Abilene became home to Dwight D. Eisenhower when his family moved to Abilene from Denison, Texas in 1892. Eisenhower attended elementary school through high school in Abilene, graduating in 1909, before his appointment to West Point in 1911. Thus, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum is the burial site of President Eisenhower, his wife, Mamie, and their first-born son Doud Dwight. Abilene has a Museum and the Boyhood Home of Dwight David Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States from 1953–1961, during my teenage years. The Eisenhower Presidential complex is the only one whose creation preceded the close of his presidency. While this is obviously the case with his boyhood home, construction of the library itself began in 1958. The museum portion began before he even took office, coinciding with the then-General’s announcement of his presidential candidacy in June 1952. As World War II came to an end, local admirers of the Supreme Commander of Allied forces in Europe, such as Charles L. Brainard, decided to honor Eisenhower with a museum. In 1945, a non-profit foundation in his name was created to purchase his boyhood home and build the museum on the same property to house artifacts from veterans, and the various honors of Eisenhower himself. At that time, the General’s mother Ida was still alive and refused to sell the property. When she died in 1946, another purchase attempt was made. They ultimately donated the house to the Foundation, so that the entire site, in south Abilene, later became the Eisenhower Presidential Center. The Eisenhower home opened to the public as a museum on June 22, 1947. The cornerstone of an Eisenhower/World War II Museum was laid in June 1952 by the General himself, just before he accepted the draft and formally announced his candidacy for President. This museum was completed in 1954, and the President was in attendance when it was formally opened on November 11 of that year. He was impressed by the results, and told the leadership of the foundation that if they could raise the money to build a facility, he would donate his papers and other materials to it. Again, President Eisenhower was present when ground was broken on October 13, 1959. The project took three years to complete, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson joined the retired President Eisenhower at the dedication on May 1, 1962. Operation of the site was turned over to the NARA in 1966, when it became the fourth library in the system. This campus has five buildings, the Library, the Museum, the Visitors Center, his Boyhood Home, and a chapel with his final resting place. I have a photo of Margaret and I in front of the General Eisenhower statue there. I have a couple of brochures about IKE and about twelve postcards, four from outside the various places, and eight from inside the museum and the chapel. Did you like Ike?
Abilene, Kansas
After our busy day in Kansas City and Independence, we took it easy on our trip to Abilene, Kansas, the next day, June 11, 1986, as it was only 145 miles away, about a two-hour drive on I-70, as we passed Topeka, Kansas on the way. Abilene is the county seat of Dickinson County, Kansas, on the north side of the Smoky Hill River in the Flint Hills region of the Great Plains, 27 miles east of Salina, Kansas, 94 miles north of Wichita, and 139 miles west of Kansas City. As of the 2020 census, the population of this city was only 6,460, but it was the home town of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Greyhound Hall of Fame. In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized. In 1857, Dickinson County was founded and Abilene began as a stage coach stop. In 1860, it was named Abilene, meaning “grassy plains.” In 1867, the Kansas Pacific Railway, the Union Pacific, pushed westward through Abilene. In the same year, Joseph G. McCoy purchased 250 acres of land northeast of Abilene, where he built a hotel, the Drover’s Cottage. He also had a stockyard equipped for 2,000 head of cattle, and a stable for their horses. The Kansas Pacific put in a spur line at Abilene that enabled the cattle cars to be loaded and sent on to their destinations. The first twenty carloads left September 5, 1867, heading for Chicago. Thus, Abilene grew quickly and became the first “cow town” of the west. McCoy encouraged Texas cattlemen to drive their herds to his stockyards. From 1867 to 1871, the Chisholm Trail ended in Abilene, bringing in many travelers. Thus, Abilene, Kansas, became one of the wildest towns in the west. The stockyards shipped 35,000 head in 1867 and became the largest stockyards west of Kansas City, Kansas. In 1871, more than 5,000 cowboys herded from 600,000 to 700,000 cows to Abilene and other Kansas railheads. As railroads were built further south, the end of the Chisholm Trail was slowly moved south toward Caldwell, near the Oklahoma border, while Kansas homesteaders concerned with cattle ruining their farm crops moved the trail further west. Town marshal Tom Smith was replaced as marshal by Wild Bill Hickok (1837-1876) in April 1871. Hickok’s time in the job was short, since he lost his job two months later. In 1887, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway built a branch line through Abilene to Superior, Nebraska. In 1996, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway merged with Burlington Northern Railroad and renamed it the current BNSF Railway. Abilene remained a cattle yard town, with the rail system also hauling grain and other crops. Thus, after the Civil War, in the late nineteenth century, Abilene was a cow town with a lot of cowboys. Cowboy-era Abilene is the fictional setting for the Randolph Scott 1946 film Abilene Town, which in turn became the inspiration behind the 1963 hit song “Abilene” recorded by George Hamilton IV. The much larger city of Abilene, Texas, takes its name from Abilene, Kansas. I have a couple of brochures about the Old Abilene Town. Have you ever been to Abilene, Kansas?
