Madonna of the Trail — D.A.R. 1927
On April 22, 1927, during the thirty-sixth Continental Congress of D.A.R. in April 1927,
Mrs. Moss reported on the activities of the National Old Trails Road Committee.
She began:
Daughters, it is a great privilege and honor to introduce to you the grand old patriot of the Old Trails Road, the Honorable Ezra Meeker. He wishes to say a word to you.
Honorable Ezra Meeker: History is recorded and the history of this nation is written by the battles over the Old Trail and by the movement of the pioneers who by their actions extended the boundaries of this nation to the Pacific.
I want to invite your cooperation in recording permanently that great action, not only by the men but of the courageous women. Seventy-five years ago I crossed over this Oregon trail with a little courageous wife. I am here the only survivor in this generation. (Applause.)
Meeker and his wife had crossed from Iowa to Oregon Territory in 1852. In his 70s, Meeker began seeking support for placing monuments along the old trail, including by retracing the trail in 1906-1907 in an ox-drawn covered wagon. At 97 years of age, he was still promoting his cause. He was in Washington for a speech at 2 p.m. that same day at Memorial Continental Hall to tell D.A.R. about plans to use the revenue from the sale of Oregon Trail memorial half dollars to build a million-dollar pioneer memorial in Washington. According to the April 21 edition of The Washington Post:
He spoke last night at the Waugh Methodist church, Third and A Streets northeast. Recently he placed on sale at the Riggs National Bank, the memorial coins authorized by Congress. He plans to set aside one-third of the amount realized for the pioneer memorial. To this end steps already have been taken to incorporate a branch of the [Oregon Trail Memorial] association in Washington. [“D.A.R. Convention Notes,” The Washington Post, April 21, 1927, page 5]
Mrs. Moss began her presentation by reciting a poem that President Harding had spoken during his Voyage of Understanding in Meacham, Oregon, before 30,000 people on July 3, 1923. The occasion was the dedication of a monument to the Old Oregon Trail and of a named trail called the Old Oregon Trail Highway, with Meeker in attendance:
There are no new worlds to conquer,
Gone is the last Frontier
And the steady grind of the wagon train
Of the sturdy pioneer;
But their memories live like a thing divine,
Treasured in heaven above,
For the trail that led to the glorious West
Was the wonderful trail of love.
The D.A.R., Mrs. Moss said, “caught the vision of this ‘Thing Divine’ — this great spirit of the pathfinder, the trail blazer — and we have loved it and cherished it for many years, and we have sworn our allegiance to the upbuilding, preservation and marking of this great transcontinental Old Trails Road, the longest continuous track in the world and probably the trail of the greatest tragedies — as the greatest memorial that can be or will ever be preserved to honor American pioneers.”
She talked about the origins of the Old Trails movement. She referred to the Cumberland Pike, the Pony Express, the Santa Fe Trail, and of course, the Oregon Trail:
Here may I stop long enough to say that these time-worn, time-honored names ring in our ears like sweet old refrains. They spell hardships you and I will never know. They interpret the fortitude and ever-abiding hope of the women. They speak to us of the old prairie schooner slowly wending its way, and when we read the fascinating history and romances told of the Oregon Trail alone, and picture that covered wagon moving, dust begrimed, across river and plain, with the sacred burden of the dead mother and the little children unattended, we know that the names of these old trails are written in blood and spelled out in countless graves along the way, and can never be supplanted by numbers cold and meaningless; but, if the “Powers that Be” insist on such a desecration, then at least dignify the name and character of The National Old Trails Road by giving it one number across the continent, and let it be known as “Number One.”
AASHO had just published the first official log of the U.S. Numbered Highway System, so that change was unlikely to happen. Within this grid of numbers, north-south U.S. 1 was the main East Coast road.
Despite the many old trails her committee had called attention to, “the D.A.R. also had the vision of a national highway, an ocean-to-ocean highway, built on the sacred ground of these famous old trails as a memorial to our pioneer patriots, claiming such a highway had for the present day social, economic, and commercial value.” As mapped by a former chairman, Mrs. Van Brunt, it was “the most practical, the most historic, and the most scenic of any suggested as a transcontinental highway:
And the D.A.R. were convinced that such a monument would not only honor the dead, but would serve the living. The D.A.R. entered into the movement with heart and soul and all the energy they possess. The chairman at that time suggested that red, white, and blue bands be painted on telephone poles to mark the National Highway with the national colors, and Daughters far and wide took the paint pot and brush in hand and, with little or no assistance, painted the red, white, and blue strips around the telegraph posts in front of the farms and home, and the slogan for that day’s traveler was “Follow the flag of the D.A.R.”
Now, while our D.A.R. committee gave the first organized impetus to this plan of a pioneer highway across the continent, and issued the first map, named the road, originated the original road sign and painted it on the poles, and introduced a bill in Congress calling upon the Government to build the road, we gratefully acknowledge the impetus and far-reaching power to this movement by the National Old Trails Road Association, which states in its by-laws that it organized to “assist the D.A.R. in carrying forward their plan.” Like the wise men of old, we have followed the same bright star all these years together, and with the exception of a very few miles, the National Old Trails Road has been built and is a hard-surfaced road from ocean to ocean, and whereas the pioneer of the earlier day traveled months to reach the Western Coast, it is now a matter of a few days’ pleasant travel . . . .
And to remember that at the present time the National Old Trails Road is the most popular transcontinental highway, as statistics of national park associations and automobile clubs show that more cars traverse the National Old Trails Road than any other highway. This part of the committee’s intent and purpose has been carried out in full, but the D.A.R. organization has still to erect their memorial monuments on this great memorial highway . . . .
It is with this thought in mind that the D.A.R. will fulfill their pledge, to wit: To erect in each of the twelve States through which the National Old Trails Road passes . . . one marker or monument of dignified and pretentious proportions to cost approximately one thousand dollars each — these markers to be as near alike in size and design as will be consistent with the location and surroundings, and each marker to definitely mark an historical spot or commemorate some great act of historical interest of the Revolutionary period; these markers to bear, with other inscriptions, the insignia of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, and to be known as the National Old Trail Road Memorial Markers.
She discussed the chosen design:
Numbers of letters and suggestions for the “Memorial Markers” were received by the National Chairman from all sections, and every one expressed the hope that we would not erect the old-style “tombstone” marker, or “gravestone” style, or the regulation boulder type, but that we would erect some sort of a monument that would be truly representative and distinctively a memorial monument, worthy of our National Society, the Daughters of the American Revolution. The vision that your National Chairman has long had fitted right into such a description — a monument, not a marker — to be the figure of a pioneer mother, to be known as “The Madonna of the Trail.”
