catch sunfish, bullheads, carp and drum,” Capt. Williams noted.

 

President Eisenhower, who was born in Denison, Texas, became the 34th U.S. president (1953-61). He often returned to his favorite trout fishing spots in Colorado – on the South Platte River and on Saint Louis Creek. Eisenhower tried to teach his running mate Richard Milhous Nixon of Yorba Linda, Calif., how to fish, but Nixon never got the hang of it.

 

When it was Nixon’s turn to occupy the White House as the 37th president (1969-74), he chose to abandon fishing, opting for bowling. A private, single lane was built under the North Portico of the White House.

A president who deserves an “honorable mention” fishing award was John Calvin Coolidge Jr. of Plymouth Notch, Vt., the 30th U.S. president (1923-29), who preceded Hoover. Coolidge used “gone fishin’” as an excuse for extended, eight-week summer vacations to selected fishing holes. 

 

Author Hal Elliott Wert laughingly said Coolidge “loved to bait his own hook, and when he had finished, there were so many worms on the hook that it was a wiggling mass the size of a golf ball – Cal was not a man to take chances.”

Idaho’s U.S. Sen. William E. Borah mumbled: “No trout in possession of his full faculties would bite at Coolidge’s bait.”

Coolidge and Borah, both Republicans, tangled and wrangled frequently.

Did America’s ‘fishing founding father’ go to war over salt?

In anticipation of the observance of Presidents’ Day on Monday, Feb. 17, we’ll revisit some of the “behind-the-scenes occurrences” associated with U.S. presidents over time. Today’s focus is on George Washington of Virginia, the 1st president, who served from 1789-97.

George Washington was born on Feb. 22, 1732, at Popes Creek in Westmoreland County, in the Colony of Virginia. Popes Creek is a tributary of the Potomac River. He was the first of six children of Augustine and Mary Ball Washington. (Augustine fathered four additional children during his first marriage to Jane Butler.)

On Jan. 6, 1759, Washington, at age 26, married Martha Dandridge Custis, a 27-year-old widow of wealthy plantation owner Daniel Parke Custis. George and Martha had no children of their own, but they raised Martha’s four grandchildren at their Mount Vernon estate where Washington cultivated tobacco and wheat.

 

Martha Washington

 

The first U.S. president to wet a line was George Washington. He liked to fish for sport…but he loved to fish for cash.

 

The waters of the Potomac River flowed right past his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia, below Washington, D.C., and they were “teeming with the likes of shad, herring and bass,” said Capt. Sean Williams of Key West, Fla., a charter boat captain and regular contributor to FishingBooker.com.

Washington’s estate occupied in excess of 8,000 acres and contained 10 miles of river shoreline. During the 1750s and ‘60s, George Washington began to realize the “economic potential” of his Potomac fisheries, which contained “incredible stocks of fish and seafood,” Capt. Williams said.

 

The English colonists expressed amazement at having boats swamped by four- to six-foot sturgeon that could leap out of the water…and “fish schools so thick that they were unable to move their boats through them.”

The massive spring spawning runs yielded herring in such numbers that they were “like a large ball of fish.” Writings from this period referenced “the surface of the water sparkling like silver as thousands of fish moved upriver.”

Fishermen used small-inch mesh nets, so that the herring would be trapped, not gillnetted. These herring were the common blueback… about 15 to 18 inches in length.

 

The fish were cleaned and gutted, rinsed in a brine solution and then packed in barrels, about 800 to a barrel with alternating layers of fish and salt. This method of preservation allowed the fish to remain edible a year or longer.

 

Visitors to Mount Vernon are invited to examine the salt building at the manor house.

Washington knew a thing or two about salt. He demanded the highest grade, which came from the region around Lisbon, Portugal. However, because of English law, Virginia and the other southern colonies were unable to import Lisbon salt directly.

If a Virginia ship took a cargo to Lisbon, traded and bought salt, the ship had to sail to England, clear customs and pay duty prior to shipment to Virginia. This added to the time for delivery and substantially increased the cost.

The alternative – salt produced at Liverpool, England – was inferior for preserving the herring and was of little value.

