HIDDEN HISTORY: Memorial to 'Great Commoner' Mostly Ignored in Vero VERO BEACH, FL (wqcs) - William Jennings Bryan, who ran for president three times, spoke in Vero Beach in 1925 after his national campaigns had ended. Not long after that speech, he participated in the famed Scopes "monkey trial" about the teaching of evolution in Tennessee. Bryan's ties to Vero, if any, seem to be lost to history. © Copyright 2009, wqcs