After quite extensive investigations, it was found that the cost of same, carved in stone or granite, was prohibitive and could not be considered. Finally, the attention of the National Chairman was drawn to the composite stone known as “algonite stone.” It is a composite, poured mass, more dense, even more solid, than many kinds of stone; made of many of the everlasting materials, crushed granite, crushed marble, crushed gravel and stone and cement, and a “chat” that is the screening from lead ore, used as a backing. It is very hard when finished, requires the services of a sculptor, and is termed everlasting. It was found upon investigation that many very beautiful monuments had been erected, and that such sculptors as Lorado Taft considered this composite stone worthy of their consideration. Mr. Taft speaks of it as “a medium for sculpture which is as flexible as plaster and ultimately as hard as rock, that might in time not only give a new character to our building arts, but very greatly assist in crystallizing American ideals.” The beautiful monument in Washington Park, Chicago, called “March of Time,” was expressed in sculpture by Mr. Taft, and is cast in this composite stone.
The Black Hawk Indian Statue in Illinois is another work of art in composite stone, as also are the four figures on the High School in Little Rock: Ambition, Preparation, Personality, and Opportunity . . . .
When the National Chairman submitted a tentative design and suggestion to the Algonite Company for the figure of a Madonna of the Trail, to see if such a monument would be within our reach financially, it was estimated that the amount of our fund would cover the cost of the twelve monuments, but would not pay the cost of freight or the erection, which meant, of course, that we had to have more money; and to face such a situation was more than impossible to the National Chairman after she had definitely stated to chapters that no more funds would be solicited for the National Old Trails Road Marker Fund.
In the meantime, the National Old Trails Road Association, with headquarters in Kansas City (Judge H. S. Truman, President), was seeking the assistance and cooperation of the Daughters of the American Revolution National Old Trails Road Committee, and at the request of your National Chairman they sent valuable information in the form of books, pamphlets, etc., about the Old Trails Road to each Vice-Chairman and each State Chairman. They also intimated that they would lend us very material aid and cooperate with our committee in the program we had for marking the National Road, providing we would not erect any more “grave stone” markers. Upon this advice, your National Chairman went to Kansas City and held conference with Judge Truman and Mr. Frank Davis, the Secretary, and, to state facts concisely, came home with this written statement signed by them both:
National Old Trails Road Association
Headquarters and Offices of Manager
1018 Central St., Kansas City, MO.THE GRAND CANYON ROUTE
To the National Old Trails Committee of the Daughters of the American Revolution:
The National Old Trails Road Association will assist your committee in the erection of memorial monuments on the National Old Trails Road by guaranteeing the expense of erection of same; and we will assist the committee in the location of the sites for these monuments.
National Old Trails Road Assn.
(Signed) “Harry S. Truman”
(Signed) “Frank A. Davis.”“The above is with the proviso that the monuments be in form and class entirely different from the boulder or tombstone variety.
(Signed) “Harry S. Truman”
(Signed) “Frank A. Davis.”And I trust that this offer will be acceptable to the Thirty-sixth Congress.
That much settled for the time being, your National Chairman returned home and proceeded to have designs drawn, none of which was entirely satisfactory. Finally, a well-known sculptor in St. Louis produced in wax a composite design of the ideas expressed in the designs submitted and by the National Chairman — a miniature statue of the Madonna of the Trail as your National Chairman has visioned it.
The figure before you was accepted by the National Board last Saturday, April 16th, as the Memorial Monument to mark the Memorial Highway, as stipulated in resolution accepted at Congress April, 1924.
You will note the figure is that of the typical “Mother of the Covered Wagon Days,” strong and determined, faithful and true. This model in wax is one foot in height, and in the scale of measurements is on a base of four feet. The monument to be erected will be approximately eight times as high and in proportion, making it between eight and nine feet high, to be on a base six feet in height.
The paramount idea was not to have a figure of too many angles and too many outstanding, jutting features that would project and be broken easily, but that it should be a well-rounded figure that would look better from a distance than close up. Any change can be stipulated. Any color can be named, but a real warm granite color would be more suitable than a dead white; in other words, more granite used in the composite stone than marble. This figure in miniature simply indicates the idea of “The Madonna of the Trail,” and the National Committee hopes it will meet with the approval of every Daughter in the Society; and we hope every State in the Union will point to these monuments with pride as they pass along this great highway as a great national and universal tribute of a greater love, as a nation, to our mothers — and our fathers — of the Covered Wagon Days.
In accepting the cooperation of the National Old Trails Road Association, it would be a courtesy and a great help, of course, to accept their assistance on the committee also, to help determine the location of the site of each of the monuments in the twelve states in which they will be erected.
A date will be set, fixing a time limit before the expiration of which all requests for monuments must be formally submitted. Each request must be accompanied by the reasons upon which the request is based.
The National Old Trails Road Association have offered to use their Publicity Department and give each one of the twelve ceremonies on these twelve occasions, not only State-wide publicity, but nation-wide; and your chairman feels that with their interested cooperation, we shall be able to put over this marking program in a very big way!
She concluded her report with another poem:
Down the old trails, unscathed by worldly schemes,
The men seeing visions; the women dreaming dreams;
For these pioneer women who knew not the word fail,
What could be more fitting than “The Madonna of the Trail?”
[Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Continental Congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, April 1927, pages 533-539]
According to Fern Ioula Bauer, “All records indicate that it was a picture of Sacajawea’s statue in Portland, Oregon, that inspired Mrs. Moss to create our Monuments.” It had been dedicated on July 6, 1905, during the Lewis and Clark Exposition. In fact, “the Statue of Sacajawea was much more than an inspiration — it had a big impact on Mrs. Moss” because the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery had begun its western expedition in St. Louis. “There can be no doubt that St. Louis paid close attention to the celebration held in Portland, and Mrs. Moss was one of the chief observers.”
Sacajawea’s story was little known until 1900 when Mrs. Emery Dye wrote a bestselling book, Conquest, that told the dramatic story. “Overnight, Sacajawea became a household word. Without a doubt, Mrs. Moss read Conquest, watched with interest as Sacajawea’s statue became a reality, and fully understood its significance.”
The thought of this woman, Bauer wrote, who had done so much to make the explorers’ mission a success “must have laid dormant for many years in the fertile mind of Mrs. Moss”:
“Just as Sacajawea was rightfully honored for her valuable contribution to America so should the women who endured so much in settling this land be honored and immortalized.” When the opportunity presented itself, this idea surfaced. She caught a vision of “A thing divine” and conceived the idea of our “Madonna of the Trail” Monuments.
Mrs. Moss and her son John developed the design over 5 months before they were ready to proceed in 1927. First, they needed an architect, and found one in St. Louis:
August Leimbach was an architectural sculptor whose line of work was in the design and execution of the decorative scheme of public buildings. He had worked on buildings at the 1915 San Francisco World’s Fair and on buildings in Salt Lake City, Illinois, Missouri and Texas. He had not entered the competition to design and model the Madonna of the Trail Monuments.
