Eighty-four years after he returned to his boyhood home of Elwood, Indiana, on Aug. 17, 1940, to give his speech accepting the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, Wendell Willkie can still attract a crowd. However, arriving in Elwood by train and traveling by motorcade to Callaway Park on that August day, Willkie was greeted by an overflowing crowd of fans and supporters. Born in Elwood in 1892, Willkie was considered a dark horse presidential candidate, according to the biography that James Madison, professor emeritus of history at Indiana University Bloomington, wrote for “Indiana 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State.”