A history of past presidential visits to Butler County
Former President Donald Trump, who is set to make his third visit to Butler County on Saturday, Oct. 5, is not the first former, current or future president to make a campaign visit to Butler County. At least nine presidents have visited the county.
Trump’s visit to Butler County this July, which has arguably gone down as the most significant news event in the county’s history, was not his first visit. That occurred in October 2020, when he was first campaigning for reelection against Joe Biden.
Unlike this July’s rally, which took place at the Butler Farm Show grounds, the 2020 rally was staged at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport in Penn Township.
Incredibly, Trump is not the only U.S. president to nearly die by an assassin’s bullet in Butler County. George Washington went through a similar experience during his trek through the Pennsylvania colony in 1753, at the age of 21. Butler County would not be formed for another 46 years.
Washington was on his way back to Virginia, after delivering a message to a French encampment in present-day Erie County to tell them to abandon their post.
While they were passing through what is now Butler County, Washington and his guide came across a native and asked him to lead them toward the Allegheny River. The two followed him for eight miles until the native picked up Washington’s musket and fired at them both. Despite standing just 15 feet away from them, the native missed both.
The exact location of the incident is disputed, with some historians arguing it happened near present-day Harmony, and others arguing it took place near what is now Evans City.
In the 19th century, two other future presidents made stops in Butler County. In 1848, not long before he became president, James Buchanan stopped by Butler County for the ceremonial laying of the cornerstone of St. Peter’s Catholic Church on Franklin Street.
“He was serving as Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce,” said local historian Bill May. “But he was here because of his presidential ambition.”
James Garfield, the 20th president, stopped in Butler during his previous career as an attorney to take part in a case involving a local oil company.
“He was here in 1870,” May said. “He was good friends with T.W. Phillips of the Phillips Gas and Oil Company, and he was here to visit the courthouse regarding a suit representing Phillips against Standard Oil.”
The next documented presidential visit happened on Nov. 27, 1918 — the day before Thanksgiving — as Butler County was honored by the presence of former president William Howard Taft.
Taft visited Butler to promote American participation in the League of Nations — a pressing issue, as World War I had just concluded weeks earlier with an armistice. While in Butler, Taft was a guest at the Nixon Hotel on East Diamond Street, which was eventually torn down in 1975.
The man who Taft defeated to win the presidency, Woodrow Wilson, is also said to have visited Butler County at one point, and to have stayed at the Hotel Saxonburg while he was there. While his name is said to have been listed in the guest registry, the circumstances of his visit are unknown.
In October 1960, less than a month before the election, John F. Kennedy paid a visit to Butler County in the late stages of his campaign. A crowd of thousands gathered at the Butler County Courthouse to hear his campaign speech, which touched heavily on the growing threat of communism.
Ironically, the Nixon Hotel — unrelated to his opponent in the election, Republican candidate and future president Richard Nixon — was not far away.
In 1982, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, who was serving under Ronald Reagan, visited Penn Township for a fundraising party at Frank Rath’s home on Three Degree Road, held on behalf of U.S. Congressman George Atkinson. Atkinson was in the midst of a fierce election campaign after switching from Democrat to Republican the previous year, and ultimately lost to Joe Kolter.
The next presidential visit to Butler County didn’t come until 2008, when former President Bill Clinton stumped at the Rose E. Schneider Family YMCA in Cranberry Township. He was campaigning on behalf of his wife, Hillary, who was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination that year.