Truman’s War in Korea (1950-1953)
The Korean War was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea, supported by China and the Soviet Union, and South Korea, supported by the United Nations Command led by the USA. This conflict was one of the first major proxy wars of the twentieth century Cold War. Fighting ended in 1953 with an armistice but no peace treaty, leading to the ongoing cold war Korean conflict that still exists until today. Korea had been a Japanese colony for 35 years, but was divided by the Soviet Union and the United States into two occupation zones at the 38th parallel after WWII. On June 25,1950, the North Korean People’s Army equipped and trained by the Soviets, launched an invasion into the south. In the absence of the Soviet Union’s representative, the UN Security Council member states voted to repel the invasion. The UN forces comprised 21 countries, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. However, by early August, the Republic of Korea Army and its allies were nearly defeated. On September 15, UN forces landed at Inchon near Seoul and re-captured it. Then they invaded North Korea in October, capturing Pyongyang and advancing towards the Yalu River, the border with China, under General Douglas MacArther. On October 19, the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army crossed the Yalu and entered the war on the side of the North. Communist forces captured Seoul again in January 1951 before losing it to a UN counter-offensive two months later. After an abortive Chinese spring offensive, UN forces retook territory roughly up to the 38th parallel. Armistice negotiations began in July 1951, but dragged on as the fighting became a war of attrition and the North suffered heavy damage from USA bombing. Combat ended on July 25, 1953 with the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement, which allowed for the exchange of prisoners and created a two-and-a-half-mile Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) along the frontline, with a Joint Security Area at Panmunjom. In the USA, the war was initially described by President Harry S. Truman as a “police action,” since the USA never formally declared war, because the war operations were conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. Thus, this war has been referred to as “The Forgotten War” or “The Unknown War,” because of the lack of public attention it received, relative to World War II and the Vietnam War. However, this conflict caused more than one million military deaths and an estimated two to three million civilian deaths. No peace treaty has ever been signed, making this a frozen conflict. In August 1950, President Truman obtained the consent of Congress to appropriate $12 billion for military action. General MacArthur believed it was necessary to extend the war into China to destroy depots supplying the North Korean effort. President Truman disagreed. They met on October 15, 1950, on Wake Island. By April 15, 1951, President Truman relieved General MacArthur as supreme commander in Korea, and put General Matthew Ridgway in charge. MacArthur came back to the USA and gave his “Old soldiers never die they just fade away” speech. General Mark W. Clark replaced General Ridgway as commander of the United Nations Command on May 12. 1952. When Eisenhower succeeded Truman in early 1953, he wanted to end the war. As a result of this war, North Korea had been virtually destroyed as an industrial society, while South Korea became a major trading partner for the USA, so that many Koreans came to the USA. What do you know about the Korean War?
