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The Dear Bess and Dear Harry Podcast, from Harry S Truman National Historic Site

Harry S Truman

From Harry S Truman National Historic Site; a chance to share some of the stories associated with Harry Truman, Bess W. Truman and their times. We will share letters written between Harry Truman, Bess Wallace Truman, Margaret Truman, and others. We will link to digital versions of the letters in case you'd like to see them. You may need to refresh the page for the latest episode.

Episodes

Dear Bess: March 2, 1948

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for March 2, 2023, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service, in partnership with the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, part of the National Archives.

Today’s letter was written 75 years ago today, March 2, 1948. 1948 was one of the most pivotal years in Harry Truman’s life. He was planning to run for a term as President in his own right, but was, according to the polls, unpopular across the country and even in his political party. But rarely will you ever sense any pessimism in anything Truman ever wrote that year. He sensed all along that he would win.

Some fun references to film star Boris Karloff. Forever known as Frankenstein’s monster, Mr. Karloff, like most actors, was eager to show that he had depth beyond that. But the best part of this letter, simply, is the radiant way that Truman writes about his relaxing time at Key West, Florida. Today, where Truman stayed in Key West is another terrific Truman related site that you can visit.

Thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.

Key West Mar. 2, 1948

Dear Bess:

Surely was glad to get your 28th letter and one from Margie in yesterdays pouch.

Glad you & Margie & Drucie had a chance to see Boris Karloff. The play, I'd judge, is depessing [sic]. Wish I could hear the skit.

Had a press conference and it turned out well - believe it or not. The setting for it was beautiful and the press boys showed their appreciation. Only one smart aleck present John O'Donnell and he got no answer to his question. One asking what I thought Farley thought and intended to do. I told him that Farley himself would be his best source of information.

Went to the beach and had a good swim had lunch at 12:30 and went fishing. We drew sides, Adm. Leahy in charge of one side and I'm charge of the other. I had Clifford, Dr. Graham, Col Landry, & Bill Hassett and the Adm had Vaughan, Capt Denison, John Steelman Eben Ayers & Stanley Woodward. We made up a pot, putting $500 apiece, $1000 to go for the longest fish $1000 for the heaviest fish and the balance to be distributed among the people on the side that caught the most fish by night.

On our side Dr. Graham caught two, a barracuda & a grouper, Clifford a nice grouper & Bill Hassett a 25 pound amberjack. Total weight 421/2 pounds.

Capt. Denison caught beautiful mackerel weight 291/2 pounds and about 3 ft long. So he won both prizes of $1000 but our side divided up the pot. I made a dollar getting six back for my five.

We go again tomorrow. I hope the wind won't blow so much. It rained nearly all night last night but is clear & sunny now. Will have to quit the pouch is leaving.

Lot of love

Harry.

Tell Margie I'll answer after some deliberation.

1948. Perhaps the most consequential year of Harry S Truman's political life. This letter, written while on vacation at Key West, Florida, radiates the optimism that became Truman's trademark that year.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-truman-1921-1959/march-2-1948

Dear Bess: February 27, 1912

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast, for February 27, 2023, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service, in partnership with the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, part of the National Archives.

Today’s Dear Bess letter was written on this date in 1912, and sort of revolves around family. Harry S Truman, farmer, talks about some of his cousins, his paternal grandmother, in a very rare mention, and more. Of his four grandparents, Mary Jane Holmes Truman was the only one that Harry Truman never met and, of course, had no memory of. Mary Jane Holmes Truman died about five years before Harry Truman was born. Truman’s baby sister, Mary Jane, was named after her.

Truman also makes note of the ongoing litigation against him and his family. This litigation had its roots in the will of his other grandmother, Harriet Louisa Gregg Young, who left almost everything, including the land to Harry Truman, his parents, and Harriet’s brother Harrison. After years of dreadful and expensive litigation, the will was upheld. But it cost the Trumans dearly…not only financially, but in terms of family relations. Harry Truman did his best to be a peacemaker in this situation. Unfortunately, much of the paper trail for this litigation has been lost, and a lot of what we do know comes from these “Dear Bess” letters.

As always, thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.

Grandview, Mo. February 27, 1912

Dear Bessie: There. I got it that time without any scratches whatever. It really doesn't look so well as the other but if you like it best that way why that way goes. It sounds better though.

I had the pleasure of escorting Nellie to the airline and Ethel to Maywood the other morning. They saw us going to church alright and joshed me considerably about spending a weekend in town. But it put them in a better humor than they had been when I stayed Sunday night with them. Ethel and I were on our usual footing again but Nellie will have to be extra good to me yet before I forget her nice remarks.