Three days before Mrs. Moss was to leave for a DAR meeting in Washington, D.C., the head of a stone manufacturing company who was to make up the statues suggested to Mr. Leimbach that he create and submit a design. In just three days he had a model to show Mrs. Moss, who was most pleased. A few days later she sent him a telegram asking him to send the model to her, which he did. A few days later she sent him another telegram awarding him the contract. He commented, “I doubt if any other sculptor ever created a design and had it accepted in such a short time.”
In an article in Federal Illustrator, quoted by Bauer, Leimbach explained:
The monument “The Madonna of the Trail” was modeled for art-stone (granite) and done in a time less than a month to be placed in twelve states from Maryland to California as a trail marker on the Old National Trails. The idea I had, when I modeled the design was this: The pioneer mother with her two children was waiting for the father at her block-house in the wild West, for the father did not come home as he had promised. She, believing him to be in danger, put her little child in a blanket, grasped the gun and with the boy ran out in the field to look for the father. [Bauer, pages 6-18]
Two-Way Trip Across Country
With the country still in the “Roaring 20s,” stunt driving could catch the public interest as in years past.
In June 1927, L. B. Miller set a record for a round-trip transcontinental trip on two of the country’s most famous named trails. Unlike Cannonball Baker and other long-distance record setters, Louis Miller, in his 50s, did not do stunts for a living. He was the manager for West Coast Operations of the Victor X-Ray Corporation. He sought long-distance records as a hobby. After pursuing city-to-city records, he sought his first transcontinental record in 1925, driving his Wille Sainte Clair Roadster on the Lincoln Highway. [Hokanson, page 103]
At 10 a.m. on May 31, 1927, Miller drove his Chrysler Imperial “80” Phaeton out of San Francisco bound for New York City on the Lincoln Highway. His goal was to break the transcontinental driving record he had set in August 1926. He reached New York City on June 3 — his 3,385-mile trip had taken 79 hours and 55 minutes. He had beaten his own record by 3 hours and 17 minutes.
He did not linger to celebrate his success. He stayed in New York City only long enough to get his time stamped at 8:55 p.m. At 8:56 p.m., he began the drive to Los Angeles via the National Old Trails Road. From a map of the trip, he appears to have driven across New Jersey and intersected the National Old Trails Road in southwestern Pennsylvania. After driving 3,336 miles, he reached Los Angeles in 86 hours and 20 minutes later.
Overall, he had driven 6,721 miles in one minute less than 7 days. The time was clocked officially by the Western Union Telegraph Company and verified by the Lincoln Highway Association and the National Old Trails Road Association. The two-way record was official.
On arriving in Los Angeles, Miller told reporters:
I made a one-way transcontinental record two years ago by driving from New York to San Francisco in 110 hours. This record was broken, but last August I got it back again. Now I’ve broken my own record, and the other fellows have something to shoot at. The new mark we made going East this time will stay put for the one-way trip, I guess, and this round-trip record is going to tax the abilities of any one to better.
The Washington Post reported:
Miller was accompanied in his grueling ordeal by J. E. Wieber, of Portland, Oreg., who was his companion on the one-way record trip last August.
Neither man was able to sleep more than a few minutes at a time during the week, and their only nourishment was black coffee and orange juice carried in thermos bottles, supplemented by an occasional brick of ice cream picked up at filling stations under orders wired ahead. In spite of lack of sleep and inadequate food, both Miller and Wieber were in excellent physical condition on their arrival in Los Angeles, apart from the loss of a few pounds of weight, a fact all the more remarkable in Miller’s case, as he is in his fifty-fourth year. This absence of exhaustion, in his opinion, is striking proof of the unusual riding ease of the Chrysler car.
The Stover Signal Engineering Company of Racine, Wisconsin, sponsored the two-way run by Miller and Wieber. The company’s sponsorship was intended to demonstrate the value of the newly perfected Neo-Ryan non-glare headlight for night driving. Chrysler also used the record-setting drive in its advertising. An ad in The New York Times on June 19, 1927, was headed:
All America Applauds
the
Triumphs of Chrysler
In Speed in Stamina
Setting new world’s records for speed and stamina among stock cars throughout the world, Chrysler in the last four weeks has thrilled all America with further new proofs of performance leadership.
The ad highlighted two events:
89.091 Miles in One Hour
Driving a stock Chrysler Imperial “80” Sport Roadster of 288.6 cu. in. piston displacement, at the Atlantic City track on May 14th, Ralph DePalma (under A.A.A. supervision) covered 89.091 miles in one hour — the American record for cars of less than 300 cu. in. piston displacement and within seven-tenths of a mile of the free-for-all stock car record, established by a car in the 450 cu. in. class.
Miller’s cross-country drive was the other event:
6720 Miles In 167 Hours
Starting from San Francisco on May 31st, in his personally-owned Chrysler Imperial “80” Phaeton, Mr. L. B. Miller, of Racine, Wis., accompanied by Mr. John Wieber, of Portland, Ore., drove 3,385 miles to New York in 79 hours, 55 minutes, breaking the former transcontinental mark by 3 hours and 17 minutes. Turning around without losing a minute in New York, Mr. Miller and his aide sped back to the Coast, reaching Los Angeles on June 7th, covering the 6720 miles of the round trip in 167 hours, 59 minutes — a whole season’s driving in a week’s time — an average of 40 miles an hour for the entire distance — an achievement without precedent.
Not everyone was impressed by the trip. Michigan Roads and Pavements wrote that such records “are merely relative and informative.” For the ordinary motorist, “it only tells him that one can travel across the continent in a motor car in several hours less time than he can in a railroad train.” The magazine explained that Miller took the Lincoln Highway east and “another route” west:
Mr. Average Motorist, reading an account of Miller’s performance, will not be prompted by any desire to cross the continent with similar speed; but he will receive the impression that it is now possible to drive a motor car from coast to coast at reasonable speed and in reasonable comfort. He will believe that America has highways that the day of motor driving has arrived. [sic] And he will be right.
[“Breaks Record Crossing U.S.,” The Baltimore Sun, June 19, 1927, page TA12; “Chrysler Hangs Up New Cross-Country Round-Trip Record,” The Washington Post, June 19, 1927,
page A2; “Pacific to Atlantic and Back in a Week,” Michigan Roads and Pavements, June 30, 1927, page 8]
Locations for the Monuments
In April 1928, when the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution assembled in Washington for their Thirty-Seventh Continental Congress, Mrs. Moss had much to report.
She did not repeat the history of the National Old Trails Road Committee, as she had in 1926 and 1927. Instead, she began with the resolution adopted for installing monuments in each of the States along the National Old Trails Road:
To this end your Committee has been diligently working, never ceasing their labors during the entire past year; and, with the assistance of the National Old Trails Road Association, very splendid progress has been made toward the erection of a great National shrine reaching across our broad land, from ocean to ocean, to be our tribute of love and affection to the memory of the great host of Pioneer Mothers — the thousands of “Known” and “Unknown” Mothers — whose great courage, faith, and hope are recorded in countless pages of the histories of our early America.
