Monuments on the Move

The D.A.R. and the National Old Trails Road Association under Harry S. Truman went to a great deal of trouble to find ideal locations for the Madonna of the Trail monuments. As Professor Cynthia Culver Prescott explained at https://pioneermonuments.net/highlighted-monuments/madonna-of-the-trail/, the selections were based on such criteria as:

• Town located on designated National Old Trails route;
• Local business community supported National Old Trails effort;
• Town meets population threshold
• Town has D.A.R. chapter
• Town’s D.A.R. chapter contributed to the statue program

These criteria sometimes were ignored due to local circumstances. As discussed, some of the locations, such as in Arizona, violated at least one of the criteria, regarding a town with a D.A.R. chapter, while in New Mexico, objections from the arts community in Santa Fe prompted selection of what was likely a second choice, Albuquerque.

Regardless of the basis for the 12 locations, Mrs. Moss, Judge Truman, and the others involved in the selection process had every reason to think the monuments would remain in place for all time.

As Professor Prescott pointed out:

Nearly a century has passed since these statues were first erected across the United States. In some cases, the surrounding area has changed dramatically, while in others it remains relatively unchanged. Five (Bethesda, Maryland; Springfield, Ohio; Vandalia, Illinois; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Springerville, Arizona) have been relocated to accommodate urban growth . . . . Most of the Madonna statues have been restored at least once. Because these were local restoration efforts done at different times and utilizing different methods, the resulting appearance of the statues (particularly the color) differ noticeably.

Popular attitudes toward the statues are mixed. Eight of the twelve statues have been rededicated since the nation’s 1976 Bicentennial helped to spur interest in pioneer statues. Several are now featured prominently in local tourism advertising campaigns. But others have been pushed aside to accommodate road construction, or have been forgotten by local residents.

Her Website, Pioneer Monuments in the American West, provided information on the status of the monuments.

Springfield, Ohio

Following its dedication on July 4, 1928, the Madonna of the Trail remained in its original location until 1956-1957 when it was moved a quarter-mile west on U.S. 40 to the south end of Snyder’s park to make room for a highway interchange. The monument was rededicated in 1988 and 2003; it was restored in 2011. That same year it was moved again, 2 miles east:

Once pushed aside to accommodate highway expansion, in 2011 the Ohio Madonna statue was moved into the heart of downtown Springfield as part of a downtown revitalization program. It became the centerpiece of the new $2.5 million National Road Commons, developed by the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce’s Community Improvement Corporation.

Vandalia, Illinois

The monument was moved a short distance to a corner site. It was rededicated on November 4, 1978, and restored in 1990. According to the city’s Website, the monument originally “stood at the south entrance of the former Old State Capitol. For aesthetic reasons, the state moved the monument to its present location in 1939.” https://www.vandaliaillinois.com/for-visitors/explore-vandalia/madonna-of-the-trail/

Albuquerque, New Mexico

At the time of the dedication, the monument was placed in McClellan Park facing the Old Santa Fe Trail section of the National Old Trails Roads. The monument was moved 100 feet in 1998 to accommodate construction of a new courthouse. That same year, it was restored and rededicated on November 27, 1998.

According to the National Park Service:

It was placed in the city’s McClellan Park, facing Route 66, the main highway through the city. The statue looked out on Route 66 when a new alignment moved the highway south to Central Avenue.

In 1996, the sculpture was in need of cleaning and repair. Restoration work included removal of the soot and dirt and repair of holes and gouges with mortar. Following its restoration, the statue was relocated approximately 100 feet north of its old location, due to the construction of a new Federal courthouse on the block. The monument was rededicated at its new site on September 27, 1998.

Although moved a short distance, the monument continues to be oriented toward the 1926-1937 era roadbed of Route 66 through the city. The Albuquerque monument retains its integrity of setting, design, and feeling. The only other Madonna that has retained its integrity is the one in Upland, California. The Albuquerque Madonna of the Trail was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. The Albuquerque statue remains a local landmark, a physical remnant of 1920s ideas about the connection between trans-Atlantic automobile travel and western settlement, and a tribute to the women who helped move the country westward along its earliest roadbeds. https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/route66/madonna_of_the_trail_albuquerque.html

Springerville, Arizona

The monument was dedicated on September 29, 1928. Professor Prescott stated:

Circa 1957: moved to 100 yards east to accommodate the town’s first traffic light; 1987: moved from North to South side of Main Street . . . . Today it stands on a small island squeezed between a shopping center parking lot and a McDonald’s fast food restaurant.

As Judge Truman had explained, other cities in Arizona had a stronger claim to the monument than Springerville based on the stated criteria. However, the town prevailed because of its longstanding strong support for the National Old Trails Road. As Professor Prescott explained:

Springerville did not fit the established site criteria, because the nearest DAR chapter was 150 miles away in Flagstaff. Some believe that the Arizona statue was “stolen” from Kingman, which met the selection criteria (Arizona Capitol Times, 10/30/2009).

Bethesda, Maryland

The dedication ceremony for the Madonna of the Trail took place on April 19, 1929, in a tree lined setting before a crowd of 5,000 people.