Did you have a good time at Miss Nellie's? I am sure you did though. I am scheduled to appear in Belton this evening as assistant to the Deputy Grand Master. I am going to begin forgetting from now on. The calls are coming too thick entirely. I have to go to Freeman on Saturday and Friday our own session comes off. That dispenses with three nights on which I receive nothing but hot air and get my hatband sprung. I am hoping that the said hatband will soon reach its greatest diameter, in which case I can stay home on at least every third evening. I am hoping to be in town tomorrow, in which case I shall call you up and if you feel inclined, we can go to a show. I have forgotten how to spell the word for afternoon performance. I shall have to go out to my Colgan cousins in the evening and discuss Wedding Marches and such things. Of course Myra says she won't need to worry about such a thing until June or September but she appears very anxious that I know the march right away quick. The cousins are all going to chip in and buy her some silver. I think it would be better to do that than for each of us to give her something useless, don't you? My working days are slowly and surely approaching. Vivian moves on Friday and the following Wednesday it is goodbye hired men. Then Lent sets in for a year and a day with Harry. But work is the only way I see to arrive at conclusions. This thing of sitting down and waiting for plutocratic relatives to decease and then getting left doesn't go with much. I intend making my own way if it takes ten years, which sounds like Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth or Mary Jane Holmes. Some Gilliss expressions are good anyway aren't they? Mary Jane Holmes was my grandmother's name before she married a Truman but she was no kin to the famous one. A person would feel better and could wear a much larger hat if he made his own change than he could if someone gave it to him. If we can just settle our lawsuit this farm will produce about six or seven thousand a year clear and that means about three more than that in town. Such things though take bushels of time and barrels of money. Such things make awful dry letters too but I am hoping that when the seven thousand stage is reached I can persuade you to help spend my half of it. Our dear relatives may take the whole works yet and then we'll have to begin again. That sure would be awful, but I guess we'd live through it.

Don't forget a grand opera some night next week. How would you like to see the Orpheum Road Show in the afternoon and then go to dinner somewhere and then go to the Shubert? We could end up the season in one big splash for there is no telling when I'll get to a show after the sixth of March.

I don't suppose Miss Andrews would care if you ditched her for one afternoon and evening, would she?

I hope to see you tomorrow but if I don't you'll know I couldn't come in until four o'clock.

You owe me a letter. When I send you Montgomery Ward's catalogue you'll owe me a 1,250 page one.

Sincerely, Harry

Lots of family in this wonderful letter from early 1912. Harry Truman always prided himself on being able to be a peacemaker in the family, and you pick up on that in this letter.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/february-27-1912

Dear Bess: February 21, 1918

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast, for February 21, 2023, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service, in partnership with the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, part of the National Archives. The Truman Library does a marvelous…absolutely marvelous…job preserving these letters for present and future generations.

Today’s Dear Bess letter was written on this date in 1918, while Lieutenant Harry S Truman was still training in Oklahoma, and while he and his men were still awaiting orders to ship to Europe to fight in the great war effort. It’s difficult for us, perhaps, to understand the sense of anticipation, fear, and other emotions that Truman and all his colleagues were feeling. They knew who and what they were leaving behind, and after seeing the headlines, they knew what they were heading into. They, too, were a greatest generation. Thank you for listening. Here’s the letter.

February 22, 1918 Lawton, Okla.

Dear Bess:

This day has been a bright one. So was yesterday. I got your letter both days, and I have been the delinquent party this week. I hope you won't blame me when I tell you what has been happening. The overseas detachment is again having spasms of preparation to leave. I am still on it, thank heaven, and so of course I am having spasms too. I had a regular one yesterday when Colonel Danford ordered me up before an examining board not for efficiency but for promotion. I think I failed miserably because General Berry was so gruff and discourteous in his questions that I forgot all I ever knew and couldn't answer him. He said, "Eh huh! You don't know, do you? I thought so. You don't know. That'll be all, outside." He kept me and the two others, Lieutenant Paterson and Lieutenant Marks, standing out in the cold so long that we took a terrific cold and I couldn't get up this morning for reveille. I got up for breakfast and outside of a slight headache I am all in good health and spirits. That is as good spirits as could be expected in a man when he falls down on an examination. We had no opportunity for preparation and I suppose that it would have been no better if we had. I have been looking for them to say that it was a mistake and that an efficiency board is what I needed instead of an examining one. Please don't say anything about it until the announcement is made as to whether I get the promotion or not. If I don't get it then we won't say anything. If I do then we can tell it. I guess it is a compliment anyway to get ordered up even if I didn't pass. They almost sent me home on a physical, too, yesterday but I talked past the M.D. He turned my eyes down twice and threatened to send me to division headquarters for a special examination and then didn't. I guess I can put a real good conversation when circumstances demand it. You see by taking everything together if I hadn't gotten your letters, I'd sure have been a blue person. In addition to all the other things I did yesterday I turned the exchange over to Captain Butterfield and sat on a general court martial. Some day, wasn't it? Can you wonder that I didn't get up for reveille and still have a slight headache?

I shall cable you as soon as I arrive in Europe. I thought I told you I would once before. I intended to anyway. I am glad Uncle William was landed safely and I hope to see him when I get across. I don't know much to tell you about leaving, but I'll let you know immediately I start. I shall also let you know if I get the two bars. Please don't say anything about that though until I hear that I'm turned down, which is what we all think. I am no longer Trumanheimer. Did I tell you I met a pretty girl in Guthrie who was nice to me until someone told her my name was Trumanheimer, and then she wouldn't look at me anymore. She thought I surely must be of Hebraic descent with that name. She of course didn't know that it is little I care what she thinks or doesn't.

Please write me as often as possible because the days are sure brighter and not so hard when your letters come.

I think of you always.

Yours, Harry

In this letter from 1918, Lieutenant Harry S Truman writes about his anxiety stemming from an examination for promotion. Will he be promoted to Captain? Stay tuned.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/february-22-1918?documentid=NA&pagenumber=1

Dear Bess: February 13, 1912

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for February 13, 2023, brought to you by the staff of Harry S Truman National Historic Site, in partnership with our best friends at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.

