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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: 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

Dear Bess: January 3, 1919

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for January 3, 2023, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.

Today’s letter from Captain Harry S Truman to Miss Bess Wallace was written on this date in 1919. Captain Truman and his men are still in France, following the surrender of Germany and the end of World War I. No doubt Truman was anxious to get home, especially to be with his fiancée, Miss Wallace. Notice that Truman shares that there is a chance that farmers will be separated so that they can come home and prepare their crops for the season. In January, 1919, did Harry Truman envision returning to the family farm as before? Or did he have other plans once he took Miss Wallace’s hand in marriage?

Thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.

Camp La Baholle, near Verdun January 3, 1919

Dear Bess:

I intended writing you yesterday as I agreed to do, but things happened so quickly and the day went so fast I couldn't do it. Had a basketball game in Verdun in the forenoon, in which I got defeated or my team did, rather, by a bunch of noncombatant engineers. In the evening we pulled off a boxing bout in which my Sergeant Meisburger lost the decision over a gorilla named Hamby, and I lost 1,000 francs. Of course being the loser I should say it was a rotten decision. I won't say it, but the other fellow had to be carried from the ring and my man walked out-so you can judge for yourself what I think of the decision. Also he's been going to the doctor every day since and my man was for duty the next morning. As I told you before, I think more of that sergeant than if he were a boy of mine and I'd rather have been beaten by anyone on earth than one of Salisbury's outfit. But as the French say, "It is the war," and somebody had to lose. I've paid fifteen dollars to see a fight that wasn't worth half as much as that one was though. It was a fight from start to finish and was really a show.

Oh! Loads of joy, my Christmas box came this evening. I started this letter yesterday and had to leave before I got it finished. This pen is a humdinger-writes better than any I ever owned, and those handkerchiefs are certainly the most beautiful I ever ordered. They are certainly grand and I shall use them when I go on state affairs, such as a dinner with the colonel or a trip to Paris, if ever I get another. I'll also save one of 'em to wear to my wedding-which shall it be? I can't decide which is the best looking.

You've no idea what a lot of comfort getting that box was. It was exactly like a small piece of God's country arriving in this forsaken place. Even if it was late, it made no difference because all the days are nearly alike and we can make any one of them Christmas. I just had a horrible rumor imparted to me today--that we go to Germany. There were so many F&I's (full and immediate separation) in the Brigade that all of us have to stick so they say. The Colonel has turned us in as a regiment of farmers from Western Missouri hoping that they'll send us home in time to put in our spring crops. I hope it works. Can't you notice an improvement in my penmanship since I started in with this new pen? I wouldn't take $40.00 for it. Going back to that fight Battery D lost about 8000 francs on it and we had a Y.M.C.A. show here last evening and one of the girls pulled a joke about D Bty's Hack Drivers all being broken but the Ladies of Good Old K.C. were sending a bushel of francs to help us out. They did too send me 3112 francs. A bunch of the sisters of D Bty sold a quilt for $570.00. It was a sorely needed donation too. I tell you after paying 1281 francs for a hog and dispensing all those francs on that fight. Am I immoral to induce my battery to bet on a prize fight? The Chaplain says not. Says if he'd been here he'd have bet on my sergeant.

I am enclosing you some pictures taken on my leave and one especially interesting one of a shell bursting in Verdun. I have seen several burst there but I didn't see this particular one. It is a very good picture.

I hope I can write you a better letter next time. But remember I certainly appreciate all the things in the box and especially the pen and handkerchiefs. Keep writing.

Yours always, Harry

Captain Harry S Truman, Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, wrote this letter to his fiancee, Miss Bess Wallace, on this date in 1919. He wrote about a boxing match he lost a few bucks on, and writes about a Christmas box he received from Miss Wallace. And he refers to his impending marriage to the young lady he fell in love with 29 years earlier.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/january-3-1919

Dear Bess: December 29, 1914 (postmarked)

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for December 29, 2022, brought to you by the staff of Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.

Today’s letter was postmarked on this date in 1914. Lots of wonderfulness in this letter, and lots of family mentioned. Harry Truman’s Uncle Harrison Young is mentioned, his cousins, Ethel and Nellie Noland, are mentioned.

Truman also mentions his car. He had recently bought a used model made by the Stafford company, made in Kansas City. No doubt an extravagant purchase, there is also no doubt that Truman got his money’s worth out of the car. He used it for business, for some of his business ventures off the farm, for his social pursuits, and used it to drive to Independence to see Miss Wallace at 219 North Delaware Street. He didn’t part with it until the time he shipped off to France in the Great War. If only we had the car today!

Thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.

Grandview Dec. 29, 1914

Dear Bess:

Here goes for your Wednesday letter since it looks very much as if I shall stay at home for the most of this week. Tonight the O.E.S. and Masons are going to have a blowout. I am one of the assistant performers as usual at such Grandview doings.

I auctioned off a box supper the other evening for the Grandview school and actually got as much as 3.00 for a box. There were 29 and they brought $23.00. Very good considering that I am not a born auctioneer nor an educated one either.

I understand that Ethel and Nellie and also the Duvalls are coming on the KCS this afternoon. I see right now that my hands are going to be full for one day anyway if not longer.

Several K.C. women of the O.E.S. are coming to the burg this evening and I have a notion they are expecting drayage back in a certain Stafford. I suppose if the wind doesn't blow too much I'll have to accommodate them. If I have a puncture though I shall most certainly make them pump the tire up.

I got home Sunday without a puncture and also took Uncle Harry to town yesterday and got back without a disaster. He began urging me to go to town as early as seven o'clock. I got him in by noon. As soon as he alighted he had to quench his thirst with fire water. About Friday or Saturday I'll have to rescue him again.

I went to the Orpheum after depositing him at 13th. The show was fine except for the fact that one of the chaps got killed a short time before the show began. I was at the wreck immediately after it took place. My seat was in the front row so I had a very good view of the show. The orchestra played a filler for Mr. Dickinson's part. It was very fine. Contained selections from every Grand Opera on the boards.

I met Miss Helen Bryant and a collection of Woodsons, three I think, at the corner of 12th & Main. I suppose you'll have heard of it though before you get this. They'd also been to the Orpheum. It's absolutely necessary to tell where you've been when you're met on 12th west of Main because the chances are two to one in favor of burlesque. You'll have to give it to 12th though when it comes to picture shows. 10th St., Royal and all have to step aside. There's one little old 5 cent show between Grand and Walnut on the south side of the street that has the best shows there are. I've never seen a Pathe weekly or a World travel picture there yet. They have only one fault. On Mondays they will run a continued-next-week but they are so thrilling that they can be tolerated. The one yesterday had a fight on the highest building in San Francisco in which one of the combatants was pitched head first to the sidewalk. It also had a chase through the Fairgrounds. You get all this for the whole sum of five cents too. I got home at six thirty. The road was nearly impassable. It took me thirty minutes to come from Dodson. Usually I do it in seventeen sometimes twelve.

Everybody here is as crazy over my Christmas present as I am. It is a very good thing for me that they are initialed. They are the finest I ever saw. I've always wanted some like them but have been disappointed every Christmas until this one.

I was over at Nolands the other evening naming over what I got and I couldn't remember what Nellie gave me to save my life. It was silk hose. Ethel gave me a beautiful scarf but I have to buy some clothes to wear it with. If the Nolands take a notion to go home New Years Day I shall start the year right by going home with them, but I'll not stop at their house, provided you will not be away that day. You owe me a letter anyway really two but one long one will be very acceptable.

Most sincerely, Harry

As 1914 comes to a close, Harry Truman wrote this fascinating letter to Miss Bess Wallace. In this letter his Uncle Harrison makes and appearance, as do his cousins Ethel and Nellie Noland. Truman also describes some of the cultural scene in Kansas City as it was at that moment.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/december-29-1914

Dear Bess: December 27, 1946

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for December 27, 2022, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.

We here at Truman wish all a very safe, peaceful and happy holiday season. Please know that as 2023 approaches that we in the National Park Service are grateful to you for supporting this and all national park units.

Today’s Dear Bess letter was written on this date in 1946. It’s not really long, but there’s a lot in it. Harry Truman often used interesting terms for the White House, often calling it a jail or something similar…especially when he was alone. Truman also mentions his walk…in his middle age, and as long as Truman could physically do it, he was an avid, vigorous walker. He believed that a vigorous walk exercised the body, mind and soul. Perhaps as we approach 2023, we can all add some vigorous walks as a New Year resolution? You can come to Independence and do it in Truman’s footsteps!

Here’s the letter.

[The White House] December 27, 1946

Dear Bess:

Well here I am back in jail again going over the same routine and remembering I have just ten days in which to prepare three messages of historic value so far as the welfare of the country's concerned.

But I can only try to get ready - if I don't there'll be hell to pay and that won't be anything new. I'm used to it. Just came in from a most vigorous walk. It is 28 above and briskness was necessary to keep warm. The weather man says rain bit it is as clear as can be now. We had a nice flight back except for the bump over W.Va. Maybe old John Brown was shaking his apple tree.