A U.S. Post Office building was erected during the New Deal, opening in 1938 to the monument’s left. (In 2012, the post office moved out of the building, leaving it for commercial uses.) As development began to surround the monument, it had to be moved to accommodate a road widening and construction of the Bethesda Metro Station. A crane lifted the monument, gently, onto a flatbed truck that took it to the police academy in Gaithersburg, Maryland, “for its own safety.” State Senator Howard A. Denis said, “I miss it. It’s one of the closest things we have to a county treasure.” When construction was completed 3 years later in 1986, the monument could not be returned to its original location. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority had built a Metro elevator shaft at the monument’s original location. The monument was moved to a new location with the Post Office building on its right and a new Hyatt Regency Hotel on its left.

The rambles of the 5-ton monument were not over. On December 11, 2004, The Washington Post reported on “Listing Madonna Rescued in Bethesda”:

This week, she began to lean a little forward and a little to her left, in ways that” prompted comparisons to a tall building in Italy. It seemed as if the Madonna might topple over . . . .

So the statue’s owner, the Maryland Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, had her hauled from her sidewalk perch and into storage yesterday, acting in concert with a phalanx of county and state officials and numerous representatives of utilities and public agencies.

Montgomery County’s Fire and Rescue Service set up an “Incident Command Port,” leaving passersby to wonder if a calamity had occurred. Police stopped southbound traffic on heavily used Wisconsin Avenue to allow a crane to lift the monument. The problem was a water main break in front of the Hyatt hotel. The Post summarized the monument’s history, quoting Faith Stuart Libelo, a retired high school physics teacher and chair of the Maryland D.A.R. committee:

In 1986, to accommodate the widening of Montgomery Lane, Bethesda’s Madonna was moved from one end of the post office to another. In both cases, she looked east, Libello said, so passersby would see her face, not her backside.

The crane set the monument down, gently as usual, on a flatbed truck. For once, as the Post observed, “she faced west.”

[“Pioneer on the Move? No So Fast,” The Washington Post, April 20, 2001; “Madonna of the Trail Statue at 7400 Wisconsin Avenue,” Bethesda Historical Society; Barr, Cameron W., “Listing Madonna Rescued in Bethesda,” The Washington Post, December 11, 2004]

Although the monument had found its final location (as of this date), it was not for lack of interest in moving it. In 2001, officials in Cumberland, Maryland, argued that the monument should be moved to their city, the starting point for the historic Cumberland Road. Instead of sitting in the midst of Bethesda’s urban landscape where no one knew why it was there and lacked time to find out, in Cumberland it would symbolize the city’s transportation history.

The president of the Bethesda Chamber of Commerce, Jack Alexander, objected. “Not in my lifetime. You are welcome to come look at it, but you’re not leaving with our Madonna.” It stayed in Bethesda.

In 2018, a group of Bethesda residents proposed to move the monument from its relative obscurity to the Farm Women’s Co-operative Market on the east side of Wisconsin Avenue. Advocates for the Bethesda location overcame the proposal, remaining in front of the former post office and hotel.

The Bethesda monument remains between the former post office and hotel.

One problem facing the statues in some cases is that they are part of the infrastructure that residents ignore. To counter that reality, the Indiana D.A.R. rededicated the Richmond monument, still in its original location along U.S. 40 in Glen Miller Park, on its 75th anniversary in 2003. An article in Richmond’s Palladium-Item by Rachel E. Sheeley, explained:

For 75 years, the Madonna of the Trail has watched over the National Road in Richmond. From her pedestal at the entrance to Glen Miller Park, the statue has seen automobiles evolve, trees rise and fall and families come and go.

In honor of its 75th anniversary, the monument will be rededicated at 3:30 p.m. Saturday by the Indiana Daughters of the American Revolution, which will be having their state meeting that day at First English Lutheran Church in Richmond . . . .

DAR members from many of the state’s 94 chapters are expected to attend the rededication.

Marianne Hughes of Greensboro is coordinating the event. She said the DAR wanted to mark the 75th anniversary and having the state meeting in Richmond made it convenient to do it in August rather than wait until October for the actual dedication date

“It’s been there a long time, and through the years, people forget about it,” Hughes said . . . .

Hughes said the statue also will need attention in the near future. In 1988, the DAR spent about $12,000 to restore the monument but it is time again for more conservation improvements to battle the effects of acid rain and other weathering. State DAR dues go into a fund for the Madonna’s care.

The Ohio Madonna of the Trail in Springfield recently was restored, and Hughes said the Indiana DAR is contacting the people who did that restoration to learn more about what is needed for the Madonna in Richmond.

The rededication was to include the singing of the National Anthem, a speech on the history of the Madonna of the Trail by Indiana DAR State historian Patricia Fitzgerald Jaracz, speeches by local politicians, and the presentation of a wreath:

Since plans for the ceremony have been announced, Hughes has heard personal memories of the Madonna from several people.

“One lady said before (Interstate) 70, the family would drive by and the dad would say, “Wave at grandma.” It took a longtime to figure she wasn’t really grandma,” Hughes said.

Although the Madonna is a familiar figure to area residents, there are travelers who make seeing her a destination.

“We get calls regularly about where the exact location is and how to get to it,” said Stan Lambert, Richmond Parks & Recreation director, “People regularly stop in the park and want information. Most of the people are out-of-state people.

“We just feel really fortunate that we can host this event. It’s another national tie of the community that’s significant,” Lambert said. [Sheeley, Rachel E., “Madonna Rededicated,” Palladium Item, page B4, August 5, 2003]

Although the National Park Service considers the monument in Uplands, California, to retain its integrity, it has had its share of adventure. Like several others, it was moved slightly to accommodate road construction.