Independence, Missouri
Independence is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area. In 2020, it had a total population of 123,011, making it the fifth-most populous city in Missouri. Independence is known as the “Queen City of the Trails” and the hometown of USA President Harry S. Truman, with the Truman Presidential Library and Museum, and the gravesites of Truman and First Lady Bess Truman. Independence is located on the south bank of the Missouri River, near the western edge of the state. The city, with a total area of 78 square miles and 123,011 people, is sacred to the Latter-Day Saint movement, as the home of Joseph Smith’s 1831 Temple Lot, and the headquarters of several Mormon denominations. Independence was originally inhabited by Missouri and Osage Native Americans. Followed by the Spanish and a brief French tenure, it became part of the USA with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Lewis and Clark recorded in their journals that they stopped in 1804 to pick plums, raspberries, and wild apples at a site that would later form part of the city. Independence was also a stopping point for the “Donner Party.” an ill-fated group of 19th-century wagon train emigrants whose westward journey along the California Trail ended in disaster, spawning one of the most well-known and taboo stories of pioneer-era America. Named after the Declaration of Independence, Independence was founded in 1827, and quickly became an important frontier town. Independence was the farthest point westward on the Missouri River where the steamboats or other cargo vessels could travel, due to the convergence of the Kansas River with the Missouri River approximately six miles west of town, near the current Kansas-Missouri border. Independence immediately became a jumping-off point for the emerging fur trade, accommodating merchants and adventurers beginning the long trek westward on the Santa Fe Trail. In 1831, members of the Latter-Day Saint movement began moving to the Jackson County, Missouri area. Shortly thereafter, founder Joseph Smith declared a spot west of the Courthouse Square to be the place for his prophesied temple of the New Jerusalem, in expectation of the Second Coming of Christ. Tensions grew with local Missourians until the Latter-Day Saints were driven from the area in 1833, the beginning of a conflict which culminated in the 1838 Mormon War. Several branches of this movement gradually returned to the city beginning in 1867, with many making their headquarters there. These include the Community of Christ, the Church of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ, and the Restoration Branches. Independence saw great prosperity from the late 1830s through the mid-1840s, while the business of outfitting pioneers boomed. Between 1848 and 1868, it was a hub for the California Trail. Two important Civil War battles occurred at Independence in 1862 and 1864. The rise of nearby Kansas City, Missouri, also contributed to the town’s relegation to a place of secondary prominence in Jackson County, even though Independence has retained its position as the county seat to the present day. President Harry S. Truman grew up in Independence and, in 1922, was elected judge of the Court of Jackson County. Truman performed his duties diligently, and won personal acclaim for several popular public works projects. He would later return to the city after two terms as president. Many notable people besides Truman are from Independence. Have you ever heard of Independence, Missouri?
Truman’s home in Independence, Missouri
We also visited Harry Truman’s home in Independence, Missouri, about less than a mile from his Library. We had a ticketed noon tour of the house. I have four postcards from his house, one from the outside and three from inside. This Harry S. Truman National Historic Site preserves the longtime home of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the USA, designated a National Historic Site on May 23, 1983, a few years before we got there. The Truman Home, earlier known as the Gates–Wallace home, 219 North Delaware Street, Independence, Missouri, was the home of Harry S. Truman from the time of his marriage to Bess Wallace on June 28, 1919, until his death on December 26, 1972. Bess Truman’s maternal grandfather, George Porterfield Gates, built the house between 1867 and 1885. After Bess’s father, David Willock Wallace, committed suicide in 1903, she and her mother and brothers moved into the house with Bess’s grandparents, George and Elizabeth Gates. At the time that Harry and Bess married in 1919, Harry was putting his money into his business partnership, a men’s clothing store called Truman & Jacobson at 104 West 12th Street in downtown Kansas City, so living at the Wallace home made good financial sense. After Truman’s haberdashery failed in 1922, he and his wife continued to live in this house to save money while he paid his debts. After being elected to the Senate in 1935, he moved to Washington, D.C., with his