Mayes wanted to know how all of you were getting on this morning. Byrnes says he's the most polite of our help. I told Mayes and he said that he was a constituent of Mr. Byrnes' and he must be most polite to him.

Well I've got no one around here to raise hell with me when both you and Margie are away and it's kind of lonesome.

Lots of love Harry.

A short, but fascinating Dear Bess letter written by the President of the United States to the First Lady of the United States, shortly after Christmas, 1946.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-truman-1921-1959/december-27-1946

Dear Bess: December 9, 1913

Transcript

Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for December 9, 2022, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, which is a unit of the National Park Service.

Today’s letter was written on this date in 1913, and is, in our opinion, one of the most wonderful examples of a Dear Bess letter. Harry S Truman, farmer, describes life on the family farm, writes about livestock trading, which was his father’s professional specialty, and talks a little family gossip.

As relatively few documents from the Solomon Young/ Truman family farm survive, letters like these are essential. We can only imagine, then, how these letters led to discussions between Mister Truman and Miss Wallace, whether in person or on the telephone. The farmhouse the Trumans were living in did not have electricity, but it did have a telephone, with a party line. Remember those? As always, thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.

Grandview Dec. 9, 1913

Dear Bess:

Here it is Tuesday morning again and I am just starting your letter. Yesterday was the most strenuous day I've put in for a year. We shipped some cattle and sold some and also sold some hogs. The whole works had to be delivered in Grandview by noon and it was a rush to get there. Of course the hogs had to cause all the trouble they were able to. You know, it's a hard and fast rule that a hog's head is always turned opposite the way he is to go. There were twenty-nine to be loaded. I tried to get them in the barn and did get fifteen in. Usually when I have the barn door open and don't want them in every one of them will be right there. We loaded the fifteen and then tried to get the others in. I put some corn in the barn, and they all went in when one extra smart one grabbed an ear and ran out between my legs before I could shut the door. I went down without a struggle and the hogs all ran out. I finally got them in a little pen and when Papa came back we loaded them without any more trouble.

He'd gone to town with the fifteen while I was having all the trouble. After all our hurry the local didn't come along until 8 P.M. Papa stayed and loaded the cattle and I had to come home and be chore boy. Also I had to be the same this morning. He got up and went to town. He started off about a quarter of six and called me as he went out of the door. I didn't get up until 6:30 and wouldn't have then only it happened to occur to me that the Southern might be late and he'd be back. I got out just in time for he came into the yard gate as I went into the cow lot. I pretended I didn't see him and I wished afterwards I hadn't. Mary told me when I got to the house that he'd ordered the liveryman to take him down in the auto and that if I'd come to the house when he called me I could have gone to town and papa would have stayed home. He'd made up his mind not to go and had walked all the way down here again so I would be ready when the car came. It came before I got to the house, worse luck. He'll be sure to tell me that if I'd got up when I was called I might have gone to town. Really I don't much care because I'd have had to spend the whole day at the stock yards and it's a job I don't care much for. Anyway I wanted him to go in and stay all day today so I can go Friday without creating a disturbance. I really don't want to miss choir practice you know or the [illegible] if choir practice should fail.

Do you know that the Nolands told me the same thing about Mary P. that she told you about them. I guess they were all pretty ignorant from what each said the other knew. Ethel said she told Mary that we were two of the closest mouthed people she ever saw and Mary agreed with her. Far as I'm concerned they can guess on. It won't hurt 'em any. Besides it'll make 'em a good topic of conversation when they do find out.

I came away in such a hurry I didn't get the book you were going to let me have. I'll put it in my pocket as soon as I arrive next time and then I won't have it. Mr. Houchens got off of my car. I met him at Delaware and Maple. He said that he hadn't heard from Manley since he left. They sure are a funny bunch. He said he never wrote and neither did Manley and the only way they heard from each other was through someone else occasionally. He said he was coming out to see me some time soon. I told Mary and you ought to have seen how pleased she was. She likes Fielding just like Ethel does. I've got to bring this to a close in order to get it off this morning. You owe me a letter anyway and I hope to see you Friday evening.

Most sincerely, Harry

In this quintessential "Dear Bess" letter, Harry Truman, farmer and partner in the business firm known as J.A. Truman & Son, Farmers, wonderfully describes some livestock trading he and his father were doing. That was his father's specialty, and it's always wonderful to hear about John Anderson Truman.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-1910-1919/december-9-1913?documentid=NA&pagenumber=4

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