Outdoor wayside exhibit highlighting Truman family members, including future president Harry S Truman, who lived on the farm in Grandview, Missouri.

1. Title
Harry S Truman National Historic Site National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Who Lived Here
Solomon & Harriet Young
John & Martha Truman
Parents of Harry, Vivian and Mary
Jane; moved family to farm in 1905.
Maternal grandparents of Harry Truman.
Settled and built first home at Grandview
farm in 1867. Original home destroyed
by fire and replaced in 1894.
Vivian Truman
Mary Jane Truman
Younger brother of Harry, lived here until
1911 when he married and moved to a
nearby farm.
Younger sister of Harry and
Vivian; helped run the farm after
Harry left in 1917.
Harry Truman gave up a comfortable bank job in Kansas
City to help out on the family farm in 1906. The farmhouse,
with no plumbing or electricity, stood in stark contrast to
the bright lights of the big city. On the farm, Harry had little
privacy, sharing the seven-room house with his grandmother,
parents, sister and brother.
Harry slept in a room above the dining room with brother
Vivian and the hired hands. The bedroom was like an oven
in the summer and an icebox in the winter. “It was an awful
task to arise this morning in that ten-degree room,” he
once wrote.
On the farm, Harry put in long days of physically demanding
work. In the evenings, the family gathered in the sitting room
to read and talk. In the parlor, Harry, Mary Jane, or Mamma
played the piano.
During Harry’s eleven years on the farm, he worked hard,
planned for the future, faced frustration and difficulties
with optimism and courage, yet exercised common sense
and calm determination. These were characteristics that he
would take with him to the White House.
Life on the Family Farm
I thought maybe by cussing
mules and plowing corn I could
perhaps overcome my shyness
and amount to something.
Harry S Truman
Lived here 1906-1917, and ran the farm
after his father’s death in 1914. Later
served as U.S. Senator 1935-45, Vice
President 1945, and President 1945-53.
Harry S Truman
Three generations at the farm.
“Mamma” Martha Truman, “Grandma”
Harriet Young, & Harry Truman.
Images courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Library