Ida Elizabeth Stover

Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower (May 1, 1862 – September 11, 1946) was the mother of U.S. President Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969), and university president Milton Stover Eisenhower (1899-1985) as well as Edgar N. Eisenhower (1889–1971), and Earl D. Eisenhower (1898–1968).

She was born in Mount Sidney, Virginia, the only daughter of Elizabeth Ida Judah Link and Simon P. Stover.

She was christened Elizabeth Ida in the Salem Lutheran Church, Mount Sidney, Virginia (currently the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church). She was orphaned on the deaths of her mother, Elizabeth Link Stover (1822–1867), originally Elizabeth Juda according to Salem Church baptismal records but later changed to Elizabeth Ida, and father, Simon Stover (1822–1873).

She lived with her maternal grandparents, William Link and Esther Schindler Link, on their farm until William's death in 1879, and then with her maternal uncle and aunt, William J. Link and Susan Cook Link, on their farm until age twenty-one whereupon she joined two of her brothers Stover who had moved to Kansas. Ida was five years old when her mother died; she was sent to live with her paternal grandparents, and later to her elder brothers in Kansas. They did not believe girls should be educated, and instead pushed her to memorize the Bible. When Ida was ready to go to high school, she was told that she couldn't, so she ran away.

Stover graduated from high school at age 19 and taught for two years before entering Lane University, where she met her future husband, David Jacob Eisenhower.

On September 23, 1885 in Lecompton, Kansas on the campus of their alma mater, Lane University, she married David Jacob Eisenhower (1863–1942), of German and Swiss ancestry. He was a college-educated engineer but had trouble making a living and the family was always poor.

In the 1890s Ida left the River Brethren sect of the Mennonites, and joined the International Bible Students, which would evolve into what is now known as Jehovah's Witnesses. The Eisenhower home served as the local meeting hall for the Bible Students from 1896 to 1915 but her sons, although raised there, never joined the movement.

She was a lifelong pacifist, so Dwight's decision to attend West Point saddened her. She felt that warfare was "rather wicked," but she did not overrule him.

In 1945 Stover was named Kansas Mother of the Year.

Dwight Eisenhower said of her:

"Many such persons of her faith, selflessness, and boundless consideration of others have been called saintly. She was that—but above all she was a worker, an administrator, a teacher and guide, a truly wonderful woman."