Route 66 Times reports:

This statue has seen some tough times, having been knocked down by a falling tree in 1957 and years later being damaged so significantly by an earthquake in 1991 that she had to be taken down and restored. The restoration went well and she's back on the pedestal where she belongs paying tribute to the courage, strength, and resilience of women everywhere. http://route66times.com/l/ca/upland-madonna-of-the-trails.htm

Professor Prescott added:

In contrast to most of the other DAR statues, Upland’s Madonna features prominently in local popular culture. In 1930, a historical pageant made a pilgrimage to the statue. In 2014 it served as the starting and ending point for a protest demanding more crossing guards for a nearby school. And local columnist John Weeks mocked a parental warning issued for a nearby Shakespeare festival by encouraging readers to imagine the Madonna of the Trail nude.

Historic Old Trails – D.A.R. 1931

On April 20-25, 1931, the D.A.R. assembled in Washington for the Fortieth Continental Congress. On the third day, Mrs. Moss reported on the activities of the National Old Trails Road Committee. Following the dedication of the final Madonna of the Trail monument in Bethesda, Maryland, the committee had broadened its scope to historic trails around the country.

Mrs. Moss began by commenting on “The Covered Wagon Centennial” promoted by the Oregon Trail Memorial Association. She observed, however, that “in the east, in the north, and all through the southern part of the country, interest has been revived in the study of old roads, old routes, and old trails, dating back to the early pioneer times.”

The committee’s plan for the previous year “was to follow the program of former years, the chapters in each state to study the old trails that lie within the border of their states respectively”:

Each state was asked to make a search for old maps of value, historical sketches, and fine papers containing valuable data that had been stored away for safe-keeping since before the World War. Chapters were asked to bring these forth and renew the fascinating study of the old trails. Each state chairman was requested to do her very best to send in a complete list, first, the names of each one of the old pioneer trails in her own state, second, a list of markers erected by Daughters of the American Revolution chapters on these aforesaid trails, where these markers are located, and third, the historical data recorded on each marker. Response has been general, and through the national vice-chairmen very splendid reports have been received from each division.

During a lengthy discussion of the results from around the country, she mentioned the States along the National Old Trails Road that had the Madonna of the Trail monuments. For example, during her discussion of the old trails in California, she said:

California has one of the Madonna of the Trail monuments, located on Euclid Drive, in Upland. It is in a beautiful location, overtopped with a canopy of branches of the lovely pepper trees.

The pioneers of California have never had a tribute paid to them such as the organizations of Upland, sponsored last September, when they staged a “Pioneer Pilgrimage” to the statue, “The Madonna of the Trail,” erected to the memory of the pioneer mothers who followed the Santa Fe Trail into California. The two local chapters, the San Antonio chapter of Upland, and the Los Serranos chapter, Ontario, took the leading part in the program. John Stevens McGroarty, California historian, gave the tribute to the men and women who made California the great empire of the west. All the modes of transportation in California’s many eras were portrayed, from the weary Padre, the horsemen, the ox team, the pony express, the mud-wagon, the Butterfield stage, the Mormon riders, the steam train, the automobile, and the airplane. The men allowed their whiskers to grow and took on the rough appearance of pioneers. Prizes were given for the greatest growth of whiskers. The women of Upland and Ontario donned the garb of the days of ’49 and appeared on the streets with quaint costumes, much to the astonishment of the tourists.

After the morning parade, everyone joined in the family picnic, and in the afternoon the pioneers gathered for the concerts of the old fiddlers, as well as several contests, such as “horse-shoe flinging,” etc. The Pioneer Pilgrimage Day honoring the Madonna of the Trail will be celebrated in September each year, in Upland.

After summarizing the activities of the State chapters, Mrs. Moss turned back to the Madonna of the Trail:

A resolution was unanimously adopted at Congress, April, 1930, to have a small replica of the Pioneer Mother monument made in the form of a statuette. An order for 1000 was given to a firm in Pittsburgh. Owing to several delays, those statuettes were not placed on sale until after December 1. They are to be sold for $5 apiece. These statuettes are perfect replicas of the Madonna of the Trail, as nearly perfect a copy as anything so small (8½ inches) can possibly be of a monument that stands 18 feet above the ground. The miniature model is the work of a Chicago sculptor, and is without a doubt a little gem and a work of art. Order blanks have been sent to each state chairman to distribute to her chapters, and 25,000 order blanks have been sent out through the organization. The statuettes are in burnished antique silver finish, and may be used on the table as ornaments, or may used in the pair as book-ends. One of these statuettes should be purchased by each chapter.

Referring to this Pioneer Mother memorial, your national chairman has had many requests for printed material and information regarding these monuments. The request for loan of cuts for printing purposes have been received from Historical Societies, schools, authors, and a number of magazines have written very fine articles. Of very recent date, April 1, the Bell Telephone Company issued their “Bell Telephone News.” The cover carries a picture of the Madonna of the Trail, of Illinois. This is erected in Vandalia, Illinois, in front of the Old Court House, where Abraham Lincoln at one time held court. The original plan of placing these Pioneer Mother monuments on the Ocean to Ocean Highway, marking specifically the pioneer progress from east to west, will be strictly adhered to. Many requests from other states have come to the national chairman for a Pioneer Mother monument, but any deviation from the original plan would be a serious mistake, and these 12 monuments marking the National Old Trails Road must stand as the sacred shrine erected to the pioneer mother of the past. In due course of time, however, if the demand is justifiable, a further distinctive plan of marking these other trails might be considered by your national committee.

