Harry Truman Research Paper

Harry S. Truman was born on May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri, the oldest child of John Anderson Truman (1851–1914) and Martha Ellen Young Truman (1852–1947). His parents chose the name Harry after his mother's brother, Harrison "Harry" Young (1846–1916).[5] They chose "S" as his middle initial to please both of his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young. The "S" did not stand for anything in particular,[6][7] but was regularly written followed by a period. A brother, John Vivian (1886–1965), was born soon after Harry, followed by sister Mary Jane (1889–1978).[8]

John Truman was a farmer and livestock dealer. The family lived in Lamar until Harry was ten months old, when they moved to a farm near Harrisonville. The family next moved to Belton, and in 1887 to his grandparents' 600-acre (240-ha) farm in Grandview.[9] When Truman was six, his parents moved to Independence, …show more content…
He then worked as a timekeeper on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, sleeping in hobo camps near the rail lines.[18] He worked at a series of clerical jobs, and was employed briefly in the mailroom of the Kansas City Star. He returned to the Grandview farm in 1906, where he lived until entering the army in 1917 after the beginning of the Great War.[19] During this period, he courted Bess Wallace and proposed to her in 1911. She turned him down. Truman said that before he proposed again, he wanted to be earning more money than a farmer did.[20]

Truman is the most recent president who did not earn a college degree. In addition to having attended briefly attended business college, from 1923–25 he took night courses toward a law degree at the Kansas City Law School (now the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law), but dropped out after losing reelection as county