Today’s letter was written on February 13, 1912, which happened to be Bess Wallace’s birthday. We wonder if Truman celebrated Miss Wallace’s birthday all along in some manner, going back to the time that they met 22 years earlier. They met at a Presbyterian Sunday school in Independence in 1890. But now, in 1912, Harry Truman was working on his maternal grandparents’ farm in Grandview, Missouri, and Miss Wallace was living in her maternal grandparents’ home at 219 North Delaware Street in Independence.

When Mr. Truman refers to his Aunt Ella, he is speaking of his Aunt Ella Truman Noland. Ella Noland was his father’s sister, and, in 1912, lived almost across the street from Miss Wallace and her family, at 216 North Delaware Street. When you come and do a tour of the Truman Home today, you can visit the Noland Home!

Grandview, Mo. February 13, 1912

Dear Bessie:

Since this is your birthday and tomorrow is St. Valentines's and I have neither a present nor a valentine to send you, I shall try and make some amends by sending you a very ordinary letter. Which all sounds very stilted and set just as if it was copied from some ancient work on how to write letters. Doesn't it? Well, anyhow (with emphasis on the how) I wanted to send you something but hadn't brains enough to think of anything decent enough that would properly fit my present assets. So I thought I would get nothing and just tell you about it. That probably won't do you any good but then a good intention ought to count for something even if Pluto does pave his front yard with them.

Would it be the proper thing, do you think, for me to buy some Pink Lady tickets for you and your San Antonio friend for some day next week? If you think so, I would be most happy to do it. I told Mary this morning that Aunt Ella is expecting her to stay all night at Independence Friday, and now I shall have to call up my dear Aunt and tell her Mary is coming down Friday evening. When they come together they'll compare notes and consign me to the Ananias Club, I guess. Anyway Mary jumped at the chance to go to Aunt Ella's, saying she was mighty glad she was asked because she hadn't made up her mind where to stay. Aunt Ella is always glad to have us come down there, so there is no harm done and I won't have to stand an unmerciful grilling from now until Friday just because I want Mary to go to Independence with you. Mary doesn't know yet that we are to be present at the recital. She has already wanted to borrow my glasses, and I am going to be very generous and lend them to her so I won't have to make my pockets sag with them all day. I fear this letter makes me appear as a very sordid and unscrupulous person-but in some cases, you know, the end justifies the means. Miss Maggie would be terribly shocked if she knew I had any slick Jesuit beliefs in my system. She did her very level best to impress us with the fact that the end never justified the means if a person had to overstep the ten great laws to obtain his end.

I think most people are like the man I read of the other day who was waiting to see a friend and picked up a Bible. It fell open at the twentieth chapter of Exodus and he just read the commandments while he waited. When he got through he thought awhile and then said, "Well, I've never killed anybody anyway." I heard a man tell another one on the train last night, that he would have stolen a Bible if he could have gotten it to go into his pocket. Then he went on to describe what a fine one it was with a red leather back and fine wood engravings. Said he wanted it most awful bad but the owner watched him so closely he couldn't get away with it. Now, I think a man ought to draw the line at stealing a Bible. Of course, I suppose it is no worse to steal one than it is to steal any other book or piece of furniture, but it sounds rather sacrilegious, to say the least. I am sure that if I were in the stealing business, I'd be rather superstitious about stealing one.

Say, it sure is a grand thing that I have a high-school dictionary handy. I even had to look on the back to see how to spell the book itself. The English language so far as spelling goes was created by Satan I am sure. It makes no difference how well educated or how many letters a man can string to the back of his name, he never learns to spell so he is exactly sure i shouldn't be e or a, o. I can honestly say I admire Roosevelt for his efforts to make people spell what they say. He really ought to begin on his own name though. Tell Frank that so far as I have sounded, which is only very little, Mize has the bilge on Chrisman, and Gentry is not so well thought of as formerly. I am sure that George would make a good race in this township because he has a great many personal friends around here.

The heavenly geese are certainly shedding feathers around this neighborhood this morning. About two inches of them have fallen already. I guess old man winter is going to stay until March, sure enough. We sure ought to produce a crop out of all proportion to former ones if hard winters count for much! All the oldest inhabitants say they do.

I didn't get any breakfast this morning but I told Mamma I didn't want any because I had some most awful good waffles at about 100:00 P.M. They sure were good.

This is one bum epistle (emphasis on the bum) and I have no excuse to offer for I am doing my level best. As the country newspapers say, news in our burg is on the run and I can't catch up. Anyway, I hope you'll live a thousand years if you want to and never get a day older than you are.

I shall call you up on Friday as soon as I can get to a phone and you can decide if I shall come for you or not. It seems as if I should since I shall desert before Mr. DePachmann gets done throwing fits. He is going to play Mendelssohn's "Spinning Song" and Chopin's great Ab waltz.

Please, I think you owe me a letter even if this concoction is a substitute for something else.

Sincerely, Harry

It's the first known time that Harry Truman wrote Bess Wallace on her birthday...and he combines it with a Valentine's Day greeting. But he regrets he doesn't have the ability to do much more than this letter. But what a fascinating letter it is!

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/february-13-1912

Dear Bess: February 11, 1918

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for February 11, 2023, brought to you by the staff of Harry S Truman National Historic Site, in partnership with our best friends at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.

Our Dear Bess letter for today was written on this date in 1918. Lieutenant Harry S Truman, still training with his men in Oklahoma, preparing for their eventual mobilization to Europe as part of the Great War, covers a lot in this letter.

In the first paragraph, Truman references training on how to prepare for a gas attack. Gas warfare was one of the horrors introduced in World War I, and it was obviously on the minds of troops in training. No doubt they were hearing of the horrible effects of gas on their colleagues.