Your national chairman . . . gave a number of addresses over the radio on Old Trails, and through the courtesy of the National Old Trails Road Association, she was able to send out, upon request, 75 copies of the book, “The National Old Trails Road,” by Judge Lowe. One circular letter was sent out the first of October to state chairmen and National Officers, and over 1,000 letters were written during this year. A number of maps were sent upon request, and 25,000 order blanks for the Madonna of the Trail statuettes were sent out in December, from the house of the national chairman. (Applause.) [Proceedings of the Fortieth Continental Congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, April 1931, pages 216-227]

The following year, Mrs. Moss’s report in April 1932 to the Forty-First Continental Congress was similar in covering research on old trails around the country. However, she began with a look back:

“There are peaks as well as plains” and the work of the National Old Trails Committee is one of the highest “peaks” attained in the history of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. Daughters, you may point to this “peak” with justifiable pride. This committee has reached the mature age of 21 years, for it was organized in 1911 in a very simple way as the “Missouri D.A.R. Good Roads Committee.” It was the enthusiasm and the inspiration of this committee that awakened interest in locating, exploiting and advertising old historic roads, and in a very short time, this committee became of state and national importance.

A bill known as the D.A.R. Bill, was introduced in the House of Representatives by the Hon. A. P. Borland of Kansas City, January 15, 1912, providing for a national ocean to ocean highway over the pioneer trails of the nation, asking the government to aid the states through which the highway herein described ran, in extending, reconstructing, building and also repairing same.

Today this historic “National Old Trails Road,” conceived by George Washington and following civilization westward under various Acts of Congress [in the 19th century], and sponsored as a national memorial for the past 21 years by the D.A.R., reaches from ocean to ocean, and in the 12 states through which the National Highway passes, have erected 12 beautiful monuments, a national shrine that is not only representative but a distinctive memorial to those pioneer mothers of ours whose granite virtues were so outstandingly great.

Your National Chairman caught the vision of a pioneer mother clad in homespun, clasping her babe to her breast, this mother showing fortitude, perseverance and energy in her bearing, in the act of going forward, expressing firm determination, her face to be of strong character, beauty and gentleness, the face of a mother who realizes her responsibilities, and trusts in God. Collaborating with her son, John Trigg Moss, Jr., a graduate artist and architect, your Chairman worked out the vision into the design for our memorial monument. A St. Louis sculptor, catching the real spirit of our dreams, fashioned them into the beautiful memorial we have today. These 12 monuments, erecting and dedicating them, cost approximately $50,000, and is a great credit to the organization. The actual money expended by the D.A.R. chapters was approximately $13,000. Of this sum, $580.24 was transferred in 1930 to the current fund of the National Society D.A.R. To the “National Old Trails Road Association,” a national organization of Road Men, we owe a debt of gratitude, for it was through their efforts in financing the erection of the monuments, that we were able to complete the project for the above amount.

We all know that transportation marks the foot-steps of time from the beginning of civilization. Twenty-one years ago we had come to a time when the insignificant wagon roads of the country demanded a place on the stage of progress. At that time, statistics showed that less than 5 per cent of the public roads of America were improved for travel. People were appealing to State Legislatures for assistance; State and Federal Highway Commissions were formed, and the automobile was bringing about a radical change greater than was ever expected or dreamed of. Railroads and steamboats carried the greater percentage of passenger and freight traffic, when now the automobile, bus and truck skim over the nation’s highways and have the right of way, with the aeroplane fast coming into its own.

The Daughters of the American Revolution, true to their pioneer instinct, knew that they had work to do. They wanted “good roads” above all else, but they wanted these “good roads” in course of construction to be built upon the old historic trails. To this end, they have ever worked diligently, ardently, and without ceasing. For 21 years they have played a big part in the progress of the “good roads” program of the nation. They have played a bigger part in the preservation of historical data pertaining to the Old Trails, the Old Traces, Old Post Routes and Mail Routes in different sections of the country. The boulders, tablets and markers of every description that have been erected by them number up in the thousands, all recording accurately many historical facts that would be lost to the coming generations but for their patriotic effort to keep sacred and intact these bits of Pioneer History.

The program of this committee has moved steadily forward for 21 years, and commendable indeed is the effort that has been made to thwart the oncoming trend of the times to modernize road marking by dropping the old sacred names of our pioneer pathways for the system of numbers. Let us continue this stand we have taken and insist that these old names remain as a part of a marking system for the road of our country.

Our pledge to erect a memorial on the National Old Trails Road – stamping it forever as the great Transcontinental Memorial Highway – has been fulfilled: our dream has been realized, but we still have much work to do in the interest of history and our sacred Old Trails in every other section of our country, and in many ways it has been demonstrated that the desire is still great within the hearts of the Daughters for definite knowledge of patriotic lore attached to the Old Trails of our land.

After going through activities of State committees to gather information on old trails, Mrs. Moss concluded:

Your National Chairman records an ever increasing desire on the part of historians, teachers, and speakers to become better informed in the history and romantic tales of the early pioneer trails. The requests that have come to your National Chairman for information regarding the Pioneer Mother Monuments have numbered into the hundreds.