Your National Chairman has traveled back and forth over the National Old Trails Road 1,200 miles by auto and 2,916 by train — as far west as Albuquerque, New Mexico, and as far east as Washington, D.C. She has mailed close to 4,000 pieces of mail — books on the National Old Trails Road, maps, booklets of information on good roads in general, and circulars, all of which were supplied by the National Old Trails Road Association. Twenty-four dozen large photographs of the Monument, taken when the full-sized model was finished, were sent everywhere upon request, as well as 500 large cuts and 1,000 small cuts of the Monument. Mail all during the year has been constant and demanding, and your National Chairman has literally lived with her pen in her hand during the past year, writing hundreds of letters to interested members and to people outside of the ranks of the D.A.R. who were interested and enthusiastic about the project. Publicity Bureaus, the Extension Divisions of Universities, Editors of magazines and newspapers, have requested information, and splendid publicity has been the result; and the photograph taken the day the sculptor finished the full-sized model has been printed in papers and magazines from one end of the country to the other, bringing very favorable comment from all sections.
She had watched development of the Madonna of the Trail statues:
As you no doubt know, the small model was presented last April to the National Board and to Congress and accepted without a dissenting vote. One change was made after consideration: the shawl that was over the head of the Mother was replaced by a bonnet of old-fashioned type.
During the hot summer days, your National Chairman watched the figure of the Mother and her children grow under the skilled hands of the sculptor, Mr. A. Leimbach of St. Louis, who willingly took the ideas given him and fashioned them into a very beautiful, and certainly a very representative and distinctive memorial to those Pioneer Mothers of ours whose granite virtues were outstandingly great.
The figure of the Mother is a strong one, showing fortitude, perseverance, and energy in her bearing; and the foot pressed forward, as well as the grasp of the gun, expresses firm determination. Her face is one of beauty and of strong character — the face of a Mother who realizes her responsibilities, and trusts in God.
The one great outstanding feature of our statue of the Pioneer Mother and children that has been commented upon so favorably is the compactness of the group. The children are clasped to the figure of the woman, giving at once the idea of solid, substantial, heroic proportions, and not easily to be marred.
For your information, the figure is 10 feet high and weighs 5 tons. The base upon which the monument will stand is 6 feet high and weighs 12 tons. The foundation upon which the monument stands is 2 feet above ground, which will make the monument 18 feet above ground. In color, the finished monuments are of a warm pink granite shade, the color of the Missouri native granite. The Missouri granite is used as the main aggregate in the “poured mass” of algonite stone, of which the monuments are made.
The foundation is 9 feet square, which made it necessary to secure ample-sized plots of ground for “sites” upon which to erect these monuments. On the front of the base will be the following inscription; in small letters directly under the monument will be the words:
“THE MADONNA OF THE TRAIL”
Then will come the N. S. D. A. R. Insignia, under which will come —
“N. S. D. A.R. Memorial
To The
PIONEER MOTHERS
Of the
COVERED WAGON DAYSOn the back of the base will be the words:
“THE NATIONAL OLD TRAILS ROAD”
On the two sides will be 25 words each of historical data or local commemoration. These inscriptions must be of Revolutionary Period or as early history as may be recorded for the respective localities.
She explained the process employed to decide where to install the monuments in each of the States of the National Old Trails Road:
Last year we accepted the generous offer of the National Old Trails Road Association to assist in the erection of the monuments, helping to secure the funds to defray the expenses of the National program, as well as to assist in the selection of the site upon which to erect the monument in each one of the 12 States on the National Old Trails Road. Through the office of the National Old Trails Road Association, a bulletin was sent out last spring to every town on the National Old Trails Road announcing the fact that the Daughters of the American Revolution were about ready to erect their memorial monuments on the main Ocean to Ocean Highway, the National Old Trails Road, requesting each community that felt it had a claim as a point of historical interest to send in their data. Your National Chairman followed these bulletins with her letter giving the plans for the campaign for sites. The “time limit” for applications to be sent in was set for August 20, 1927. Many points of interest were heard from, and a number of competitors forwarded beautifully designed brochures. These little works of art are themselves worthy of special attention.
Several States had 5 or 6 places bidding for the honor of securing the monument, but to Kansas went the distinction of being the most enthusiastic, for 10 towns entered into the contest. Each one of these 10 towns had history that no other town could boast of, and each one practically claimed to be the center of Kansas — and each, with great pride, pointed out the first school house in Kansas.
The personnel of the Committee to decide on the location or “site” for the Pioneer Mother monument in each State was as follows: The State Regent of each State, respectively; the Vice Chairman of the National Old Trails Road Committee in charge of each State; the National Chairman, National Old Trails Road Committee, D.A.R.; the President and Secretary of the National Old Trails Road Association; and one business man from each of the two first places submitting data in the State; these men to be appointed by the Chamber of Commerce in each town. This made a committee of seven.
All arrangements for the trip west to select sites were made by the gentlemen of the National Old Trails Road Association, and your Chairman finds it difficult, indeed, to adequately express her appreciation of the very business-like and thorough manner in which this entire matter was handled by these gentlemen. Judge Harry S. Truman, President, and Mr. Frank A. Davis, Secretary, of the National Old Trails Road Association, accompanied your National Chairman and the committees for each State, respectively, all the way west to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and east as far as Bethesda, Maryland, and their untiring efforts and never-ceasing courtesy and thoughtfulness made what might have been a very hard, tiresome trip one of great pleasure.
Mrs. Moss went through the State selections:
Missouri: September 28, 1927, the Missouri Committee inspected sites at Lexington and Independence, the two Missouri towns to qualify, and the Committee chose Lexington. The inspection through Missouri and as far west as Dodge City, Kansas, was made by auto, and accompanied in each State by the State Regent and the National Vice-Chairman.
Kansas: Kansas rain and Kansas mud was overshadowed by Kansas hospitality, and it took the Committee 3 days to view the sites, and, after long and serious deliberation, give the Kansas monument to Council Grove.
Arizona: Judge Truman, with Mr. Davis, his Secretary, and your National Chairman then went by train to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they were met by the Committee from Arizona on Monday, October 3d. After listening to the claims of 3 towns in Arizona, the Committee rendered a decision in favor of Springerville.
New Mexico: Your National Chairman had the privilege and pleasure of attending two social affairs of the New Mexico State Conference in Albuquerque on October 3d, and enjoyed the hospitality extended her. On Tuesday, October 4th, the site offered by Albuquerque was inspected, and the Committee then motored to Santa Fe to inspect the site there and review their claims. The decision for the New Mexico monument was rendered in Santa Fe, and the Albuquerque site was chosen.