Truman also makes a sweet reference to how Miss Bess Wallace’s voice sounded on the phone. How we wish we had more recordings of her voice. But Bess Wallace Truman was always adverse to having anything recorded, so we have precious few examples of her beautiful voice. And it was, too!

Thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.

Lawton, Okla. Feb. 11, 1918

Dear Bess:

Your letters were all waiting for me when I got back and I got one last night. I hope you got my last Oklahoma City letter Sunday. (Filled my pen here. It's always dry when I need it.) I have been going like a horse since I got back. Went over and took some special instructions on gas protection. Had to take a mask like a diver's and get into it and then go into the gas house and sit there ten minutes. Some of the men were very uneasy about going on. They were afraid they'd get gassed and never see the Kaiser. I don't see that it makes any very great difference where a person gets gassed or shot either provided he's slated for either one, because the same result takes place. Still I reckon there's more honor in getting battle wounds than training ones. Don't you worry about what's going to happen to me because there's not a bullet molded for me nor has Neptune any use for me. Had I have been on the boat that went down, I'd have been in Dublin by this time with some Irish woman at a dance (if she looked like you) or taking a look for the man who invented corks and corkscrews. Ireland's a great country so they say.

Mr. Lee is back and says that he sure likes the sound of your voice over the phone. I told him that he had good judgement [sic] and so have I. You don't know what I'd give to see you or even listen to your voice over the phone. You know what, the poet says that Spring time does for young men.

I can't imagine why my letters arrive unsealed because I am always very careful to given them an extra pat at both ends. This one will surely get there sealed. Col Klemm was here today. He seemed very glad to see me and so did Col Elliott. They go to the School of Fire today for ten weeks.

Please wire me if you get sick because I am terribly uneasy if I think the least thing is the matter. I am going to wire you tomorrow if I don't hear that you are all right. For goodness sake don't worry about me. I have so much to do I can't be into meanness and when I have a minute I'm writing to you or mamma. I took some sergeants out riding today to show them how to figure a deflection and also how to sit on a horse. We rode up Signal Mtn and down again and one or two were very glad to get back to camp. One of them informed me that he would stand up to rest for a couple of days. I must be getting to be a tough guy because I don't get tired and I can ride all day without unpleasantness. I have decided to make good and not get an efficiency test (therefore I may get it). You know very well you wouldn't have me home for that even as badly as I'd like to come and you'd like to have me. I'd be forever disgraced. They may have to send me to the supply department or some where like that but I don't reckon they'll give me a test just yet.

I wanted to come home last Sunday so badly I nearly did anyway. I guess I was too cautious but if I'd get kick out for disobedience it would be worse than the other way. I am writing under difficulty. My board keeps slipping and if I go to the canteen I'll have so much conversation I can't write.

Please send me a wire or letter to let me know you are all in good health and spirits and not doing any worrying over a good-for-nothing person like me. I am awfully glad you think I'm well enough without a D.S.O. because I'll never get one. The Huns can't run fast enough to catch me. I don't think they could make another like yourself because perfection comes but once.

Yours always, Harry

Lieutenant Harry S Truman wrote this letter to Miss Bess Wallace while still in training for his eventual mobilization into war.

Check out the last line...it's a beauty!

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/february-11-1918

Dear Bess: January 30, 1912

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess, Dear Harry podcast for January 30, 2023, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, in partnership with the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.

Today’s letter was written on this date in 1912. Truman begins his letter by writing “Grandburg.” Why? We don’t know. Was it a simple error, or a humorous allusion? We’ll never know. But Harry Truman covers a lot in this letter, from some of the dirty work he has to do on the farm, to some of the efforts he was making with the Masons, to some of his other social excursions. One of the things that living on the farm did for Harry Truman was allow him to become more involved in the social scenes in Independence, Grandview, Kansas City, and elsewhere. Today, we call it networking…and it served Truman well in his eventual public service career. This letter is wonderful, too, in that his brother Vivian, sister-in-law Louella, his father…all make an appearance.

Thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.

Grandburg January 30,1912

Dear Bessie,

Give me credit for a very early response. You certainly did write me one fine letter (put emphasis on fine, not on one, because they're all fine) and I am going to answer it immediately.

I am going to start in real earnest now to get some of the dirty pelf, for what you say sounds kind of encouraging, whether you meant it that way or not. I am glad Mary Paxton and I can agree on one subject if it is unintentional. We never could when we were kids. But Mary's correct this time. I hope she gets her millionaire someday. I am not resting up to go to work-I have been working up to get in trim. Shucked shock corn all day Saturday and got my eyes so full of dust that I could almost scoop it out. They looked like a professional toper's the next day. We have about four hundred shocks left to shuck before we are done. It is a job invented by Satan himself. Dante sure left something from the tenth circle when he failed to say that the inhabitants of that dire place shucked shock corn. I am sure they do. I hope never to see another year when it is necessary to save so much of it. We are lucky, though, to have it, as it takes the place of hay at twenty dollars a ton. Papa pretends he doesn't mind doing it, but he does just the same.