Extensive publicity is still given to our beautiful “Madonna of the Trails.” Pictures are printed of her in magazines, pamphlets, folders and guide books. In prose and poetry she is given dignified recognition by the press everywhere, and this program of ours, though idealistic and inspirational, seems to continue to appeal to the innermost hearts of our thinking men in the publicity world. Their editorials and their comments, far and wide, show that our “Madonna of the Trail” has created an atmosphere of love and peace wherever she stands.

In the course of the past 9 years, over 50,000 pieces of mail have been sent to all parts of the country and abroad from the residence of Your National Chairman. Letters of instruction, invitations to dedications, order blanks, photos, pamphlets, reports, letters, cards, books and maps have been sent out, all under the personal supervision of your National Chairman.

The small statuette in metal with antique silver finish is an exact replica of the larger Pioneer Mother Monument. These were made by order of [the Continental] Congress, April 1930. They can be purchased for $5, sending $4 to the Treasurer General’s Office and retaining $1 in your chapter treasury. Two of these statuettes make beautiful book-ends to ornament your library table.

Mrs. Moss concluded her report with a fitting summary of the history not only of her committee but of the National Old Trails Road itself:

Twenty-one years ago, Gov. Herbert S. Hadley of Missouri said we were “The Pioneer Road Builders, Trail Markers and Trail Makers of the Nation.” We have lived true to the panegyric he offered us in tribute that day. Let us look forward to another “high peak” of 21 years hence. Let us in good time memorialize the “Great Homing Trail” of the Northwest, the Old Oregon Trail, and let us keep close to our hearts the thought that we shall in some suitable manner place enduring monuments on the “Great National Highway to the Southwest.” This road, the Spaniards recorded as the “Camino Real” and is 400 years old, and let us continue to the end of time to be heralded as the Trail Markers and Trail Makers of our Nation. (Applause.)” [Proceedings of the Forty-First Continental Congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, April 1932, pages 674-687]

In 1933, the separate National Old Trails Committee disappeared. It was combined into a Committee on Preservation of Historic Spots, including National Old Trails. The chairman was Miss Lucile Foster. Despite financial problems stemming from the Depression, the proceedings identified extensive State activities on old trails.

Going Out With a Big Splash

By the late 1920s, the U.S. numbered highway system had rendered the named trail associations obsolete. The U.S. numbered highway system did not come with special funding for improving the roads. However, the State highway departments recognized them as their most important roads – the roads most likely to be included in the Federal-aid primary or interstate system. Therefore, the States were using Federal-aid highway funds, matched on a 50-50 basis with State funds, to upgrade the roads throughout in the 1920s and 1930s to form the country’s first interstate highway system clearly marked with uniform signs.

The advocacy that was the hallmark of the named trail associations to improve their route – as reflected in Judge Lowe’s activities at the State, county, township, and road district levels –was no longer necessary. Further, the Joint Board and AASHO had intentionally divided the trails among several U.S. numbered routes to discourage their backers’ continued advocacy.

As the U.S. shields went up along the newly designated roads, officials of the named trail associations began to realize their days were numbered. Each named trail association – whether big or small, famous or fly-by-might – came to its own unique end. They depended on membership dues from individuals, chambers of commerce, or towns. As these sources of revenue dried up, activities gradually came to an end.

The Lincoln Highway Association was an example. While the Joint Board was developing its plan, BPR’s E. W. James had approached the association, as he recalled many years later:

Having assisted the Lincoln Highway Association in the First World War, I next went to Detroit to their headquarters and laid my scheme before them, very frankly telling them that it would mean the end of the Lincoln Highway Association, the Dixie, and all others. They understood it all; said they were for a big plan for roads across the U.S.; would be with my scheme if I would give the Lincoln Highway recognition so far as possible in the No. 30. I agreed to do all I could to put it across, and so had their support toward washing out all the named routes. They were the strongest of all the Associations and with them with us, who could be against us? [Letter, “E. W. James on designating the Federal-aid system and developing the U.S. numbered highway plan,” February 21, 1927, on this Website]

Virtually the entire Lincoln Highway from Philadelphia to Granger, Wyoming, was assigned to U.S. 30 (Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Astoria, Oregon), but its eastern and western ends carried different numbers.

 

From formation of the Lincoln Highway Association in 1913, the leaders wanted a hard surfaced road across the country, a goal that eluded them, but also wanted the Lincoln Highway to inspire similar highways around the country. The success of the Lincoln Highway inspired many similar associations, and now the country was embarked on a Federal-aid plan that would result in an interstate system of two-lane paved highways criss-crossing the country.

The Lincoln Highway Association had achieved its goals. Its leaders were successful businessmen in the motor vehicle industry who had many other activities to occupy their time. It was time to close operations.

But before closing, they wanted to mark the Lincoln Highway with longer-lasting signs than the signs posted by the Automobile Club of Southern California, the California State Automobile Association, and others. They decided to formally end the association, but to do so with one last publicity stunt.

They decided to mark the Lincoln Highway formally, regardless of U.S. number, and dedicate it to the memory of Abraham Lincoln. As the association’s official history explained:

Everything, in fact, seemed favorable except that to begin operations the Lincoln Highway Association must first design and manufacture and transport the monuments. They could find no method of financing this work and so the project languished . . . until the end of 1927. Then the Association, about to discontinue major activities, found $66,600 on hand, the unexpended portions of the Willys-Overland and General Motors trust funds. Roy D. Chapin suggested this balance be drawn on to finance the permanent marking.

The directors approved, as did the donors of the money. The plan involved the Boy Scouts, and the scouting organization was enthusiastic.