Capt. Williams said: “The entire ordeal would greatly influence Washington’s pre-revolutionary sentiments towards the Crown.”

George Washington was selected by the Second Continental Congress to become the commander of the Continental Army on June 14, 1775, so the responsibility for day-to-day operations at Mount Vernon fell to Lund Washington, a distant and younger cousin.

In April 1775, the British government had severed all trade with the newly forming American government. One of the greatest concerns, was the availability of any kind of salt, a vital commodity throughout the colonies.

Mary V. Thompson of the Journal of the American Revolution said Lund Washington was under “considerable worry about whether there would be enough salt to preserve fish for the support of Mount Vernon…much less to sell.” He was required to “improvise.”

In 1776, Lund reported having a limited quantity of salt “of which we must make the most. I mean to make a brine,” and after dipping (the herring) in the brine for a short time, hanging them up and curing them by smoke, or drying them in the sun.”

Shad…bones and all…is ‘America’s fish’

One of President George Washington’s favorite foods was a delicious heaping of American shad, the largest of the fishes from the herring family. He harvested shad in the Potomac River off shore from his Mount Vernon, Va., estate.

An expert on the shad species is Jim Cummins, who retired in 2016 after a career with the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin. Once the shad left their ocean habitat, he said they would enter the Potomac to spawn.

Cummins said shad is “tasty and sweet, but full of bones” – 769 in all, most of which are small “Y” shaped bones and found in shad where most fish fillets would be bone-free.

No doubt, George Washington knew the technique of “boning – the removal of the tiny ‘Y’ bones. It’s a skill, if not art, and often a family guarded secret,” Cummins said.

In the language of the Native American Algonquin people, the word for shad was “tatamaho,” according to Cummins. The legend tells us “an unhappy porcupine once asked the Great Spirit to change it into another form.”

The Great Spirit obliged, turning the porcupine “inside out” to emerge as a fish (the shad); its prickly quills on the exterior were transformed into fish bones on the interior.

 

Author Timothy Ballard commented in 2016 that “miracles involving fish didn’t just happen in Biblical times; one occurred during the Revolutionary War as well.”

He credits the shad with saving Gen. George Washington’s army at Valley Forge, Pa., in the winter of 1778.

 

Ballard offered: “Washington feared that if food did not arrive soon, his army faced three choices: ‘starve…dissolve…or disperse.’”

 

“Suddenly, in the midst of the winter famine, there was an unexpected warming of the weather, too early to truly be springtime.” Yet, the waters warmed, “tricking the shad into beginning their run up the Delaware River early,” Ballard wrote.

Thousands of shad, described as “prodigious in number” and in “Biblical proportions,” swam up the Delaware River and into its tributaries.

 

One important tributary was the Schuylkill River; its mouth is just below Philadelphia, Pa.

Fortunately, the shad made a left turn and found their way up the Schuylkill, traveling about 18 miles toward Washington’s Valley Forge encampment and congregating there, where the river is only about knee-deep. Soldiers became fishermen.

In 1938, historian Harry Emerson Wildes wrote about the occurrence, saying: “Countless numbers of fat shad, swimming up the Schuylkill, filled the river. Soldiers thronged the riverbank. The cavalry was ordered into the riverbed. The horsemen rode upstream, noisily shouting and beating the water, driving the shad before them into nets spread across the Schuylkill.”

 

“So thick were the shad that when the fish were cornered in the nets, a pole could not be thrust into the water without striking fish,” Wildes wrote. “The netting was continued day after day until the army was thoroughly stuffed with fish. In addition, hundreds of barrels of shad were salted down for future use.”

Wildes added: “Even today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gives credence to the claim that shad were responsible for ‘saving George Washington’s troops from starvation as they camped along the Schuylkill River at Valley Forge.’”

This, then, may very well have been one of the most pivotal moments in the American Revolution, fueling Gen. Washington’s troops to fight on.

The surrender of British Gen. Lord Charles Cornwallis to Gen. Washington at the Battle of Yorktown (Va.) on Oct. 19, 1781, marked the end of the war, effectively achieving America’s independence.