Colorado: From Santa Fe your National Chairman and party proceeded to Trinidad, Colorado. A very enthusiastic local committee met us there, and we inspected the site at Trinidad on October 5, 1927. From there we drove to Las Animas, in company with the local committee from Las Animas, and after luncheon viewed the site offered us there; and then, together with the local committee from Lamar, who had driven down to Las Animas to meet us, we proceeded on to Lamar to view their sites and hear their claims to the Colorado monument. We were given a banquet that evening at the hotel, and a large community get-together meeting was held in the Elks Club.
The Committee went into executive session late that evening, discussed the sites suggested in the 3 towns in Colorado, and finally made a choice in favor of Lamar, after which your National Chairman, in company with Judge Truman and Mr. Davis, took the midnight trains back to Kansas City, arriving there on October 6 . . . .
On October 7, your Chairman arrived from this western trip, only to prepare for her trip east to confer with the committees in the respective eastern States in regard to their sites.
Maryland: On Monday, October 17, 1927, the Committee met at the Hotel Lafayette in Washington, D.C., and proceeded to inspect sites for Maryland in the following three towns: Bethesda, Frederick, and Cumberland. Although the Committee inspected a number of sites, no one was decided upon definitely, but several places offered at Bethesda are being given very serious consideration, and it seems to be the consensus of opinion of the Committee that the farthest monument to the east should be erected as near the eastern terminus of the National Old Trails Road as possible.
Pennsylvania: The Committee proceeded next day, October 18th, to Pennsylvania, inspecting sites in the two towns in Pennsylvania to qualify — Uniontown and Washington. The Committee went into executive session upon their arrival at Washington, after a very enthusiastic “get-together” meeting of Daughters and citizens, and the site offered in Washington was chosen by the Committee.
West Virginia: The Committee drove from Washington, Pennsylvania, to Wheeling, West Virginia, Tuesday, October 18th, where they were met by a committee from the Chamber of Commerce and a Committee of the representative Daughters, and together they had a very delightful banquet, after which they went into executive session and voted to give the West Virginia monument to Wheeling.
Ohio: Wednesday, October 19, 1927, the Committee drove from Wheeling, West Virginia, to Zanesville, Ohio, where we were asked to inspect 2 sites and were given historical data bearing on their claims. We proceeded immediately to Columbus, where the Committee was entertained at luncheon, and we were asked to inspect a site on the grounds of the beautiful new City Hall there. The Springfield delegation came over to Columbus and drove the Committee back to Springfield in time for a late conference at six o’clock that evening. That night your National Chairman enjoyed the hospitality of the members of the La Gonda Chapter, D.A.R., at Springfield. A decision was rendered at a later date, and the Ohio monument was given to Springfield.
Mrs. Moss returned to St. Louis by train on October 20 “after a very successful and happy trip sight-seeing and site-hunting along the eastern half of our National Highway.”
She also discussed two other States:
Indiana: The site for Indiana has not been definitely decided upon by the Committee, although the logical place for the Indiana monument is undoubtedly at Richmond. It is the choice of the Indiana Daughters and will be the choice of the Executive Committee just as soon as definite arrangements for the erection expenses can be completed. The site offered in Richmond is in a beautiful park, and it is another site that would be perpetually beautified, and constant care would be given the monument.
Illinois: The Illinois site has only recently been decided upon, and has been very appropriately voted to be located at Vandalia, on the grounds of the old State Capitol Building. The State of Illinois now owns this ground and building, and are restoring the building and beautifying the grounds. The landscape artist has been called in and the monument will be erected under the supervision of the State Welfare Department. It will face the National Old Trails Road, a few hundred feet from the Old Trails, and can readily be seen by tourists as they pass.
During the western tour, the Committee had not been able to go into California, “but when the western monuments are dedicated the Committee will then go on into California and select the site for the California monument.”
Mrs. Moss reported that the first monument would be dedicated in June 1928 in Springfield, Ohio, followed by dedication of the Wheeling statue a few days later:
Your National Chairman pledged to Maryland that she should have the first monument, but because of the fact that we could not definitely decide upon the site, we are obliged to go forward with the program, erecting the one that is in readiness first. If by chance Maryland’s site has been decided upon and such a thing could be done, the Maryland monument will be erected shortly after the Springfield and the West Virginia monuments. It is necessary now for the Committee to expedite matters and as quickly as possible start the program for the erections.
She commented on several of the chosen sites:
In regard to the sites that we chose in the above-mentioned places, your National Chairman wishes to remark that Missouri’s site is a very beautiful one, up on the brow of a high hill overlooking the river and a beautiful new bridge. Lexington is teeming with the history of early pioneer days, and the Committee felt that this site was very well chosen.
(The Lexington Bridge over the Missouri River was a seven-span truss bridge that opened on October 31, 1924, and dedicated on November 5. It was replaced on June 25, 2005, by the Ike Skelton Bridge, named after a U.S. Representative from the area.)
In Kansas, the site selected at Council Grove is on the right-hand side of the National Old Trails Road as you come into Council Grove approaching the new bridge. They have turned several acres of ground over to the National Society D.A.R. for a memorial park, and in this memorial park will be placed the monument to the Pioneer Mothers. They have moved many carloads and hundreds of truckloads of earth to this site since it was chosen, and the people of Council Grove have never ceased their enthusiastic work to make this site one of the most beautiful. The Boy Scouts of this town proposed to have a medallion struck of the monument, with the Madonna figure and appropriate wording, to sell as a souvenir on a small commission for the benefit of the Monument Fund, the day the Kansas monument is dedicated.
The site at Albuquerque, New Mexico, is located in a very beautiful city park known as McClelland Park. The monument will be located close to the National Old Trails Road, where it may be viewed by the tourists as they pass. Such a setting as this assures us that the monument will always be taken care of and the surroundings will be beautified.
The site for Colorado is located upon ground owned by the Santa Fe Railroad, close to the Santa Fe Station at Lamar. It can be seen by the traveler from the train, and also by the tourist as he passed on the National Old Trails Road. The National Society D.A.R. will receive a 99-year lease on this plot of ground from the Santa Fe Railroad. It is a plot of ground that will always be kept beautified, and the historical data will be recorded and register important facts regarding the old historical “Big Timbers.”
We have been offered a choice of two sites in Springerville, Arizona, one of them just off the road facing the National Old Trails and southward toward the White Mountains and southern Arizona points. The other site is close at hand, in the center of the intersection of cross-highways. We are awaiting the approval of the Highway Commission of Arizona before we definitely decide which one of these sites we will take. The National Old Trails Road at this particular point connects with what is known as the Rice-Springerville Highway, later to be named The Apache Trail. The Coronado Trail is to the right about a mile.
In regard to the above-chosen sites, your National Chairman wishes to say that the site given to us for our West Virginia monument is indeed a very beautiful one. Mr. George W. Lutz, a Vice-President of the National Old Trails Road Association, who lives in Wheeling, represented the President, Judge Harry S. Truman, on the eastern trip, and through him, with the cooperation of the Park Commission and the Chamber of Commerce, two very enthusiastic affiliated bodies, the site offered is one of the finest locations given in any State for our monument. It is at the beautiful entrance of their new park grounds, this entrance being about seventy feet wide. The Commission will spend about $20,000 to place the Pioneer Mother monument in this beautiful location, and I am sure if she could speak for herself she would say, “I am glad I have been placed in such a beautiful spot in Wheeling.”