The association designed and manufactured the signs and monuments. The signs carried the Lincoln Highway insignia, a bronze medallion ("This Highway Dedicated to Abraham Lincoln") and a directional arrow. With the support of the State highway departments, scout cars were dispatched to identify locations for them:

Shortly after the caravan had completed its trip, the Scouts dug the holes and, on September 1, 1928, on official word from their headquarters, placed the monuments.

Several of the troops set monuments on more than 100 miles of the highway on that one day. The troop at Fallon, Nevada, covered the greatest section of the route, from Austin almost to Sparks, a total of approximately 175 miles.

The only serious gap left was in Illinois, where a misunderstanding prevented the Association from obtaining immediate official permission. Later, special legislative authority was granted to the Association and the monuments were set by the Scouts.

Approximately 3,000 monuments were used. Two were placed at each important crossroad, one at each minor crossing, and others at sufficient intervals to assure the motorist that he was traveling the right road. They were set at the outer edge of the right of way to avoid interference with highway markers placed by the states.

Their permanence, and the value placed on them by the state highway departments, is evidenced by the fact that six years after they were set, less than 5 percent of them had been destroyed or removed. As a rule, when improvements were made, the highway department’s maintenance men took up the monuments to keep them from being damaged by construction equipment, then replaced them in proper relation to the newly constructed road.

For all practical purposes, the Lincoln Highway Association came to an end, except for publication of its official history:

The Lincoln Highway: The Story of a Crusade That Made Transportation History, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1935 [pages 217-221] 

Long after the Lincoln Highway Association ceased operations, the Lincoln Highway remained part of the country’s cultural heritage. For the highway’s 25th anniversary in 1938, NBC Radio broadcast a program that featured interviews with Lincoln Highway Association officials, and a message from Carl Fisher, the highway’s founder, read by an announcer:

The Lincoln Highway Association has accomplished its primary purpose, that of providing an object lesson to show the possibility in highway transportation and the importance of a unified, safe, and economical system of roads . . . . Now I believe the country is at the beginning of another new era in highway building [that will] create a system of roads far beyond the dreams of the Lincoln Highway founders. I hope this anniversary observance makes millions of people realize how vital roads are to our national welfare, to economic programs, and to our national defense ...

He apparently was referring to the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1938, which called on BPR to prepare a report on development of a network of toll superhighways. (The result in 1939, Toll Roads and Free Roads, found that a toll network financed by bonds to be retired by toll revenue would not work. However, BPR added a lengthy section on “A Master Plan for Free Highway Development” that was the first formal statement of what became the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.)

In March 1940, NBC Radio introduced a Saturday morning drama called the Lincoln Highway. In the words of its introduction, the program featured stories that reflected “the heartbeat of America […] the loves, thrills, pathos of the lives of the people who travel the country’s greatest traffic artery – The Lincoln Highway.” Many of the era’s top stars appeared on the show, which came to an end in 1942.

In April 1988, the University of Iowa Press published The Lincoln Highway, an excellent text-and-photo essay by Drake Hokanson about the history and meaning of the highway. Several other books have been published on the subject since then, including:

Anderson, Mary Elizabeth, Link Across America: A Story of the Historic Lincoln Highway, Rayve Productions, 1997. (A children's book about the Lincoln Highway.)

Butko, Brian, Greetings from the Lincoln Highway: America's First Coast-to-Coast Road, Stackpole Books, 2005. (A history of the Lincoln Highway with State-by-State information on history, routings, and travel.)

Roe, Bill, All the Way to Lincoln Way: Coast to Coast Bicycle Odyssey, Rowhouse Publishers, 2000. (Narrative of a bicycle trip across the country, west to east, on the Lincoln Highway, or parts of it. Excellent photography.)

Wallis, Michael, and Williamson, Michael S., The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate, W. W. Norton, 2007. (Wallis, author of one of the most popular books on U.S. 66, and Williamson turn to the Lincoln Highway for what the book calls "The Great American Road Trip." Each Lincoln Highway State receives its own chapter.)

The renewed interest prompted creation of a new Lincoln Highway Association in 1992. Its mission:

Our present-day association has the responsibility to protect the heritage left to us by those courageous transportation pioneers of nearly ninety years ago. Today our mission is to identify, preserve, and improve access to the remaining portions of the Lincoln Highway and its associated historic sites.

In October 2021, author Amor Towles published a novel titled The Lincoln Highway, which went on to become a major bestseller. Amazon.com’s plot summary reads:

In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. With his mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett plans to pick up his eight-year-old brother Billy and head to California to start a new life. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have stowed away in the trunk of the warden's car. They have a very different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take the four of them on a fateful journey in the opposite direction – to New York City.

Bursting with life, charm, richly imagined settings and unforgettable characters, The Lincoln Highway is an extraordinary journey through 1950s America from the pen of a master storyteller.

In addition, many histories and biographies of President Dwight D. Eisenhower describe his experience on the Lincoln Highway in 1919 as a participant in the U.S. Army’s first transcontinental convoy of army vehicles. The trip began at the site of the Zero Milestone (then a temporary marker) on the Ellipse south of the White House, to Gettysburg where the convoy reached the Lincoln Highway and followed it to San Francisco. In later years, he cited his 2 months on the convoy and his observations of Germany’s autobahn network of superhighways during World War II as the reason he promoted development of the Interstate System when he became President – one of his proudest accomplishments.