wife and daughter. Whenever they came back to Missouri, the house at 219 N. Delaware was their home. After he retired in 1953, until the Truman Library was opened on July 6, 1957, this Truman Home served as Truman’s personal office. Bess lived in the home until her death in 1982. She bequeathed the property to the National Park Service, a couple of years before we got there. This Truman Home offered a glimpse at the personal life of the 33rd President of the United States, particularly the simple life the family enjoyed in Independence before and after Harry’s eight years as president. The Trumans’ only child, Mary Margaret, was born in the home on February 17, 1924. The second floor of the home has never been open to the public. On display in the ground floor of the home was the Steinway piano Truman originally purchased as a Christmas present for Margaret, which was played by Truman in the White House. A portion of the Trumans’ extensive personal library, the family record collection, and a copy of the official White House portrait of the First Lady was there. President Truman was one of the few presidents who never owned his own home prior to his time in office. He lived with his parents until he married, then in the Wallace House, in rented apartments and houses in Washington, in Blair House, and in the White House. It was not until July 1953, following his term of office, and the December 1952 death of Madge Gates Wallace, that Harry and Bess Truman purchased the home at 219 North Delaware Street. Truman was the only president since William McKinley, who did not earn a college degree. During World War I, Truman served in the 2nd Missouri Field Artillery Regiment, in which he attained the rank of captain. At Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Truman met Lieutenant James M. Pendergast, nephew of Tom Pendergast, a Kansas City political boss, a connection that had a profound influence on Truman’s later life. Do you own a house?
President Harry S. Truman (1884–1972)
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. He assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945. Subsequently, Truman implemented the Marshall Plan in the aftermath of World War II to rebuild the economy of Western Europe. He also established both the Truman Doctrine and NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism. A member of the Democratic Party, he proposed numerous New Deal coalition liberal domestic reforms, but few were enacted by the conservative coalition that dominated the USA Congress. Truman was raised in Independence, Missouri, and during World War I fought in France as a captain in the Field Artillery. Returning home to Missouri, he opened a haberdashery in Kansas City, Missouri, and was elected as a judge of Jackson County in 1922. Truman was elected to the USA Senate for Missouri in 1934. Between 1940 and 1944, he gained national prominence as the chairman of the Truman Committee, which tried to reduce waste and inefficiency in wartime contracts. Truman was elected vice president in the 1944 presidential election and became president upon Roosevelt’s death in April 1945. Only then was he told about the ongoing Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb. Truman authorized the first and only use of nuclear weapons in war against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman’s administration engaged in an internationalist foreign policy by working closely with Britain. Truman staunchly denounced isolationism. He energized the New Deal coalition during the 1948 presidential election, despite a divided Democratic Party, and won a surprise victory against the Republican Party’s nominee, Thomas E. Dewey. I remember that since I met Tom Dewey on a New York Subway when I was 9. However, Truman presided over the onset of the Cold War in 1947. He oversaw the Berlin Airlift and the Marshall Plan in 1948. With America’s involvement in the Korean War (1950–1953), South Korea repelled the invasion by North Korea. Domestically, the postwar economic challenges such as strikes and inflation created a mixed reaction over the effectiveness of his administration. In 1948, he proposed that Congress should pass comprehensive civil rights legislation. Congress refused, so Truman issued Executive orders that prohibited discrimination in agencies of the federal government and desegregated the USA Armed Forces. He was eligible for reelection in 1952 but he chose not to run, due to poor polling. Subsequently, Truman went into a retirement marked by the founding of his presidential library and the publication of his memoirs. Scholars rank Truman in the first quartile of U.S. presidents. In addition, critical reassessments of his presidency have improved his reputation among historians and the general population. The middle initial, “S” in his name was not an abbreviation of a particular name, rather, it honored both his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young. What do you remember about President Harry Truman?