The Pennsylvania site chosen at Washington was on the grounds of the County Court House, and was a very beautiful site, we thought at the time. However, there is a movement under consideration to change the National Old Trails Highway to the next parallel street east of the present location, and if this isdone, the Committee will ask for another site on the new route of the National Old Trails Road.
The Ohio site is on the beautiful grounds of the State Masonic Home. The monument is to be placed on a beautiful knoll facing the north, near the western boundary line of the Masonic grounds, close to where the old Valley Pike joins the National Pike. If every locality seeking the honor of securing one of these monuments had entered the campaign with as much determination and as much enthusiasm as the citizens and Daughters of Springfield, it would have been a very hard task for your National Chairman to make any decision whatsoever. The Springfield Daughters and their friends “went after” the memorial monument long before they ever knew what form it was to take, and when they heard it was to take the form of the Pioneer Mother they did not cease their efforts day or night to win the prize. Their constant, local support of our big national project has been a continuous source of strength and inspiration to your National Chairman, and this little word of commendation in the annual report of the Committee is certainly due them.
Mrs. Moss said that the question she received most frequently was why the National Old Trails Road had been chosen as a memorial highway:
In answer, your National Chairman would say that “This road was built, not by the road engineers, but marked out by the Indians and the buffalo, their choice always being the quickest and best line of travel. In the olden days, day after day, year after year, was heard the music of the creaking wagon and the lowing ox. The mighty host of pioneers who crossed this highway were armed, not alone with the rifle, but with the axe and spade. They took with them, not the ammunition wagon and artillery, but herds of livestock and bales of household goods, implements of husbandry, their women and their children — evidences and guarantees of a future state, the requirements of a permanent settlement, and the basis of an American home.
“The Daughters of the American Revolution have long interested themselves in preserving all of the State and National Highways. They are sacred to us as battlefields. They record the steady triumph of peace. They were built in order that the torch of American civilization might be carried into the wilderness. The trails have not come about by accident. They are the true index of the nation’s progress, the life-history of a people. That they are linked in a complete chain from ocean to ocean is not a matter of chance, and each link represents an epoch in the growth of this Republic. They are the autograph of a nation, written across the face of a continent.”
She concluded her annual report by stating that the time had come to bring this national program to a close, “and your National Chairman fully realizes the great responsibility resting upon her and values the confidence you have reposed in her.” With the help of the committee, “she will go forward with this year’s work, endeavoring to erect for the National Society, D.A.R., a great National Shrine, each State unit to be a link in the beautiful National Memorial we are placing across this broad land of ours in the name of God and with veneration for the high ideals of our Pioneer Ancestors.”
With her report ended, Mrs. Moss exhibited the color of the monuments and the material they were made of:
Mrs. Moss: I shall have it on the desk and anyone who wants to can see it. I would love to have you see it.
Miss Richards: Do we understand you are going to put a duplicate in every one of those cities all along?
Mrs. Moss: Yes.
Miss Richards: What are the dimensions of the monument?
Mrs. Moss: The figure of the Pioneer Mother is 10 feet high. It rests upon a base 6 feet high. That rests upon a foundation 2 feet above the ground. The entire monument is 18 feet over all. The figure weighs 12 tones, 17 tons in all. Daughters, it is a monument, not a marker. (Applause.)
Mrs. Dow (New York): I have been exceedingly interested many years. I was a member of the National Old Trails Association that issued two pictures called the “Madonna of the Trail.” They were very much admired. I wish to ask a question of information. Do you still have them?
Mrs. Moss: Those pictures were never turn over to your present Chairman. I haven’t them.
Mrs. Dow: I am very sorry. They were called the “Madonna of the Trail” and they were very beautiful.
Mrs. Sweeney (Illinois): May I say that I saw the first monument and that the Daughters of the American Revolution will be proud of this monument?
Mrs. Moss: I might say — please don’t all come at once — I have about eighteen of the large photographs of the monument with me and I would be glad to give them out as long as they last.
Miss Richards: Are they for sale or a present?
Mrs. Moss: These are paid for out of the expenses of the National Committee.
Miss Richards: Will you save one for me? (Laughter.)
Mrs. Moss: Yes. [Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Continental Congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, April 1928, pages 162-172]
According to the proceedings, “Mr. Harry S. Truman, president of the National Old Trails Road Association” made an address, but the address was not reprinted. The Evening Star, Washington’s leading newspaper, also mentioned the address:
An interesting report on the progress being made in marking the National Old Trails road was given by Mrs. John Trigg Moss, chairman of the committee in charge of that work, and Harry S. Truman, president of the National Old Trails Road Association, addressed the congress on the development of this highway. The road follows across the continent the trails of covered wagon days. [Proceedings, page 78; “D.A.R. Resolution Assails Pacifists,” The Evening Star, April 21, 1921, 1928, page 4]
Truman’s Take on Selection
As described earlier, Harry Truman often wrote to his wife Bess about his daily activities while traveling the National Old Trails Road. The letters continued while he traveled the road to help select sites for the Madonna of the Trail monuments, providing a somewhat more detailed — and personal — explanation of the selection process.
August 30, 1927
Lyons, Kans. Tuesday, August 30, 1927
Dear Bess:
Yesterday as I was driving along west of Olathe I picked up the nicest looking fellow thinking he belonged somewhere around west of town and that I could put him down at home. He told me he owned a cleaning shop in Borger, Texas, and that he had been making as high as eighty dollars a day running it, but that the governor of Texas had ruined his business by sending rangers in there and chasing all the girls and gamblers out of town. Claimed he was trying to sell his cleaning machinery. Told me his name, which I promptly forgot, and asked me mine. I handed him my card and he looked at the Judge on it and said, "Well I wish I'd been in your court in K.C. yesterday, I'd have had you send me to St. Joe. I began to wonder what I had aboard and he said he was a dope fiend and that he had been since the war, got the habit in the army, and that he was either going to quit or die in the attempt. When I went north to Topeka he got out and went south, said if he went to a big town some uplifter would try to sell him dope or hire him to rob a bank. I told him if he'd come into court Monday I'd send him to St. Joe for the cure. I think he was honestly trying to quit.
I saw the big Auburn 8 that those two fellows were killed in at Council Grove. It was some wreck. They were actually driving a hundred miles an hour when they hit. A little too fast. The whole works ought to be exhibited for the benefit of the wreckless drivers' club.