One chapter of Eisenhower’s memoir, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, was devoted to the 1919 convoy (Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1967). The chapter is titled “Through Darkest America with Truck and Tank.” For a detailed account of the Army’s 1919 convoy’s transcontinental journey, see:

Davies, Pete, American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age, Henry Holt and Company, 2002.

By contrast, the Jefferson Highway is largely forgotten, but in its day, it was one of the best known north-south named trails, taking motorists from Winnipeg to New Orleans. The Jefferson Highway Association (JHA) had sought a single number from the Joint Board on Interstate Highways and from AASHO. But as with all the multi-State named trails, its efforts were in vain. As Lyell D. Henry, Jr.’s history of the Jefferson Highway explained:

In sum, segments of no fewer than thirteen numbered highways – several ending in one state only to reappear in a more distant, noncontiguous state – had abruptly displaced the Jefferson Highway. In these results were major implications for the content of road maps and the signage motorists would now encounter in driving the old route and – even more important . . . the prospects for the continued recognition of the Jefferson Highway.

The JHA leadership could take pride that “the highway so carefully selected that the Jefferson Highway for practically its entire distance was placed on numbered United States highways forming a part of the main trunk line system of highways.” But what role was left for the JHA? Henry explained:

[T]he organization continued through the rest of the decade. At a meeting in April 1929, the JHA advisory committee, still pondering the future of the organization, decided to once again recommend keeping it going, and a month later, the JHA headquarters, still located in St. Joseph [Missouri], announced that twenty thousand Jefferson Highway maps were ready for free distribution. Accompanying the announcement was a somewhat wistful statement from JHA president George McIninch: “Despite the present day system of numbering roads, sentimental and historical significance attaches to the name of the Jefferson Highway. It is the aim of our association, through publication of maps and by many other organized efforts, to retain the identity and prestige of the Jefferson Highway.” The 1929 map was the last one issued by JHA, and what those “many other organized efforts” may have been, if any, remains unknown. President McIninch did show up for the event in October 1930 that celebrated the completion of paving the highway’s route in Iowa and much of Minnesota, but ready evidence of any further significant activity by JHA is virtually nonexistent, and presumably the organization, whether by formal dissolution or mere withering away, was soon gone . . . .

What realistic prospect could there be for anchoring the Jefferson Highway in the collective memory in the absence of distinctive trail signs posted along the highway, or of a name affixed to a route on road maps, or of an organization dedicated to publishing route guides and otherwise publicizing the Jefferson Highway? [Henry, Lyell D., Jr,. The Jefferson Highway: Blazing the Way from Winnipeg to New Orleans, University of Iowa Press, 2016, pages 71-74]

The Yellowstone Trail Association, backing a transcontinental route from “Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound” (Plymouth, Massachusetts, to Seattle, Washington, via Yellowstone National Park), similarly had to face reality. The association, like many others, had sought a single number for its famous highway, but without success. Harold A. Meeks, in his history of the trail, summarized the result:

Parts of the Yellowstone Trail were signed as U.S. 20 in the East and U.S. 10 and 12 in the West. Significant portions of the Yellowstone Trail were not initially designated as interstate routes, but except in one case, were assigned state highway numbers. Some non-designated stretches of road included most of New York state (State Route 5); that portion of the Trail from Cleveland, Ohio, to Fort Wayne, Indiana; a small section in Wisconsin; most of Minnesota, which subsequently became U.S. 212; and finally most of Washington, which may in part explain the trail relocation which took place there in 1925 . . . .

On the surface, the Yellowstone Trail Association seemed to be struggling along, but it was certainly not the dynamic organization that had previously existed.

A history of the Yellowstone Trail by Alice A. Ridge and John Wm. Ridge provided the stark numbers of the decline:

The group had been plagued with financial problems its whole life. The year 1921 was a period of national recession and the Trail association survived. But in the late 1920’s, almost a year before the Joint Board of AASHO and Bureau of Public Roads engineers replaced names with numbers, a desperate bulletin was issued by General Manager H.O. Cooley to the membership at large. In it he stated that he would feature one town each week in the bulletin that was in arrears in paying its assessment. He called it the Debt Paying Bulletin and likened paying debts unto a game in which he was the scorekeeper and would publish names of debtors for the featured town of the week. He proceeded to do so, in which process he probably embarrassed and alienated more than he shamed into paying up. In August of 1927 a financial report showed that almost $16,000 had been collected and spent in eight months, leaving a debt of $1338 in spite of a membership of 7789. The report also showed a cancellation of membership by 155 people. At the end of 1929, the financial report showed receipts and expenditures of about $11,500. The good news was that they were out of debt with a balance of $11.99 to carry forward. The previous year they had a balance of $18 to carry forward. The organization never expected to see a profit, but the annual fight for solvency must have been wearing.

The end came in March 1930 when, as Meeks wrote, Cooley informed the association’s president, A. J. Dahlman of Lemmon, South Dakota, that, “On Saturday, March 15 (1930) I am going to close the office of the Yellowstone Trail Association, permanently,” signaling the end of the old organization founded with such high hopes in 1912. Cooley explained:

It is March 15th, the state meetings have not been held, and there is no money to hold them. There is no basis for making plans for 1930. The total indebtedness of the Association is $6176.45 . . . . Most of this has been carried for several years, but I cannot carry it any longer . . . . I have no idea what I am going to do, but I will have to do something to earn my living . . . . I have carried on as long as I could, and see no possible hope to carry on any further.

