“As for myself’: Anderson Shipp Truman to Mary Truman, September 16, 1846, HSTL.
“grand prairie ocean”: Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, 59.
“Mules, horses”: Parkman, Journals, Vol. 2, 419.
“To live in a region:” History of Jackson County, 73.
“rich and beautiful uplands’: Gregg, 163.
“without other warrant”: History of Jackson County, 255.
Mormons must leave or be “exterminated”: Ibid., 268.
a lone assassin: Ibid., 257.
“Awful cold”: Quoted in Slaughter, Missouri Farm Family, 45.
“a gun and an axe”: John W. Meador, Oral History, HSTL.
“She was a strong woman”: HST quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 62.
In 1850, his recorded wealth: U.S. Census, 1850.
at nearly $50,000: U.S. Census, 1860.
a man “who could do pretty much anything”: HST quoted in Miller, 62.
“The wagons were coupled”: Deseret News, August 15, 1860, 188.
In the spring of 1849: History of Jackson County, 96.
In 1851 cholera struck again: Ibid.
“Come on then, gentlemen”: Quoted in Oates, To Purge This Land with Blood, 80.
“enough to kill every God-damned abolitionist”: Ibid., 89.
John Brown…come to “regulate matters”: Ibid., 130.
A Jackson County physician named Lee: History of Jackson County, 272.
“They asked me”: Ibid., 300.
Quantrill struck Kansas: Monaghan, Civil War on the Western Border, 286; Josephy, Civil War, 373.
Jim Crow Chiles: Sheley, “James Peacock and ‘Jim Crow’ Chiles,” Frontier Times, May 1963.
In the formal claim Harriet Louisa Young filed: U.S. House of Representatives, 59th Congress, 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. No. 901, June 19, 1906.
Recollection of Martha Ellen Young: Berger, “Mother Truman’s Life Not All Frontier Toil,” Kansas City Times, June 30, 1946 (reprinted from The New York Times).
“It is heartsickening to see”: Brownlee, Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy, 126-27.
“I hope you have not turned”: John Truman to Anderson Truman, October 8, 1861, HSTL.
the Red Legs had arrived: Daniels, Independence, 36.
Anderson loaded his five slaves: Ethel Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“They never bought one”: Ibid.
He was “universally hated”: Mary Paxton Keeley, Oral History, HSTL.
To black people he was a living terror: Donald R. Hale, “James Chiles—A Missouri Badman,” The West, October 1968.
“to see them jump”: Ibid.
the confrontation on the west side: Ibid.
it was said of John A. Truman: History of Jackson County, 986.
a three-drawer burl walnut dresser: Martha Ann Truman Swoyer, author’s interview.
The couple’s own first home: Kornitzer, “The Story of Truman and His Father,” Parents Magazine, March 1951.
Lamar Democrat: June 28, 1883.
a Baptist circuit rider: Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 20.
“Baby is real sick now”: Letter of Mary Martha Truman, April 7, 1885, HSTL.
he was chasing a frog: Autobiography, 3.
his mother, for fun: Ibid.
2. Model Boy
the happiest childhood: Harry S. Truman, Memoirs (cited hereafter as Memoirs), Vol. I, 113.
The farm was “a wonderful place”: Ibid., 115.
“I became familiar with every sort of animal”: Ibid.
“there were peach butter”: Ibid., 114.
The child liked everybody: Ibid., 124.
“flat eyeballs”: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 49.
Mamma taught that punishment followed: Autobiography, 33.
enough to “burn the hide off: HST quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 63.
John Truman acquired a house: Memoirs, Vol. I, 115.
“I do not remember a bad teacher”: Ibid., 118.
“When I was growing up”: Ibid., 124-25.
“He just smiled his way along”: Jackson (Mississippi) Daily News, December 21, 1947.
diphtheria: Memoirs, Vol. I, 116-17.
“didn’t scare easy”: Daniels, 53.
“not once,” he said: Quoted in Miller, 48.
“It was just something you did”: Ibid., 52.
“Harry, do you remember”: Daniels, 57.
“It’s a very lonely thing”: Quoted in Miller, 277–78.
Caroline Simpson taught: Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 24.
“To tell the truth”: Quoted in Miller, 32.
“They wanted to call him”: Henry P. Chiles, Oral History, HSTL.
