Dear Bess: March 13, 1913 (postmarked)
Transcript
Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for March 13, 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 keepers of the Dear Bess and Dear Harry letters.
Today’s brief Dear Bess letter was postmarked on March 13, 1913, exactly 110 years ago. Of biggest note in this letter is Harry Truman’s reference to a lawsuit.
Technically, Harry Truman, his parents, and siblings were living and working on land that belonged to Truman’s maternal grandparents, Solomon and Harriet Louisa Gregg Young. Solomon Young died in 1892. His widow, Harry Truman’s grandmother, owned the land, then, with her brother, Harrison Young, the future president’s namesake. When the Truman family moved back to the farm near Grandview, in 1905 and 1906, they, technically, formed an interesting business arrangement with Grandmother and Harrison Young. Farms were, and are, after all, businesses. Harriet Young died in 1909. In her will, she left the land to the Trumans, including her daughter, Martha Ellen Young Truman.
Martha Ellen’s siblings almost immediately filed suit, and the feeling seems to be that the Trumans manipulated Grandmother Young into doing what she did in the will. Well, this litigation took a long time to resolve. Ultimately, the court sided with the Trumans. But financial settlements continued into the early 1920s, even after Harry Truman left the farm and moved to Independence as a married man. The litigation drained the Truman family’s financial resources, and, according to Truman, crippled the profitability of the Farm. Eventually “Mamma” Truman had to add mortgage after mortgage on the property, and her debt snowballed. In 1940, Mamma and Mary Jane Truman lost the Farm, the Farm Home, and had to move elsewhere. Unfortunately, most of the papers from this litigation seems to have been lost. It’s not clear what kind of relationship Harry Truman and his brother and sister had with those Young relatives after this litigation was resolved.
Thankfully, via these Dear Bess letters we know of this lawsuit, and know some of the details. As always, thanks for listening.
Grandview Mar. 12, 1913
Dear Bess: Your most highly appreciated letter arrived this morning. I certainly was glad to get it. My head is still swollen over the remark you made about my photo.
There was a man here to buy the cows Tuesday. I had to come home at one o'clock or you may be sure I'd have tried 64 before the Orpheum. He bought the cows so it was a good thing we came home. I am riding around in all this rain getting testimony in our lawsuit. You know it comes up Monday. I certainly wish I was like Gaul divisa in tres partes because I'm needed at home, in K.C., and in Belton this afternoon. I just called up Blair telling him I couldn't come up and he jumped about a foot high. The lawyer won't let me go, and Papa wants me to help drive the cows to Belton. So there you are.
I got the Orpheum tickets today. They are in the fourth row but on the side. I guess if we understand French we'll hear it all anyway. Diner is waiting on me and if I don't run and eat a bite I'll surely starve this P.M.
Thanks awfully for that Friday letter.
Sincerely,
Harry
In this brief Dear Bess letter from March, 1913, Harry Truman again makes reference to an unfortunate lawsuit that was tearing his family apart, stemming from the will of his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Harriet Louisa Young.
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/march-13-1913-postmark?documentid=NA&pagenumber=2