President Harry S. Truman Library
On the morning of June 10, 1986, we went to see the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, the final resting place of Harry S Truman, the 33rd president of the USA (1945–1953), his wife Bess (1885-1982), and their daughter Margaret (1924-2008). This library was the first presidential library created under the provisions of the 1955 Presidential Libraries Act, one of the thirteen presidential libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. In fact, President Harry S Truman’s funeral service was held at this Truman Library, on December 27, 1972, because Mrs. Bess Truman chose to have the service at the library rather than a larger state funeral in Washington, D.C. The library was built with private funds raised by the Harry S. Truman Library Inc., with Truman himself contributing greatly to the fundraising effort by attending dinners, making speeches around the country, and writing thousands of letters. Built on a hill overlooking the Kansas City skyline, on land donated by the City of Independence, it was dedicated July 6, 1957. Former President Herbert Hoover, Chief Justice Earl Warren, and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt were present. Here, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare Act on July 30, 1965. Former President Harry S. Truman actively participated in the day-to-day operations of the library when he was alive. He walked each day from his house in Independence on what he called his daily constitutional walk. He frequently arrived before the staff and would often answer the phone to give directions and answer questions, telling surprised callers that he was the “man himself.” When the library opened in 1957, President Truman transferred his office to this facility and often worked there five or six days a week on articles and the books he was writing. There was a ground floor and upper level of exhibits that showed his life and presidency through photographs, documents, artifacts, memorabilia, film clips and a film about his life. I have a brochure and a layout of the museum from 1986, plus seven post cards about the museum. These postcards were from the outside, his burial site, the oval office, and murals on the walls. There was a picture of his working office with his desk that had the saying, “The Buck stops here.” The library’s replica of the Oval Office was a feature that has been copied by the Johnson, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Clinton, and the George W. Bush libraries. Have you ever been to a presidential library?
Kansas City, Missouri or Kansas?
Kansas City is a strange place. There are two separate cities named Kansas City, one is in Missouri, and the other is in Kansas, but they are right next to each other. Kansas City, Missouri, is the largest city in Missouri by population and area, located on the Missouri River at its confluence with the Kansas River, with a population of 508,090 at the 2020 census. The whole Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Missouri–Kansas state line, has 2.25 million residents. Kansas City, Kansas, on the other hand, only has a population of 156,607, yet it is the third-most populous city in Kansas and the county seat of Wyandotte County. In one sense, Kansas City, Kansas, is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it was named. The older Kansas City, Missouri, was founded in the 1830s as a port on the Missouri and Kansas rivers. Sitting on Missouri’s western boundary with Kansas, Kansas City, Missouri has about 319 square miles, making it the 25th-largest city by total area in the USA. There is a confusion between the two Kansas City towns beside each other. In 1872, Kansas City, Kansas, was incorporated. In 1886, the new Kansas City, Kansas, was formed through the consolidation of five municipalities. In the 1890s, this Kansas City, Kansas, saw an explosive growth in population as a streetcar suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. This growth continued until the 1930s, so that Kansas City, Kansas, was one of the USA’s 100 largest cities for many national censuses from 1890 to 1960. As with adjacent Kansas City, Missouri, the percentage of the city’s most populous ethnic group, whites, has declined from 76% in 1970 to 40% in 2010, while the Missouri Kansas City went from 89% in 1930 to 54% in 2010. The Missouri Kansas City streetcar system once had hundreds of miles of streetcars running through the city, as one of the largest systems in the country, but the last run of the streetcar was on June 23, 1957. Kansas City, Missouri, hosts more than 200 working fountains, especially on the Country Club Plaza. Since its inception in 1857, City Market has been one of the largest and most enduring public farmers’ markets in the American Midwest. Kansas City is the geographic center of the country, but it is also tornado alley. Many companies are headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. The European Irish were the first large immigrant group to settle in Kansas City, where they still have an Irish Fest every Labor Day weekend. Kansas City is famous for its steak and Kansas City-style barbecue. Their stockyards were second only to those of Chicago in size. Kansas City is lauded as a “world capital of barbecue,” with over 90 barbecue restaurants in the metropolitan area, and the world’s biggest barbecue contest. Thus, Kansas City has several James Beard Award-winning/nominated chefs and restaurants. About 50% of Kansas City area residents have a specific religious affiliation, but Catholic at 13% and Baptists at 10%, are the two largest religious denominations. Swope Park is one of the nation’s largest city parks, comprising 3 square miles, more than twice the size of New York City’s Central Park. Kansas City, Kansas, also has many buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Have you ever been to Kansas City?