“intended for a girl” anyway: HST to EW, April 8, 1912, in Ferrell, ed., Dear Bess (cited hereafter as Dear Bess), 80.
He patented a staple puller: Original patents, HSTL.
automatic railroad switch: Parents Magazine, March 1951.
“A mighty good trader”: Ibid.
“fight like a buzz saw”: Quoted in Steinberg, 17.
“A fiery fellow”: Stephen Slaughter, author’s interview.
“No one could make remarks”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 124.
“He had no use for a coward”: Parents Magazine, March 1951,
“Our house became headquarters”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 117-18.
“Harry was always fun”: Ethel Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“If I succeeded in carrying”: “Pickwick Papers,” May 14, 1934, HSTL.
“No! No! Harry was a Baptist”: Mary Paxton Keeley, Oral History, HSTL.
men with their blazing torches: Paxton, Memoirs, 22.
cows to milk: Autobiography, 30.
“in regard to integrity”: An Illustrated Description of Independence, Missouri, ca. 1902.
“There was conversation”: Quoted in Miller, 32.
“No town in the west”: An Illustrated Description of Independence, Missouri.
“Harry always wanted to know”: Amanda Hardin Palmer, Oral History, HSTL.
“The community at large”: Independence (Missouri) Examiner, August 23, 1901.
“Never, never give up”: Parents Magazine, March 1951.
“In those days”: Quoted in Miller, 62.
“Oh! Almighty and Everlasting God”: HST Diary, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record (cited hereafter as Off the Record, 188.
“There must have been a thousand”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 121.
“In a little closet”: Ibid., 122.
“the biggest thing that ever happened”: Ibid.
“I don’t know anybody”: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“He had a real feeling for history”: Quoted in Miller, 50.
“Reading history, to me”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 119.
“the salt of the earth”: Ibid., 118–19.
“It cultivates every faculty”: Course of Study and Rules and Regulations of the Independence Public Schools, March 15, 1909, HSTL.
HST composition books: Collection of James F. and Mary Ann Truman Swoyer.
“Mothers held him up as a model”: Leviero’, “Harry Truman, Musician and Music Lover,” The New York Times Magazine, June 18, 1950.
he genuinely adored the great classical works: Ibid.
“all right,” John Truman said: Parents Magazine, March 1951.
picnics every August at Lone Jack: Miller, 66–67.
HST at 1900 Democratic National Convention: Daniels, 58.
Caesar’s bridge: Miller, 33.
“over a good deal”: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“‘Progress’ is the cry”: The Gleam, Independence High School Annual, May 1901.
3. The Way of the Farmer
“I’m fine. And you?”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 12.
“plunged” into railroads: Ethel Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“He got the notion he could get rich”: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 59.
“mud horse”: Ibid.
Tasker Taylor t
ragedy: Independence Sentinel, August 23, 1902.
“A very down-to-earth education”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 123.
“He’s all right”: Jonathan Daniels interview notes, July 28, 1949, HSTL.
“Are you good at figures?”: April 24, 1903, HSTL.
“He is an exceptionally bright young man”: A D. Flintom to C. H. Moore, April 14, 1904, HSTL.
“Trueman,” as Flintom spelled it: A. D. Flintom to C. H. Moore, July 27, 1904, HSTL.
“never so happy as when”: Autobiography, 20.
Wallace suicide: Jackson Examiner, June 19, 1903.
“an attractiveness about him”: Ibid.
“Why should such a man”: Ibid.
wedding of Madge Gates to David Wallace: Kansas City Journal, June 15, 1883.
“[Bessie] was walking up and down”: Mary Paxton Keeley, Oral History, HSTL.
“Ties Collar Cuffs Pins”: HST Expenses Diary, HSTL.
A note from “Horatio”: HST to EN, February 2, 1904, HSTL.
A performance by Richard Mansfield: Autobiography, 22.
“They wanted to see him grin”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 84.
“I was twenty-one”: Autobiography, 27.
dress uniform episode: Ibid., 28.
“when a bachelor”: Dahlberg, Because I Was Flesh, 1.
Virgil Thomson, who was to become: Thomson, Virgil Thomson, 3.
“Harry and I had only a dollar a week”: Daniels, 70.
Trumans move back to Grandview: Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 32.
His friends were sure: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“and woe to the loafer”: Autobiography, 36.
“Well, if you don’t work”: Robert Wyatt, Oral History, HSTL.
“The simple life was not always”: Stephen Slaughter, author’s interview.
“My father told me”: Quoted in Daniels, 76.
Yet John Truman was happier: Parents Magazine, March 1951.
“Yes, and if you did a good job”: Gaylon Babcock, Oral History, HSTL.
A few days later: Renshaw, “President Truman. His Missouri Neighbors Tell of His Farm Years,” The Prairie Farmer, May 12, 1945.
Harry also kept the books: HST Account Books, HSTL.
“The coldest day in winter”: HST to EW, May 19, 1913, Dear Bess, 125.
“finest land you’d find”: Quoted in Miller, 89.
“always bustling around”: The Prairie Farmer, May 12, 1945.
“The ground was terribly hard”: Ibid.
“He was so down-to-earth”: Pansy Perkins, Oral History, HSTL.
“He always looked neat”: Slaughter, author’s interview.
“Harry was a very good lodge man”: Babcock, Oral History, HSTL.
“Frank Blair got Harry interested”: Slaughter, author’s interview.
“Papa buys me candy”: HST to EW, April 27, 1911, Dear Bess, 30.
“To be a good farmer in Missouri”: Vivian quoted in Parents Magazine, March 1951.
“You know as long as”: HST to EW, October 16, 1911, Dear Bess, 52.
“Well, I saw her”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 32.
“Isn’t she a caution?”: HST to EW, March 19, 1911, Dear Bess, 25.
“I’m always rattled”: HST to EW, postmark illegible, ibid., 134.
“Say, it sure is a grand thing”: HST to EW, February 13, 1912, ibid., 73.
“It is necessary to sit”: HST to EW, July 8, 1912, HSTL.
“This morning I was helping”: HST to EW, January 26, 1911, Dear Bess, 21.
“I have been to the lot”: HST to EW, April 1, 1912, ibid., 80.
“I’m horribly anxious for you”: HST to EW, April 8, 1912, ibid., 81.
“You know when people can get excited”: HST to EW, March 19, 1911, ibid., 25.
“you’ve no idea”: HST to EW, May 17, 1911, ibid., 33.
“I am by religion”: HST to EW, February 7, 1911, ibid., 22.
“Lent and such things”: HST to EW, March 19, 1911, ibid., 24.
“I have been reading David Copperfield”: HST to EW, May 3, 1911, ibid., 31.
“you know, were I an Italian”: HST to EW, June 22, 1911, ibid., 39.
“You know that you turned me down”: HST to EW, July 12, 1911, ibid, 40.
In August, he announced: HST to EW, August 27, 1911, ibid., 44; September 5, 1911, 45.
“I was reading Plato’s Republic”: HST to EW, November 6, 1912, ibid., 103.
“He had found he could get”: HST to EW, May 23, 1916, ibid., 200.
“girl mouth”: HST to EW, November 19, 1913, ibid., 145.
“so long as he’s honest”: HST to EW, June 22, 1911, ibid., 39.
“Did you ever sit”: HST to EW, November 1, 1911, ibid., 57.
“We never rated a person”: Slaughter, author’s interview.
“Just imagine how often”: HST to EW, November 1, 1911, Dear Bess, 57.
“hat-full of debts”: HST to EW, December 21, 1911, ibid., 64.
two reasons for wanting to be rich: HST to EW, January 25, 1912, ibid., 69.
“I really thought once I’d be”: HST to EW, May 23, 1911, ibid., 36.
“I am like Mark Twain”: HST to EW, May 17, 1911, ibid., 34.
“You know a man has to be”: HST to EW, July 12, 1911, ibid., 41.
“who knows, maybe I’ll be”: HST to EW, May 23, 1911, ibid., 36.
“Sucker! Sucker!”: HST to EW, October 22, 1911, ibid., 53.
three hundred bales of hay: HST to EW, August 12, 1912, ibid., 93.
“I have been working like Sam Hill”: HST to EW, September 30, 1913, ibid., 137.
father in a “terrible stew”: HST to EW, postmarked November 11, 1913, HSTL.
“Politics is all he ever advises me”: HST to EW, August 6, 1912, Dear Bess, 92.
“I don’t think we would have traded him for anybody”: Slaughter, author’s interview.
“I never understood”: Ibid.
“Politics sure is the ruination”: HST to EW, postmark illegible, Dear Bess, 132.
“I told him that was a very mild remark”: HST to EW, May 26, 1913, ibid., 126.
He was the one person: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
another try in an Indian land lottery: HST to EW, September 30, 1913, Dear Bess, 138.
“all puffed up”: HST to EW, November 4, 1913, ibid., 141–42.
“How does it feel to be engaged to a clodhopper”: HST to EW, November 10, 1913, ibid., 143.
“I know your last letter word for word”: HST to EW, November 19, 1913, ibid., 145.
“Oh please send me another like it”: Ibid.
“Mrs. Wallace wasn’t a bit in favor of Harry”: Ardis Haukenberry, author’s interview.
“We have moved around quite a bit”: HST to EW, February 16, 1911, Dear Bess, 24.
“Yes, it is true that Mrs. Wallace did not think”: May Wallace, author’s interview.
mother’s operation for a hernia: HST to EW, March 20, 1914, Dear Bess, 161.
“I hope she lives to be”: HST to EW, January 26, 1914, ibid., 157.
Mamma gave him the money for an automobile: HST to EW, May 12, 1914, ibid., 168.
“Harry didn’t like onions”: May Wallace, author’s interview.
“I started for Monegaw Springs”: HST to EW, no postmark. Dear Bess,183.
“Imagine working the roads”: HST to EW, August 8, 1914, ibid., 172.
“If anyone asks him how he’s feeling”: HST to EW, September 28, 1914, ibid., 176.
“good letters” helped “put that backbone into me”: HST to EW, September 17, 1914, ibid., 175.
his father, who refused to let the nurse: HST to EW, November 1914, ibid., 178.
“I remember the Sunday afternoon”: Slaughter, History of a Missouri Farm Family, 71.
“I was with him”: Daniels, 74.
“Harry and I often got up”: Parents Magazine, March 1951.
“An Upright Citizen”: Independence Examiner, November 3, 1914.
“I have
quite a job on my hands”: HST to EW, November 1914, Dear Bess, 178.
“quiet wheat-growing people”: Cather, One of Ours, 143.
“gave it everything he had”: Quoted in Miller, 90.
“I almost got done planting”: HST to EW, April 28, 1915, Dear Bess, 182.
“It’s right unhandy to chase”: HST to EW, Grandview, 1915, ibid., 181.
he traveled to Texas; HST to EW, February 16, 1916, ibid., 185.
“There’s no one wants to win”: HST to EW, February 19, 1916, ibid., 187.
“This place down here”: HST to EW, date illegible, ibid., 193.
“I don’t suppose”: HST to EW, June 3, 1916, ibid., 201.
“I can’t possibly lose forever”: HST to EW, April 24, 1916, ibid., 198.
“The mine has gone by the board”: HST to EW, May 19, 1916, ibid., 199.
He could “continue business”: HST to EW, May 23, 1916, ibid., 200.
“It’s about 111 degrees in the shade”: HST to EW, July 30, 1916, ibid., 206.
“Wish heavy for me to win”: HST to EW, July 28, 1916, ibid.
“Keep wishing me luck”: HST to EW, August 4, 1916, ibid., 207.
buying and selling oil leases: Steinberg, 39.
“signed also by Martha E. Truman”: Ibid, 39.
“came up every time with something else”: HST to EW, August 5, 1916, Dear Bess, 209.
“Truman was surrounded by people, people, people”: Daniels, 81.
“If this venture blows”: HST to EW, January 23, 1917, Dear Bess, 213.
“In the event this country”: Daniels, 83.
Teeter Pool discovered: Memoirs, Vol. I, 127.
He said $11,000 at the time: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 56.
If his part in his father’s debts: HST to EW, April 28, 1915, Dear Bess, 182.
he was never meant for a farmer: Noland, Oral History, HSTL.
“Riding one of these plows all day”: HST, “Autobiographical Sketch,” HSTL.
“It takes pride to run a farm”: HST to MET and MJT, September 18, 1946, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 96.
4. Soldier
“It is the great adventure”: HST to EW, September 15, 1918, Dear Bess, 271.
“we got through”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 93.
Some people thought her the best looking: Gaylon Babcock, Oral History, HSTL.
“It was quite a blow”: Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 42.
She must not tie herself: HST to EW, July 14, 1917, Dear Bess, 225.
the reasons to go to war: HST to EW, January 18, 1918, HSTL.
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