History & local legend
The Eisenhowers’ farm near Gettysburg was a family retreat as well as a presidential home. Mamie Eisenhower’s mother, Elivera Carlson Doud, had a bedroom upstairs for her visits from Denver. That domestic history later became part of a story about footsteps heard after the house became a historic site.
In 1986, National Parks magazine quoted Laurie Coughlan, the battlefield park’s assistant chief of interpretation, describing staff reports of someone walking in the upper hallway. Employees who went to investigate found the house empty.
A visiting psychic had offered an identity for the presence: Mrs. Doud. Her preserved bedroom contains a rocking chair and a photograph of Mamie’s first child.
Sources
- National Parks magazine, September–October 1986, Laurie Coughlan’s account of footsteps and an earlier psychic’s identification
- National Park Service, Eisenhower Home Guide, Mrs. Doud’s second-floor room and the photograph of her grandson
- National Park Service, Mrs. Doud’s Room Added to Eisenhower Home Tour, family visits and original furnishings
- Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey, Eisenhower Farm One, main house drawing and coordinates
- National Park Service, public-domain video inside Mrs. Doud’s Room
