Truman (173 page)
Authors: David McCullough
Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Presidents & Heads of State, #Political, #Historical
And with all my heart I thank my wife, Rosalee Barnes McCullough, who took part every step of the way and always to the benefit of the work and the author.
—David McCullough
Washington, D.C.; Liberty, Missouri;
Ithaca, New York; West Tisbury, Massachusetts
January 11, 1992
Index
“Lord, grant”: Gilbert,
Westering Man,
21.
One side-wheel steamer: Blue Springs (Missouri)
Examiner,
April 26, 1989.
One traveler described: Waugh, “Desultory Wanderings…,”
Missouri Historical Society,
April 1950.
“The Missouri is constantly’: Parkman,
Oregon Trail,
14.
in a letter from Missouri dated July 24, 1846: Nancy Tyler Holmes to Mary Jane Holmes, Harry S. Truman Library (cited hereafter as HSTL).
“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.
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.
“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 tragedy: 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.