Thompson couldn't go after I got there and the Mayor of Council Grove came with me. His name is Young. He owns nine farms, fifteen or twenty business buildings in Council Grove, a winter home in Florida and spends his time building and running the finest tourist camp in the Country at Council Grove. Just worries his head off if some body at Dodge City or Lyon or some other place on the Old Trails routes a tourist around some way to miss his town. You'd think his life and bread and butter depended on how many groceries he sold in his camp and how many paid customers he had in his park. He's making about $500.00 a month off it. Told me he had to ship 4 carloads of corn out of his grainery to make room for the new crop on just one of the nine farms. He's a very nice pleasant fellow and has invited you and me and Miss Margie to come down and stay a couple of days at his camp free. He has a slide, merry-go-round, monkeys and a dozen other things to entertain touring kids. His park is an elaborate affair.
We found the roads fine. I drove from Topeka to Council Grove in two hours and then waited around for Mr. Young to get ready until 3 o'clock then drove to Herrington and stayed an hour with Thompson and got here at seven o'clock. It is 68 miles from Topeka to Council Grove and 125 to here so you see the roads weren't very bad.
I hope you and your daughter feel fine and that you are having as hot weather as we are. Haven't needed any vest or coat either today.
Kiss the baby and tell her to kiss you for me.
Love to both, Harry
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September 1, 1927
La Junta, Colorado, Thursday, September 1, 1927
Dear Bess:
We arrived at 11:30 from Syracuse where we stayed yesterday evening. There is a Harvey House at that town but it was full when we arrived but we found a place to stay.
We stopped in Great Bend and heard that Davis and his party were there. He has a man and woman driving him out and they are getting up ads for a Natl Old Trails Map. We went uptown to find him and they told us that the party had gone. We drove to Pawnee Rock and stopped and looked around over the country and then went on to Larned but no sign of Davis. We stopped a while and then drove to Kinsley and had lunch from there to Dodge City and called on our friend Mr. Ham Bell who was Mayor of South Dodge in the old days; but still no sign of Davis. We then drove to Garden City leaving Dodge about 5 P.M. and arriving in Garden City about 5 P.M. I forgot to change my watch at Dodge so we drove 35 miles in nothing. We decided to go on to Syracuse and arrived there about 6:30. We stopped at a little town called Lakin to see their camp and there we found Davis. When we couldn't get a place in the Harvey House we went out and stayed with Davis and his gang at the camp.
We are going to Rocky Ford to the fair this afternoon and then back here and to a meeting tonight. Tomorrow morning our road meeting and then back home by Monday morning. You should have come. The roads were like boulevards and the weather has been ideal.
Tell Marger to be a good young lady. Love to both of you.
Your Harry
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Sept 30, 1927
Dear Bess:
We left the Meuhlebach on time arrived in Olathe at 9:30 looked at their site and then went home with ex Gov. Hodges to coffee and toast served by the good looking daughters of the Hodges Bros. They each have one about eighteen. We then made a canvass of the situation and had to wait until 11:45 for the cars from Baldwin to arrive. Got to Baldwin at 1:30 where they gave us lunch and the President of Baker University told us why we should put the monument on the campus. It is a very remarkable school having been founded in the fifties and was coeducational from its founding. It is one of Kansas' three accredited Universities and has about 600 students. About four hundred couples have married from the University and there is only one divorce, happened last year. Some record I'd say.
We had supper in Burlingame where we listened to a plea for the monument by a commissioned officer in the Federal army and a man who had been over all the trails seventy years ago. He is 87 years old, had all his faculties, and made us the best speech we've heard.
We came on to Council Grove where the band met us at 9:30 P.M. march down the street in front of the cars and delivered us at the city hall where the D.A.R. women were in session. They read us the history of the town showed us the site and then I called you.
We'll be in Herington at 9:30 at Marion at 11:00 for lunch at McPherson in the afternoon and Lyons to stay all night. We are to get through all right. You should be along. I haven't spent a nickle and I can't. They won't let me even the phone call was free. Hope I see a letter at Lyons or Dodge or somewhere. We'll be in Dodge at noon Saturday. Saturday night at La Hunta [sic] at the Harvey House.
Kiss my baby and look at my sweetie for me in the mirror.
Your Harry.
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September 30, 1927
The Palace Hotel, Lyons, Kans. Sept. 30, 1927
Dear Bess and Baby:
We left Council Grove this morning at 8:30 and arrived in Herington at 9:30, where we were shown more sites and heard more conversation. Left Herington at 10:30 and arrived at Marion at 12 o'clock where we had dinner. Marion was having an old settlers picnic and didn't pay us much attention. They turned us over to an old man 87 years old who told us a lot of Indian stories and then we left for McPherson where we had a grand reception by the D.A.R. chapter. They have a beautiful little city with parks and boulevards, two colleges and a lot of history just like all the rest.
Lyons met us at McPherson and they will give us a grand banquet tonight. Tomorrow Great Bend will come and get us and then we'll go to Dodge City where we'll have lunch decide the Kansas town that gets the monument and go on to New Mexico, where we'll decide the Arizona and New Mexico points and then decide Colorado.
Kiss my baby and look at my sweetie in the glass and kiss her too.
Harry.
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Dodge City, Kans.,
Oct. 2, 1927
Dear Bess:
The Kansas situation is settled. Council Grove won. It was a hard thing to settle but abiding by the rules and weighing all the historical data obtainable, Council Grove won.
We woke up in Lyons this morning to find it raining, and our transportation from Great Bend had stuck in the mud and didn’t arrive. We went down in the salt mine, supposed to be the largest in the world. It is 1,043 miles deep and the finest looking I’ve seen — nineteen feet thick. The deposit was made some centuries ago by the sea. There are fourteen miles of tunnels and a theater down there. They have mules in the mine that haven’t seen daylight in six years. We got some fine examples of salt . . . .
Lots of love to you and everyone else in our family (kiss the everyone else).
Your Harry
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Franciscan Hotel, Albuquerque, N.M.
Monday, October 3, 1927Dear Bess:
I sent you a telegram today but I couldn’t tell you what a time we’ve had. Arizona put up its claim and I want to tell you it was some job to decide. L. S. Williams from Williams, Arizona, made the best plea I ever listened to, but Williams was like Independence — they never had done anything for the National Old Trails. Springerville, which happens to be the residence of J. W. Becker, national vice president of the N.O.T., has never missed an opportunity to boost the road and pay its money. Davis and I voted for Springerville and Mrs. Moss voted for Williams. Kingman had a little old maid here who was a member of the committee and was supposed to have an unprejudiced mind but who put forward an argument for Kingman every time a point was made for another town. Her name was [illegible] and the man from Williams named her incompetent. She was. She lost her town every opportunity to win.
The state conference of the D.A.R. for New Mexico is being held here today. They invited Davis and me to their reception this evening and I had to make a speech. Then they had refreshments. An old lady by the name of Joyce got hold of me and told me her home had been Pleasant Hill [Missouri] some twenty years ago and wanted me to recollect a lot of people who had been dead before I was born.