I went down to Drexel last night with Mr. Blair and acted as assistant district lecturer. Went down on the K.C.S. and got back at 5:50 a.m. Got four hours sleep. You ought to see me teach blockheaded Masons how to talk. (Don't ever say that to anyone, for we don't admit that there are any of that kind.) They'd have to be blockheads if I taught them. We had lots of fun. There was a big, old fat guy present who got me tickled and I lost all my high-and-mightiness in short order. We met an old fellow at the hotel who was a cow buyer and a character. He'd quarrel with anybody on any subject. He bet a dollar that Taft would be nominated and then bet two that Teddy would. He fussed with the hotel man because the damper on the stovepipe was not turned at the proper angle. I guess he must have been seventy, but he was six feet tall and straight as a boy. Everybody thought he was funny. He didn't mean half he said but it sounded mighty mean when he said it.

I have to go help Mr. Blair out when it is possible for me to get away, because he has paid my expenses a couple of times to State Lodges of Instruction. I saw his wife on the train the last time I was in town, and she said he had gone off somewhere that day. Said she guessed it was on Lodge business because he always told her where he went except when he went to Lodge.

I won a pound-box of candy on your name the other day. What do you think of that? I went up to Grandview and a man in the confectionary business had one of those cards all full of girls' names. Each name had a number under it on a slip. I took a shot at the best name in the bunch and won a sixty-cent box of Louney's for a dime. That's the second time I've done it. Before, I tore off Elizabeth and won two pounds. I was going to bring you that box but those cousins of mine came out, and Mary knew I had the box and so I had to give it up. They never knew how I got it though.

I shall sure be glad to go to Salisbury's for dinner Sunday. But don't you think people would think I am a terrible tightwad if we walk? I'd like to walk all right and would certainly enjoy it, but please be sure I am perfectly willing to invest in a rig for one day. I hope Miss Dicie does loosen up for Saturday evening, because my time is getting short and I am dying to see Mrs. Polly (as I said before.) I hope this baby hasn't whooping cough. She would think her visit was hoodooed sure if anything was to happen to it.

If Miss D. takes a notion for Saturday, will you call me up? Have it reversed because I'll be the one who benefits. I wonder if her ears burn. Maybe writing doesn't have the same effect on a person's ears as talking. If it does, Miss Dicie's ears ought to be about done enough for sandwiches. Don't you think? I ought to be helping Vivian and Luella to move, but Papa sent the hired men and I am putting my time to better use-at least I think so whether you will or not. Maybe you'll wish I had helped more. I hope not though. And I also hope you'll think you owe me a letter. Two of these tablecloth-size sheets are equal to almost four of your size, so I send more words if you do send more sense. I am glad to get them though, any size or style. Hope to see you Saturday and shall Sunday anyway.

Sincerely,

Harry

A fascinating letter for you today, from this date in 1912. At the very beginning, Truman writes that he is writing from "Grandburg." Why? Was it a simple mistake, or an in-joke? We'll never know. But this letter shows you how busy a fellow Harry Truman was in early 1912, between his work on the farm and his social efforts.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/january-30-1912

Dear Bess: January 27, 1918

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for January 27, 2023, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.

A most interesting letter do we have for you today, from this date in 1918. You will note a touch of disappointment in Harry Truman’s writing, as he and his men have had a delay in their deployment to Europe to be part of the Great War. Truman and his men have been training non-stop for this, and believed in the cause. But Truman also realizes that if he doesn’t go, he gets to go home to Jackson County where his beloved Miss Bess Wallace is. No doubt he was conflicted. To go “over there,” or go home and be with his fiancée and his mother?

As always, thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.

Lawton, Okla. Sunday, January 27, 1918

Dear Bess:

I am keeping my promise although my hands are so cold I can hardly write. It does no good to sit on them and you are so far away that old Dr. Miller's remedy can't be worked. We are having a blizzard in real Western Plains style. It began yesterday at noon, coming out of the northwest as suddenly as a thunderclap. The weather was warm as springtime, the sun shining and everything fine, by night it was zero and snowing, sleeting, doing everything else it shouldn't. Our tent is usually as warm as a house but for some reason our stove refuses to draw this morning and we have a cold tent. I am writing to Mamma this morning for the first time in two weeks. I guess she thinks I'm already in France or at the bottom of the Atlantic.

We are sure a disappointed bunch. Got our goods and chattels all packed, weighed, and marked and then turned right round and unpacked 'em. The King of France had nothing on us for we'd already arrived in Paris with a through ticket to Berlin, and now we've got to stay in this magnificent training camp and in all probability get benzined and sent home. We'd all figured that we'd beaten the benzene board by a nose when we were ordered abroad. They are most certainly giving us an intensive course of training. We study drill regulations all week and take an examination on Saturday. I have been closing out the canteen, doing Battery office work, drill, and going to school. It is a strenuous life. Don't hurt me any unless I get mad at someone or something and then there's a blowup. I have also been teaching school for noncommissioned officers most every night until nine- thirty. If I won't be a go-getter when I get out of this place, there's no one that will.

The present understanding is that our special detachment won't go now until March. So you may have the pleasure of seeing me permanently located in Jackson County before then. I would most certainly like to be there for some very excellent reasons but I would hate to get sent home by a benzene board, although there'd be some satisfaction in knowing that I'd tried my best for the old stars and stripes.

We heard a lecture by an English colonel from the Western Front last night and it sure put the pep into us. He made us all want to brace up and go to it with renewed energy. He made us feel like we were fighting for you and mother earth and I am of the same belief. I wouldn't be left out of the greatest history-making epoch the world has ever seen for all there is to live for because there'd be nothing to live for under German control. When we come home a victorious army we can hold our heads up in the greatest old country on earth and make up for lost time by really living. Don't you think that would be better than to miss out entirely? I am crazy to get it over with though because I wouldn't cause you a heartache for all there is in the world.

