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Ike and the Apple Tree

Most Americans know the story of Washington and the cherry tree. Few Americans know the story of Eisenhower and the apple tree.

Ike at twelve

Beneath his amiable exterior – the beaming smile, the unassuming ways – Ike had a terrible temper. It was a life long challenge. While many people over the years could tell colorful stories about the occasions when his anger boiled over, few of them knew just how often Eisenhower had reigned in his temper. Even fewer of his colleagues knew when he learned his first lesson in governing his anger. His mother taught him this important lesson.

The lesson came on Halloween night when Ike was nearly ten years old. His older brothers were allowed to go out into the night with the other neighborhood kids for the kind of Halloween fun characteristic of small-town America. Ike wanted very badly to go out with his brothers, but his parents said he was too young.

He promptly through a tantrum and began beating his fists against an apple tree in the front yard while screaming at the top of his lungs. He kept it up until his hands were bloody and raw.

His father angrily spanked him and sent him upstairs to his room. Then his mother, Ida, came up with some washcloths and medicine. She explained to him calmly that uncontrolled rage was a destructive and self-defeating emotion. As she quoted the Bible to back up her points, young Dwight listened. Years later he remembered that moment and said that it was one of the most important in his life.

The lesson he learned that evening would serve both him and his country in the decades to come. He wasn’t perfect and his self-control would frequently be tested in war and peace, but he never forgot the lesson that his mother taught him after his tantrum at the apple tree.


© Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission, Washington, DC, 2004