In 1952, during Dwight Eisenhower's presidential campaign and Richard Nixon's vice-presidential campaign, Nixon stopped in Coshocton and addressed a crowd of 3,000 from the rear platform of his special campaign train on the Pennsylvania Railroad at Main Street. Local businesses closed as people walked to hear him speak, and it was the largest audience he drew in his three Ohio speeches that day. The stop came two weeks after his nationally known "Checkers Speech," in which he defended himself against allegations of mishandling campaign funds and declared that his family would keep the cocker spaniel named Checkers that had been sent from Texas.