Lou was born in 1874, the same year as her husband Herbert, in a small Iowa town less than 100 miles from Herbert's. She never met Herbert until they were both students at Stanford University in California. Lou's mother was often ill, and her only sibling was a sister eight years her junior. As a result, she was drawn very close to her father, and accompanied him horseback riding, hiking, camping, and fishing.
For college, she first chose a normal school that claimed to have "the best gymnasium west of the Mississippi" and then switched to a teachers' college from which she earned a certificate in 1894. Neither of those schools, nor a job as a clerk in her father's bank, satisfied her.
While working in her father's bank, she attended a lecture by a Stanford University geology professor. She became interested in geology, and enrolled at Stanford as the first female geology major in the school's history. During her freshman year at Stanford, she met Herbert Hoover, then a senior. By the time she graduated, Herbert was already earning $40,000 a year as an engineer in Australia. He wired his proposal to her from Australia.
He returned to the United States to marry Lou and take her to his new post as head of China's mine program. Since they had to catch a ship for China the very next day, they didn't have time to find a Quaker minister (Herbert's faith) or an Episcopalian (Lou's faith). They were married in a civil ceremony by a family friend who happened to be a Catholic priest.
Just a few months after arriving, the Hoovers found themselves in the middle of the "Boxer" Rebellion. A secret society of nationalists, the Boxers sought to rid China of foreigners. The Boxers began to launch violent attacks on the international community. Lou Hoover's trips into the interior of the country were quickly ended, and in June of 1900, Herbert called in all his workers.
To protect themselves, Tientsin's foreigners blockaded themselves in the international section of the city. The Hoovers lived on the edge of the international compound, and moved into a friend's home in the center of the protected area. But they returned to their home just before the attack began. An American journalist who had taken refuge in the Hoover's home described Lou's bravery under fire. He told how, when the shelling started, Lou went to the door to see where the first shell hit, only to find a large hole in the back yard. Expecting more shells to follow, Lou sat down in the living room and played solitaire. Even though a Japanese soldier was blown to bits outside her front door and the stairway banister was splintered by stray bullets, she continued to calmly play cards.