After she got done with me the Albuquerque delegation backed me into a corner and tried to force me promise to vote for this town for the monument. Then a Santa Fe outfit did me the same way, and then Albuquerque started all over. Santa [sic] followed us to the hotel and wouldn’t let us loose and I am writing you at 1:00 a.m. at home. I’ve got to get up at six-thirty, meet Mrs. Moss at seven-thirty, and at 9:00 a.m. hold another court to hear this town, then drive to Santa Fe sixty-six miles, hear Santa Fe come to a decision, and then start at Trinidad, Colorado, and hear Las Animas and Larimer and decide Colorado, and then I’m coming home.
It will be Thursday before I arrive, but I’d better get this over now than to make another trip. I am crazy to see you and my baby. I don’t know how much I love you till I get away for a day or two.
Kiss my baby and tell her to kiss her mamma for Daddy.
Love to you,
Harry
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On October 4, the committee considered sites in Colorado. They considered Trinidad, La Junta, and a cite north of Las Animas on the Santa Fe Trail. The Lamar Daily News summarized their visit to that city:
Lamar cars picked up the delegation at 4:40 and arrived in this city shortly before 6 o’clock to find the main Street adorned with Flags and the High School Band in uniform. The procession moved to Santa Fe Park, the site offered by the local committee.
Mrs. Moss, Judge H. S. Truman, Independence, MO, president of the National Old Trails Association [sic], Frank Davis, Kansas City, secretary of the association and Judge Herman Bailey, Las Animas, were honored guests at a delightful dinner served at the Ben Mar Hotel at 7 o’clock. Following the dinner the party of twenty repaired to the Elks Home, where a group of members of the Fort Bend DAR and other interested local citizens met. [Quoted in Mallinson, Jane, “Harry Truman and the Selection of Sites for the DAR Madonna Statues, Part II,” Wagon Tracks, May 1995, page 6]
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April 14, 1928
Hotel Mayfair, St. Louis, Mo. April 14, 1928
My Dear Mamma & Baby:
We left Independence at 10:40 A.M., got to Columbia at 1:40 and arrived here at 6:30 P.M.
I saw Fred in Columbia and found that he didn't know the name of the book he wanted either but I guess I can find it anyway. Al Saengli was there to meet me and try and get his guest out of trouble. I turned him over to Fred and I guess they accomplished it.
We stayed an hour in Columbia and then slipped along down here arriving in good condition all around. Old Dave Nail talked without intermission from start to finish. We just finished our dinner and Davis and Mr. Nail have gone for a walk. I am going to bed pretty soon and I am hoping I wake up in time to call you.
I had a letter from Mrs. [Alfred J.] Brosseau [President General of the D.A.R.] saying she had reserved a seat on the platform for any lady I cared to have up there and I am writing her thanking her but reserving no places for ladies.
Kiss my baby and tell her to be a good girl and maybe daddy will have something in his pocket when he gets home. I wish you were both along. Love to you both from
Your Daddy.
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April 16, 1928
Hotel Gibbons, Dayton, Ohio April 16, 1928
Dear Bess and Marger:
I had driven so far yesterday that I was too tired to write you last night. We had an excellent Sunday. Saw our Bolshinks in Vandalia and got them all straightened out and then went to Terre Haute where we made the acquaintance of the Auto Club & Chamber of Commerce while we were eating a fine dinner. Then drove to Indianapolis where we met Mr. Nail's son and daughter-in-law. They took us to dinner at the Claypool Hotel and we had a very pleasant visit. We got to Indianapolis an hour ahead of time but when we went to pull out, found our hose connection to the pump was broken and had to wait an hour and a half to fix it. There were so many of the inhabitants of Indiana in cars on the road between Indianapolis and Richmond that it took us two hours and a half to make and that [illegible] two hours late which was the cause of the late call.
We left Richmond at seven fifteen but they changed the clock on us here and made us half an hour late in spite of our half hour earlier start.
We are due in Springfield at eleven A.M. and I hope to make it. Will phone you from Wheeling.
Kiss the baby.
Your Harry.
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Fort Cumberland Hotel, Cumberland, MD.
April 17, 1928Dear Babies:
We arrived here at 5:30 p.m. and the leading banker of the town wanted to take us to dinner, so we just decided to stay here all night. We are only a half-day’s march by auto from the Capital anyway and we can get more rest by doing that.
Mr. Lutz came down to the hotel this morning and went over to Washington, Pennsylvania, with us where we met one of our vice presidents for Pennsylvania and had a meeting with him and the Chamber of Commerce and the president of the country club, McGinnis by name, and tried to settle the monument location for Pennsylvania. Then we went to Uniontown to a Rotary Club meeting, after which we met the president of the Chamber of Commerce and the manager of the Motor Club and found out that Washington and Uniontown are at swords’ points because the former got the monument. They’ve even brought in the governor and the state auto commission. They’re worse than Kentucky mountaineers. Same here in Maryland. But Davis and I are going to straighten them out I believe if we can get the feminine part of the row satisfied. The local D.A.R.s in both states are at outs with Mrs. Moss and with each other.
I saw General Braddock’s burial place today, was on top of the Allegheny Mountains 2,908 ft. above the sea level and there was the remains of a snowstorm of last night, just enough to see.
It has cleared off and is very pleasant tonight. We’ll be in Washington at noon tomorrow. Hope to see at least four letters there from you. Tell Margie to be a good young lady and tell her to kiss her “mudder” for daddy. Wish you were both here.
Yours,
Harry
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Hotel La Fayette, Washington, D.C.
April 19, 1928Dear Bess and Baby:
Got your letter soon as I arrived and another one this morning. I’m glad they are at last getting the bond business going. If we carry that, there’ll be no stopping us from being a real court. I just had to call you last night. Maybe my phone bill will be the biggest bill
I have, but what do we live for anyway. Money or nothing else matters when you have a real sweetie and a baby.
Mrs. Moss and an old maid niece of hers had dinner with us and took us to the Congress, where Secretary Davis was the main speaker [not Truman as the proceedings and Star had indicated]. I met the president-general and a whole string of women, from Maine to California — every one of them Mrs. Mark S. Salisbury type, but nice to talk with. We go to a reception for the Missouri delegation tonight. Glad to stop here and go down in town with Dave and Davis. We called on Reed, who was gone, and Capper and Curtis and I left a card for Hawes and George Combs. George was out too. He made a speech to the women Tuesday night and they all want to adopt him. His speech was to the Missouri women not to the whole Congress. Only Coolidge, the Cabinet, and a county judge from Missouri do that — he-haw.
Be sure and kiss my baby and other of you be good girls until I get home and after too — I’ll bring you a stick of gum.
Your Harry
Truman was referring to Senator James A. “Fighting Jim” Reed of Missouri; Senator Arthur Capper (KS); Senator Charles Curtis (KS); Senator Harry B. Hawes (MO); and Representative George Hamilton Combs, Jr. (MO). [Dear Bess, pages 332-334, plus additional letters from the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum]