Dwight D. Eisenhower

== Family background ==
{{Further|Family of Dwight D. Eisenhower}}
The Eisenhauer (German for "iron hewer" or "iron miner") family migrated from the German village of [[Karlsbrunn]] to the [[Province of Pennsylvania]] in 1741.<ref name="barnett19421109">{{cite news | url={{GBurl|id=JUAEAAAAMBAJ|p=112}}| title=General "Ike" Eisenhower | magazine=Life | date=November 9, 1942 | access-date=May 31, 2011 | author=Barnett, Lincoln | page=112}}</ref> Accounts vary as to how and when the German name Eisenhauer was [[anglicized]].<ref>{{cite news | url={{GBurl|id=YVD0jK03EPEC}} | title=Ike: An American Hero | author=Korda, Michael | year=2007 | access-date=July 22, 2012 | page=63| publisher=Harper Collins | isbn=9780061744969 }}</ref>

David Jacob Eisenhower, Eisenhower's father, was a college-educated engineer, despite his own father's urging to stay on the family farm. Eisenhower's mother, [[Ida Stover Eisenhower|Ida Elizabeth (Stover) Eisenhower]], of predominantly German Protestant ancestry, moved to Kansas from Virginia. She married David on September 23, 1885, in [[Lecompton, Kansas]], on the campus of their alma mater, [[Lane University]].<ref name="Ambrose 1983, pp. 16–8">{{harvnb|Ambrose|1983|pp=16–18}}</ref> 
David owned a general store in [[Hope, Kansas]], but the business failed due to economic conditions and the family became impoverished. The Eisenhowers lived in Texas from 1889 until 1892, and later returned to Kansas, with $24 ({{Inflation|US|24|1892|fmt=eq}}) to their name. David worked as a railroad mechanic and then at a creamery.<ref name="Ambrose 1983, pp. 16–8" /> By 1898, the parents made a decent living and provided a suitable home for their large family.<ref>{{harvnb|Ambrose|1983|p=19}}</ref>