The MLB Kansas City Royals
Originally, the Philadelphia Athletics were an MLB team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, led by Connie Mack (1862-1956), who was a player, a manager, and an owner, who retired in in 1950 as the 87-year-old manager of the A’s. In 1955, the Philadelphia Athletics franchise moved to Kansas City, Missouri, to become the Kansas City Athletics, after the Boston Braves had moved to Milwaukee to become the Milwaukee Braves in 1953, who won the World Series in 1957. They were the first MLB teams west of the Mississippi River. However, both franchises moved in 1967 to Oakland and Atlanta. In 1967, they became the Charley Finley (1918-1996) owned Oakland Athletics. Meanwhile, after the 1967 season, when Kansas City was left without an MLB team, MLB awarded Kansas City one of four new franchise teams to begin play in 1971. The others were the Seattle Pilots, who became the Milwaukee Brewers, the San Diego Padres, and the Montreal Expos, who became the Washington Nationals. The Pharmaceutical executive Ewing Kauffman (1916-1993) won the bidding for the new Kansas City team. Royals was the name selected out of 17,000 submissions, because of its relationship to the Kansas City stockyards. Thus, Kauffman Stadium became the home of the Royals beginning in 1973. This stadium, part of the Truman Sports Complex, was built alongside Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL. Unlike many of the new stadiums going up at that time, Kansas City chose dedicated stadiums for their sports teams over one multi-purpose stadium. The Kansas City Royals, an MLB franchise team, began play in 1969 in Kansas City, Missouri. Since then, they have won two wild card berths, seven division titles, four league championships, and two World Series titles. In 1971, the Royals had their first winning season, with manager Bob Lemon guiding them to a second-place finish. Manager Whitey Herzog replaced McKeon in 1975, and the Royals began their ascension to the top of the American League West. In 1976, the Royals began to dominate. First, George Brett defeated his own teammate Hal McRae to win the batting title on the season’s final day. Second, the Royals won the first of three straight Western AL Division championships. Thus, George Brett became a superstar. After the Royals finished in second place in 1979, Herzog was fired and replaced by Jim Frey. In the 1985 regular season, the Royals topped the AL Western Division for the sixth time in ten years, led by pitcher Bret Saberhagen. George Brett was named ALCS MVP. The Royals won the 1985 World Series against the cross-state St. Louis Cardinals, in the so-called “I-70 Series,” because the two teams were both located in the state of Missouri and connected by Interstate 70. Although the Royals fell behind 3–1, following the tension and frustration of Game Six, the Cardinals came undone in Game Seven, and the Royals won 11–0 to clinch the franchise’s first World Series title. We were there the year after this in 1986, when I saw this World Series trophy. However, they were not to win another World Series until 2015, when they beat the New York Mets, 4 games to 1. What do you know about the Kansas City Royals?
I saw the 1985 World Series Trophy up close and personal
As if that was not enough fun, we went with the Farmer family to see the Kansas City Royals play the Seattle Mariners at Kaufmann Stadium in section 314, on the first base side on June 10, 1986. I still have the tickets for the game that was supposed to start at 7:30 PM. However, a thunderstorm and tornado warning delayed the start of the game for a couple of hours. I went to the men’s bathroom there. Behold, right there in the men’s bathroom was the World Series Trophy that the Kansas City Royals had won in 1985. During the rain delay, they took the trophy from the main concourse with an armed guard into the men’s washroom. What a sight to behold! I told the others about it. They eventually played the game and the Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners 9-5. However, we were very tired that night when we got back to the hotel. Have you ever seen the baseball World Series trophy in person?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 