Written by guest blogger, Charles Pederson
1911 was a quiet year, with low-key world and U.S. events. The Spanish-American War had been over for more than 10 years, and the storm clouds of World War I were likewise years in the future. The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (later known as IBM) was incorporated that year. Ground was broken for construction on Fenway Park, the modern baseball stadium for the Boston Red Sox.
A quiet year, but by October 1911, Scott County was abuzz with talk about a coming earth-shaking event. Or at least, there was mild interest. William Howard Taft, once Teddy Roosevelt’s vice president and now himself a candidate for reelection as U.S. president, planned to pass through Minnesota on a reelection campaign tour. One of his planned stops was the railway station in Shakopee, Minnesota.
President Taft speaks at the Shakopee Depot, October 24th, 1911. Photo from the SCHS Collections.
In the spring of 1911, a bitter personal feud between Taft and Roosevelt had culminated in Roosevelt’s challenging Taft for the Republican nomination. Historian Peri Arnold noted that “the resulting campaign . . . was the first in which a sitting President campaigned in state primaries.” Taft won the nomination, though consequently, a resentful Roosevelt started his own new, competing party, the Bull Moose Party.
Because campaigning in individual states had worked well for the primaries, Taft continued the practice into October for the 1911 general election. He included a train journey through southern Minnesota, and on the schedule for October 24 were stops in Shakopee and other nearby towns.
Before the visit, the Scott County Argus reported on the preparations being made. These included, of course, local and state politicians, as well as dozens of sheriff’s deputies who would constitute a protective cordon around the train station and a town band that would serenade the president into and back out of town. An Argus reporter breathlessly explained that “the highest official in the world” would receive the respects of his fellow citizens. “It may well be said, ‘the president’s position is greater than a king’s,’ for he holds the place not by accident of birth but by the suffrage” of U.S. voters.
A few days after the event, on October 27, the Argus reported the results of the visit. A respectably sized crowd of about 2,000 people came from the county and neighboring municipalities to hear the president speak. The speaking platform had been prepared for the august visitor. It was decked out with U.S. flags and with local products, including locally grown corn, Shakopee bricks, and beverages from the Jacob Ries Bottling Works, which produced ginger ale and sparkling water right there in Shakopee.
In Mankato during the same campaign tour, Taft received a raucous welcome, according to the Blue Earth County Historical Society. “People arrived in every kind of vehicle from one-horse chaises to automobiles.” In contrast, the Argus reported that among the Shakopee citizens gathered at the local train station, “there was no show of enthusiasm,” though the crowd did listen carefully to what Taft had to say. After a brief 15-minute speech, according to the Argus, Taft boarded his train and left for other stops in Minnesota.
Crowd gathered to hear President Taft speak in Shakopee on October 24th, 1911. Photo from the SCHS Collections
Taft no doubt had held out great hope for his strategy of barnstorming personal appearances. The effort, however, seems to have fizzled. The very popular Roosevelt and his Bull Moose Party clawed away most of Taft’s Republican support. At least partly because of the split, neither man carried the election. Instead the Democrat, Woodrow Wilson, won by a landslide. His 435 electoral votes crushed Taft’s third-place votes, four each from Vermont and Utah. Shakopee’s voters mirrored the national vote. Out of 450-some voters, almost 290 voted for Wilson and 89 for Roosevelt. Taft trailed third with about 75 votes.
Taft in some ways may have been fortunate not to regain the White House. World War I began only three short years later, and as the editor of the Scott County Argus presciently wrote in 1911, “To be President of the United States for the next four years will be no easy job for there is much to be done and it must be done in the right way.”