This is the first of five articles about presidential visits to Madison County that will appear this year celebrating the 2012 presidential election.

Eleven men who were either future, current, or former presidents of the United States have paid official visits to Madison County over the years. That’s one-fourth of all the men who have held our nation’s highest office; a fact that is surprising since we are not situated near the normal areas of national political activities.

The most recent visit was that of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama on April 26, 2008, when he spoke to a crowd of 1,500 during a town hall meeting at Anderson High School. He was seeking the nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate which he eventually obtained and which propelled him into the White House as our 44th President.

Twenty-nine years earlier, the man who would become our 41st President, George H.W. Bush, addressed 450 Madison County Republicans at their annual Madison County Lincoln Club’s Lincoln Day Dinner. It was on March 6, 1979, that Bush, then an unofficial candidate for GOP’s 1980 presidential nomination, spoke at the O.C. Lewis Gymnasium at Anderson College.

Bush lost that nomination to former California Gov. Ronald Reagan, who became our 40th President. Reagan was in Anderson on April 27, 1976, to attend the annual Lincoln Club dinner in the UAW Local 662 Hall. Before the dinner, Reagan was the honored guest at a reception attended by 500 enthusiasts at the Sheraton Inn. He was an announced candidate for the 1976 Republican presidential nomination when he spoke to 1,100 attendees assembled that evening.

Ford dedicated government center

Reagan was seeking to replace President Gerald Ford, our 38th President, as the party’s nominee. Ford narrowly defeated Reagan for the Republican nomination, but lost the presidential election to Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Speaker of the House Ford had become president by a most unconventional way. As the first person appointed to the vice-presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment (after Spiro Agnew had resigned), he became President upon Richard Nixon’s resignation on Aug. 9, 1974. Thus he became the only President of the United States who was never elected President or Vice-President.

A mere 11 months before becoming president, Gerald Ford, then the minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, was in Anderson. He had been asked to speak during the dedication ceremony of the new Madison County Government Center on Sept. 22, 1973. The ceremony was held in conjunction with the county’s sesquicentennial celebration. A car carrying Ford was part of the sesquicentennial parade through the streets of Anderson, where an estimated 125,000 persons had jammed the downtown.

Kennedy visited twice

Thirteen years earlier, the man who would become the nation’s 35th President campaigned in Madison County. John F. Kennedy first visited Madison County on April 5, 1960. Seeking the Democratic Party nomination, his plane touched down at the new Anderson Airport near Chesterfield. An estimated 600 people gathered to greet the young charismatic senator from Massachusetts.

Kennedy’s caravan went from the airport to the Anderson Eagles Lodge and then to Alexandria’s Beulah Park. At noon, he spoke to an audience which had packed the 200-capacity shelter house in the park. His speech on the farm program and his determination to halt the rapid fall of farm prices lasted 30 minutes.

He was treated like a Hollywood celebrity. It was a Tuesday, but schools had been let out at noon and the senator was confronted with squealing, determined autograph hunters. He patiently autographed every piece of paper he got his hands on as he moved slowly back to his car.

Kennedy returned to Madison County in October of 1960; this time as the Democratic Party’s candidate for president. His first stop was an unscheduled one in Pendleton on Oct. 5. His motorcade was en route from Indianapolis to Anderson and was to only pass through Pendleton. However, in Pendleton, Pendleton Avenue had been purposely barricaded blocking the passage of the motorcade. Just north of the intersection of Pendleton Avenue and State Street was a pick-up truck acting as a makeshift campaign platform.

Seeing what was happening Sen. Kennedy graciously exited his convertible and jumped on the back of the pick-up. He spoke briefly for a few minutes thanking the assembled crowd of about 150 and asked for their support in his campaign and then moved on.

The next day Kennedy made his second campaign visit to Anderson. He was scheduled to deliver a 12-minute speech at 10 a.m. from the east side of the courthouse. But, as his caravan of three buses and seven cars entered Anderson from the south on Ind. 9, and turned north on Madison Avenue to Eighth Street and then to the court house, he was 50 minutes behind schedule.

After his welcome to the city by Mayor Ralph Ferguson, and introduction by Fifth District Congressman J. Edward Roush, Kennedy began speaking around 11 a.m. and spoke for only eight minutes to an estimated crowd of 6,000 spectators. Although rushed, he took time to shake numerous hands and sign a few autographs before leaving for Muncie.

The second article in this series featuring Harry Truman and Warren Harding will appear May 20.

For more information visit the Madison County History Center, 15 West 11th St., Anderson, Mondays,Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The phone is 683-0052.