You'll never know how badly I hated to leave on the night I started back down here. I can most certainly sympathize with an enlisted man who stays over his time. A man sure ought to have some extra credits in the judgment book when he leaves the strongest ties in the world to do what is called duty, don't you think so? This is a fun letter and it is a bad day. Perhaps you'd better follow the advice of Agnes' suitor who always instructed her to put his epistles in the kitchen stove. Anyway I love you just the same and more than ever and I'm working hard to finish the war quickly so we can make up for lost time.

Yours always,

Harry

From on this date in 1918...Lieutenant Harry S Truman is concerned that he and his men might not be shipped to Europe to be part of the Great War...but, on the plus side, that means he would get to go home to Jackson County, Missouri, and be with Miss Wallace. But Truman is sure he wants to be part of this struggle for freedom.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/january-27-1918

Dear Bess: January 25, 1912

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for January 25, 2023, brought to you by the staff of Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.

This is one of the greatest Dear Bess letters, penned on this date in 1912. By the time Harry Truman wrote this letter to Bess Wallace, they had been courting and corresponding for just over a year, if the December 31, 1910, letter was indeed the first.

The second paragraph completely summarizes Harry Truman’s goals…to win the love of Bess Wallace and provide the best for her, and to take care of his mother. You may want to go back and reread or replay that second paragraph. It’s stunning.

There is an unfortunate phrase in the first paragraph that could be considered a slur against Jewish people. At the time, Truman used phrases like that orally and in his writing. They can be difficult to read and hear, definitely. But 36 years after writing this letter, Harry S Truman was the President of the United States who was the first to recognize the new state of Israel.

Thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.

Grandview, Mo. January 25, 1912

Dear Bessie:

This is the third letter I have started to you since Tuesday night. You know I took a fool notion not to go over to Aunt Ella's after all and went back to K.C. I figured that I had rather lose an hour's sleep while I was up already than to get up to do it. That sounds like a Dutch Jew wrote it. I was talking to Abie Viner's pa this morning and that's the reason. Abie and his pa belong to the Scottish Rite. They are in the chandelier business. I never saw so many varieties nor such pretty ones as the old man showed me this morning. His store is at 1110 McGee, right back of the Empress. Abie has been married seven years. Think of it. The Scottish Rite has done its best to make a man of me, but they had such a grade of material to start with that they did a poor job I fear. It is the most impressive ceremony I ever saw or read of. If a man doesn't try to be better after seeing it, he has a screw loose somewhere.

I simply can't get "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls" of my mind. I think it's the prettiest waltz song of the whole bunch. Mary has gone dippy over "Day Dreams" and won't let me have the piano to play it ‘cause she wants to herself. I wrote you the craziest letter after I got to K.C. Tuesday evening you would ever read. I didn't have the nerve to send it next day. Did you know you made a most excellent joke Sunday evening and neither of us laughed? I had asked you if you weren't tired of my hanging around so long at a time. You of course said I was who would get tired and I said I would never get tired. Then you, thinking I suppose that something was coming sure enough, grabbed the weather and said, "Oh heck I wish I had some rubber boots!" And we never laughed. I'm glad, for I meant it. You shouldn't have been afraid of my getting slushy or proposing until I can urge you to come to as good a home as you have already. I don't think any man should expect a girl to go to a less comfortable home than she's used to. I'd just like to be rich for two reasons. First to pay my debts and give Mamma a fine house to live in, and second and greatest, I'd make love to you so hard you'd either have to say yes or knock me on the head. Still, if I thought you cared a little I'd double my efforts to amount to something and maybe would succeed. I wouldn't ask you to marry me if I didn't. Say, now ain't it awful -I have already burned up two perfectly good sheets of stationery to keep from saying that, but this one goes. If you don't like that part skip it, which you can't because you won't know it's there. Well, it's just what I think and I mean every word of it.

Won't it be fine if Miss Dicie has her dinner and her party on the same Saturday? I am just dying to see Mrs. Polly and that baby. (Kid, I almost said, but I believe you said it was a lady.) I am afraid that I won't get to take you to hear DePachmann because he comes on the first Friday in the month. Save me the date as close as you can though, and if I can get away and you care to hear him, we will.

Mamma is raising sand with me to come to dinner, and I believe she said there was caramel custard, or was going to be, this evening so I'll have to stop. I guess you'll be glad anyway for I'll frankly admit that this is a bum excuse for a letter, but I hope you'll send one in return. I'll be highly pleased with any kind on any kind of paper. So just send me a letter.

Sincerely, Harry

A gem of a letter from January 25, 1912. In this letter, Harry S Truman, farmer, clearly states his goals for his relationship with Bess Wallace and his mother, Martha Ellen Truman.

Please note that Truman used a phrase in the first paragraph that can be considered offensive today. We include the phrase for completeness, as Truman did use such language then.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/january-25-1912?documentid=NA&pagenumber=3

Dear Bess: January 21, 1919

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for January 21, 2023, a service of Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.

Today we’d like to share with you a letter written by Captain Harry S Truman to his fiancée, Miss Bess Wallace. Captain Truman and his men were still in France, just over two months after the ceasing of hostilities in World War I. In this letter Truman makes reference to a photograph that he kept in his uniform shirt pocket, a photograph of Miss Wallace that she gave him just before he shipped to France. Truman considered that photograph a good luck charm. He eventually kept that photograph on his desk in the Oval Office from 1945-1953…and today that photograph sits on his desk in his office at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, where you can see it today!

Thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.

Camp La Beholle, near Verdun January 21, 1919

Dear Bess:

Your grand letter of Dec 26 came last night and of course I was as happy as a kid with a bonbon. I am so glad you had a happy white Christmas. It is a good omen I'm sure and I sincerely hope that the "flu" will be an unheard of ailment from this time forward. Your point is well taken regarding the furniture in my room at the Hotel Mediterranee (can't spell it). It would of course be essential to provide either a place to eat or a range. I am very sure that I shouldn't have overlooked a vital point like that even if I am blinded by Eros. My experiences to date have taught me most emphatically that it is very very essential that food be provided in plentiful quantities even if clothing has to be overlooked sometimes. Some of my men have been pretty close to nature at various times as to clothes but if there happened to be plenty of roast beef and baked beans it was a happy bunch. But leave off the eats for a meal or two and it made one "h---" of a mean war" to put it as they do. Therefore I won't overlook that end of it nor any other I hope. The stationary George and May gave you is simply grand and it makes me sorry to have to answer it on this kind but even this hand is at a high premium here. I think Mary's picture is pretty fine myself.

You know I have two breast pockets in my blouse. Naturally you can guess whose picture stays in the left-hand one. I keep Mary's and Mamma's in the other. Yours is the one you sent me at Doniphan and it has never left me from that day to this, nor will it ever. It's been through all the trials and tribulations and happy moments same as I have. I have looked at it many, many times and imagined that you were there in spirit, as I knew you were, and it's helped a lot-especially when things were blue and it would look as if I'd surely blow up if another thing went wrong. I've never blown up and my disposition isn't so very bad. That picture saved it. The biggest worry I've ever had was when I heard that the original of that picture had the flu and the happiest day was when that letter came saying you'd walked uptown. I am hoping that Nice will not be an impossibility to us and I don't believe it will. You did right to send your proxy to Boxley. He's to be trusted absolutely.

We are having another spasm of moving. There have been orders out twice to move up back to a dirty, little old French village but each time Gen. Berry has been able to get them canceled because we have better quarters here than we can possibly get in a town. I suppose though that we'll go this time. I heard a real good rumor the other day. To show you how they start I'll just trace this one for you. An ordanance sergeant (get that ordANance) who was overhauling F.Bty's guns told the Lt who went after them that his own commanding officer, a Lt. had been told by the Generals aide that our guns were being overhauled so that they could be turned in at LeMans on Jan 27 which happens to be the Kaiser's birthday (so he said) and then we'd all go home. Now the whole foundation for that nice tale was the definite order for us to move back to a little old village and be billeted not far from Bar-le-Duc and about 40 miles from here. It's my opinion that we'll stay there until Woodie gets his pet peace plans refused or okayed. For my part, and every A.E.F. man feels the same way, I don't give a whoop (to put it mildly) whether there's a League of Nations or whether Russia has a Red government or a Purple one, and if the President of the Czecho-Slovaks wants to pry the throne from under the King of Bohemia, let him pry but send us home. We came over here to help whip the Hun. We helped a little, the Hun yowled for peace, and he's getting it in large doses and if our most excellent ex-mayor of Cleveland wants to make a hit with us, he'll hire or buy some ships and put the Atlantic Ocean between us and the Vin Rouge Sea. For my part I've had enough vin rouge and frogeater victuals to last me a lifetime. And anyway it looks to me like the moonshine business is going to be pretty good in the land of Liberty loans and green trading stamps, and some of us want to get in on the ground floor. At least we want to get there in time to lay in a supply for future consumption. I think a quart of bourbon would last me about forty years.

I hope you have a most happy birthday and that you never see another one without me to help celebrate and then may they go on without end. Remember me to your mother and Fred and Frank and Natalie and George and May and just keep writing when you feel inclined, because I love you.

Always, Harry

This charming letter, written by Captain Harry S Truman in 1919, has a stunning paragraph about a photograph that Truman carried in his uniform shirt pocket. Has any other president (or future president) ever written a more sweet paragraph?

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/january-21-1919

Dear Daughter (Margaret): January 13, 1932

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for January 13, 2023, brought to you by the staff of Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service. Thank you for joining us in our 40th anniversary year.

Instead of a Dear Bess or Dear Harry letter, we have something a little different…a Dear Daughter letter. This letter was written by Harry S Truman to his almost 8 year old daughter, Mary Margaret, on this date in 1932.

When Mary Margaret Truman was born in February, 1924, there were four generations living in 219 North Delaware Street. Mrs. Elizabeth Gates was still alive, Mrs. Madge Gates Wallace called it home, as did Mrs. Bess Wallace Truman…and Margaret Truman. This fascinating genealogical circumstance only lasted a few months, as Mrs. Gates died later in 1924.

But this short letter is charming in that Harry Truman made reference to his wedding and honeymoon, which, it seems, he rarely did. Bess Wallace and Harry Truman were married June 28, 1919, shortly after Truman returned home from France in the Great War. On their honeymoon, the newlyweds visited Port Huron, Michigan, where they stayed at the Harrington Hotel, the building Mr. Truman refers to in the first paragraph. Margaret Truman later wrote that, "For the rest of his life, whenever Harry Truman wanted to regain the radiance of those first days with Bess, he simply wrote ‘Port Huron.’ For him, it was a code word for happiness."

