Twenty-Four United States Presidents

 Have Visited Kansas

Carol Jenkner

August 2, 2022

Santa Fe Trail Center

 

            Fly-over country, that’s how outsiders describe Kansas. To those of us who live here, it is a place full of history and interesting landscapes. Early in Kansas’s history, it was on the edge of the American frontier, but it played a role in shaping the country. For such a place, Kansas has seen a lot of presidents, twenty-four to be exact, two of whom came to Larned.

            Although he visited Kansas Territory while campaigning, Abraham Lincoln came to the state for a week-long visit from November 30 to December 6, 1859. It appears from later remarks that he viewed Kansas in a favorable light noting: “If I were to go West, I think I would go to Kansas.”

            Two presidents visited Kansas post-Civil War. One of them was Ulysses Grant, who visited in 1868 and 1871, but he did not go farther than Topeka. In 1879 Rutherford B. Hayes visited at the invitation of Governor St. John making stops at county fairs across the state, including Larned. According to the fair manager, the president’s visit was the highlight of the fair because it had been a very poor crop year.

            Vice President Theodore Roosevelt visited Kansas in 1901, and while Larned was not on his itinerary, a problem with the train necessitated a stop at Larned where he graciously appeared before crowds and made a small speech. He visited Kansas several times between 1900 and 1915.

            In between the visits of Abraham Lincoln and Donald Trump there were visits by Benjamin Harrison, William Taft, Ulysses Grant, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, George W. and George H. W. Bush, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and Barrack Obama. Pretty impressive for a fly-over state.