Martha Ellen Young Truman

Martha Ellen Young Truman (November 25, 1852 – July 26, 1947) was the mother of U.S. president Harry Truman, the paternal grandmother of Margaret Truman, and the mother-in-law of Bess Truman.

Martha Ellen Young Truman
Born
Martha Ellen Young

(1852-11-25)November 25, 1852
Jackson County, Missouri U.S.
DiedJuly 26, 1947(1947-07-26) (aged 94)
Grandview, Missouri U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Known forMother of U.S. president Harry Truman
Spouse(s)
John Anderson Truman
​
​
(m. 1881; died 1914)​
ChildrenHarry S Truman
John Vivian Truman
Mary Jane Truman
Parent(s)Solomon Young
Harriet Louisa Gregg
RelativesMargaret Truman (granddaughter)
Bess Truman (daughter-in-law)

Biography
Sen. Harry S Truman visits his mother in Grandview, Missouri, after being nominated the Democratic candidate for vice president (July 1944)

Martha Ellen Young was born in Jackson County, Missouri, on November 25, 1852, to Solomon Young, a successful farmer who also had a business running Conestoga wagon trains along the Overland Trail, and his wife Harriet Louisa Gregg. Members of the family were southern sympathizers in the American Civil War and several relatives served in the Confederate Army. In later life, Martha told of how a band of Union-supporting Jayhawkers destroyed her family's farm one day in 1861, then came again in 1863 when the family was forced to evacuate by General Order 11 and required to move to Platte County, Missouri until after the war. This harsh treatment left Martha with a lifelong resentment for the winning Union side in the war. She was well-known for her Confederate sympathies (a story made the rounds that when she first visited the White House in 1945, she refused to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom, but her family denied this account.) [1][2]

Martha attended the Baptist College for Women in Lexington. She married John Anderson Truman on December 28, 1881[2] in Grandview, Missouri. Their first son died just a few days after birth. Their second child, another son, was Harry S Truman, born on May 8, 1884. Harry's proposed middle name (he was never given a middle name) was the subject of some disagreement between the parents. John Truman wanted it to be Shipp, after his father Anderson Shipp Truman, while Martha wanted it to be Solomon, after her father. In the end, they decided to use only the middle initial 'S' and honor both grandfathers. There is no period after his middle initial "S" since there is no middle name. Two more children followed: John Vivian Truman on April 25, 1886 (who became a district director of the Federal Housing Administration in western Missouri), and Mary Jane Truman on August 12, 1889 (who was a pianist and schoolteacher). All three children worked on the family farm in Grandview. After her husband John Truman died in 1914, Martha took over the farm and ran it with the labor of her children and various hired helpers until the 1930s, when her age and increasing frailty made it impossible. Harry had entered politics after failing in business as the co-owner of a Kansas City haberdashery, rising from Jackson County Judge (county commissioner) to being elected as U. S. Senator. In 1944, he became the vice presidential running mate of Franklin D. Roosevelt. At the time of his selection, Martha Truman told the press that Truman had not wanted the position and that she would have rather seen him stay in the Senate.[3]

On April 12, 1945, President Roosevelt died and Harry Truman was sworn in as president. Martha Truman was often quoted, sometimes colorfully, in the press. She made her first trip to Washington soon after Harry became president.[4] Seeing the crowd of press that arrived to cover her visit, she said, "Oh fiddlesticks! If I'd known that, I wouldn't have come."[5][6] Her comments were widely reported and were said to have "captured the nation's fancy".[7]

She lived to see two years of her son's presidency before her death on July 26, 1947, aged 94.[2]

References
  1. Meyer Berger, "Mother Truman-Portrait of a Rebel; She is closer to her son than most mothers. And at 93 she remains an outspoken--and unreconstructed--Southern Democrat.", The New York Times, June 23, 1946 (pay site).
  2. "Mrs. Truman at 9 Saw Strife of 1861", The New York Times, July 27, 1947 (pay site).
  3. "They Shoved Harry Into It, Says Sen. Truman's Mother", Associated Press in St. Petersburg Times, July 22, 1944.
  4. "Truman's Mother Flies to Capital at Age of 92", Associated Press in Prescott Evening Courier, May 11, 1945.
  5. "Truman's Mother Flies to Capital", The New York Times, May 12, 1945.
  6. "President Greets Mother Arriving at Capital Airport", Associated Press in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 12, 1945.
  7. "Martha Truman Buried on Knoll in Kansas City", Associated Press in Ellensburg Daily Record, July 28, 1947.

Further reading
  • Bonnie Angelo, "Be a Good Boy, Harry", in First Mothers: The Women Who Shaped the Presidents (HarperCollins, 2001), ISBN 978-0-06-093711-9, pp. 40–73. Excerpts available at Google Books.
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