At the time, Harry Truman was Presiding Judge of Jackson County, Missouri. It’s a confusing title…he wasn’t a judge in the conventional sense, but, rather, a county executive, much like a county commissioner. A few years later, Truman was elected United States Senator for Missouri, then Vice President, then the highest office in the land, President of the United States. But that was in the future. Thanks for listening. Here’s the letter. These letters, too, are preserved forever at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.

[Hotel Statler, Detroit, Mich.] January 13, 1932

Dear Daughter:-

I am sending you a picture of the hotel where mother and dad first stayed on their wedding trip. You ask mother if she can recognize it.

I have been out to see the road show. It is a great big aridome [sic] just full of trucks, tractors, rock crushers and pictures of roads all over the country. Today I am going to see the place where they keep little girls and boys who don't mind their mothers and who don't like to go to school. We are going to build a place like it in Kansas City. Tomorrow I am going over to Canada and, I hope (to) get you and mother a souvenier [sic].

Tell mother to be a good girl just as you are and you keep on being one. Tell grandmother and Uncle Fred and Miss Hanson hello and kiss your mother for me.

Your loving Dad.

A sort of rare "Dear Daughter" letter from this date in 1932, a letter in which Harry S Truman, Presiding Judge of Jackson County, Missouri, writes to his dear daughter. Truman makes a rare reference to his honeymoon.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-margaret-truman-1927-1964/january-13-1932

Dear Bess: January 10, 1911

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for January 10, 2023, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.

We’ve shared this letter before, but we hope you don’t mind if we share it again. It’s a Dear Bess, written by Harry S Truman on this date in 1911. It is the second oldest-known Dear Bess letter, with the oldest surviving letter having been written December 31, 1910. Are these, indeed, the first Dear Bess letters? We may never know if any others have been lost. But no doubt via his pen and pencil, Harry Truman is trying to prove himself worthy to Miss Bess Wallace. By this time, in 1911, Truman had known Miss Wallace for about 21 years, having met at a Sunday school class back in 1890. He fell in love with her when he was six, she 5. Truman never fell out of love with that blue eyed girl with the beautiful curly hair.

Fifty years ago this month, officially, the late Margaret Truman Daniel published a biography of her father. Simply titled Harry S. Truman, it’s more than an affectionate biography of a father by a daughter. Much more. In hindsight, reading the book and manuscript materials, it was clear that Margaret Daniel was using tools like these letters to understand her parents a little better. In the case of these Dear Bess letters, it was over a decade later that they were released to the public. And we are so grateful that they are!

Thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.

Grandview, Mo. January 10, 1911

My Dear Bessie: You see I haven't learned to write 1911 yet. It's hard to form the habit suddenly. It is also hard to acquire the habit of early rising of your own free will and accord on these chilly mornings. You see Papa could never sleep after a certain time in the small hours of the morning and he always arose and then called me. Now I have to get up myself and start fires, milk cows and do other odd jobs around while it is yet dark. Vivian takes turn about with me though so I can gradually come to it. I don't think I'll ever make much of a mark as a farmer or anywhere else but sometimes I have to come across. This is one of them.

Ethel was out last Friday and I put her to work immediately. She helped me haul a load of baled straw (she sat on top of the straw), and then we got a load of hay out of the stack. You should see her pitch hay. She said she had always been taught never to take big bites on her fork. I told her she could unlearn that on a haystack. She still has that terrible malady I told you of.

My reading has been no heavier than yours - maybe not so heavy. It has been confined to Everybody's and one or two other fifteen-cent or muckrake magazines and numerous farm publications. You know if one farm paper gets your name, you'll get a dozen before the year is over.

I thank you very much for your invitation and shall certainly take advantage of it as soon as I can. I suppose skating is fine. I haven't the time to go see at present. I have only a few things to do such as feed hogs and cattle, build a mile of fence and a barn, and be at the house as much as possible, which isn't very much. I forgot to say I have been reading Mark Twain. He is my patron saint in literature. I managed to save dimes enough to buy all he has written, so I am somewhat soaked in western slang and Mark Twain idioms. My mother has been trying to persuade me to read Alexander Pope. She got a copy of his poems for her birthday. I haven't been persuaded yet, except a few of his epitaphs, which are almost as good as those we used to read of Bobby Burns.

When it comes to reading though I am by it as I am by music. I would rather read Mark Twain or John Kendrick Bangs than all the Shakespeares and Miltons in Christendom.

I have some cousins in Kansas City who affect intellect. They once persuaded me to go to a season of Grand Opera with them. It happened to include Parsifal and some others which I cannot spell. Well I haven't recovered from that siege of Grand Opera yet. Perhaps if they had given me small doses I might have been trained, because I do love music. I can even appreciate Chopin when he is played on the piano. But when it comes to a lot of would-be actors and actresses running around over the stage and spouting song and hugging and killing each other promiscuously, why I had rather go to the Orpheum. Perhaps if I could understand Dutch and Dago I could appreciate it better for I did hear an opera in English once that sounded real good. They say though it isn't good form to appreciate singing in English. I am sorry.

I suppose you'll be sorry too when you see the conglomeration I call a letter. But I do like to get letters, and if you can stand mine yours will be immensely valued. My father is doing nicely thank you and I hope he'll be up in four or five weeks.

Wishing you all the best of health and sincerely hoping that you will honor me with another epistle soon. I am

Sincerely yours, Harry S. Truman

We've featured this letter before, but we hope you won't mind. Harry Truman, in one of his first known letters to Miss Bess Wallace, talks about some of the work he's been doing on the Farm, and discusses his reading habits, even saving for a complete set of Mark Twain!

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/january-10-1911-misdated

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