The Yellowstone Trail managed to last over two years longer than the Lincoln Highway, but the outcome was inevitable, a bitter end to be sure. [Meeks, Harold A., On the Road to Yellowstone: The Yellowstone Trail and American Highways 1900-1930, Pictorial History Publishing Company, 2000, page 175; Ridge, Alice A., and Ridge, John Wm., Introducing The Yellowstone Trail: A Good Road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound, Yellowstone Trail Publishers, 2000, pages 64-65]

Unlike the Lincoln Highway, the National Old Trails Road Association did not announce its end or stage a well-planned final publicity stunt. However, dedication of the Madonna of the Trail monuments in the route’s 12 States served that unstated purpose. It created a transcontinental monument that, unlike the Lincoln Highway’s posts, remains in place today.

Some remnants of the National Old Trail Road remain around the country, and its history is sometimes mentioned in accounts of the southwestern end that became part of U.S. 66.

Perhaps the National Old Trails Road should best be remembered today as part of the life of Harry S. Truman. Truman biographers mention his presidency of the National Old Trails Road Association, but usually as a minor detail that was not worth researching. For example, David McCullough’s masterful 992-page biography mentions Truman’s role on two pages. The first reference narrates how Truman earned a living after losing his reelection bid as a Jackson County judge:

In the intervening time, he became something of a man of affairs in Kansas City. From an office in the Board of Trade Building, he began selling memberships in the Kansas City Automobile Club, working on commission, which, after expenses, came to approximately five dollars for every new member he recruited. In a year he had sold more than a thousand memberships and cleared $5,000, which, with a family to support and debts to pay, he greatly needed. Roads, highways, the new age of the automobile had become his specialty. He was named president of the National Old Trails Association, a nonprofit group dedicated to building highways along the country’s historic trails and to spreading the concept of history as a tourist attraction. (Writing from Kansas during one of many trips in behalf of the group, he told Bess, “This is almost like campaigning for President, except that the people are making promises to me instead of the other way around.”)

In September 1933, Truman participated in the dedication of the county courthouse he had built, one of his many accomplishments as Presiding Judge. In the second reference, McCullough quoted the Jackson County Examiner newspaper coverage of the opening in 1933 that cited Truman’s work, including:

During these years of strenuous service to Jackson County he has found time to serve as president of the National Old Trails Association, an office he still holds. [McCullough, David, Truman, Simon and Schuster, 1992, pages 171, 202; the quote is from the Examiner of September 7, 1933]

Like McCullough, other authors saw little need to explore Truman’s activities on behalf of the National Old Trails Road Association. Even his daughter Margaret seemed to have little interest in the subject. Her biography of her father mentioned his role after citing his success with the Automobile Club of Kansas City:

He became president of the National Old Trails Association, a perfect job for Solomon Young’s grandson. He traveled extensively around Missouri and many other states, marking famous roads and urging local governments to see the value of their history as a tourist attraction.

She added:

I was never very conscious of him as a politician, during these early years, but I did know he was a highway builder. He often took me with him on inspection tours of the new roads, and sometimes on longer trips, when he dedicated or inspected an historic road, as part of his still continuing presidency of the National Old Trails Association. [Truman, Margaret, Harry S. Truman, William Morrow and Company, 1973, pages 68, 77]

If she accompanied him to dedication ceremonies for Madonna of the Trail monuments, she does not say.

She gave two pages to the subject in her biography of her mother, mostly to illustrate that Bess resented her husband’s travels for the “National Old Trails Association.” She wrote, “Its goal was to encourage auto travel by persuading local officials to set up historic markers and build tourist facilities.” As noted earlier, she quoted some of his letters from the road, such as his letter describing Mayor Ham Bell of South Dodge to illustrate Bess’s disinterest. “Bess did not find such pieces of living history as interesting as her husband did. More to the point, he was enjoying himself too much – while he was several hundreds [sic] miles away from her.” [Bess Truman, pages 102-103]

Neither author seemed to understand what the National Old Trails Road was, its history, or Truman’s activities as president of its association – or its full name.

The association had only two presidents in its active years, and their roles were very different. Judge J. M. Lowe had devoted his last years, from 1912 until his death in 1926, to securing a hard surfaced road from coast to coast. He did not accept payment for his services, and at times, used his own funds to support the association. His advocacy included speeches, intervention in county and road district votes, publication of bulletins and books, and testimony before Congress and other bodies, always in support of the National Old Trails Road and improvement of the main roads around the country.

In 1925 he found that even his home State, Missouri, did not respect his hard work in laying out a cross-State highway by leaving part of it off the new State road scheduled for improvement. In 1926, by the time of his death, he could see that the National Old Trails Road was about to be broken up by the new U.S. numbered highway system. His work had not been in vain, but he would be forgotten by the highway community as it began in the 1920s to build an interstate highway system of two-lane paved highways under the Federal-aid highway program that he had initially opposed.

Unlike Judge Lowe, the second president, Truman, could not devote all his time and resources to the National Old Trails Road Association. He had a family to support and a job – a paying job –as one of Jackson County’s presiding judge.

Truman traveled the road to maintain support for the association’s work and to secure a stable financial future for it. He may not have realized it, but the 12 Madonna of the Trail monuments he helped Mrs. Moss to install and dedicate were the final statement of the National Old Trails Road Association. The National Old Trails Road may be forgotten, but the monuments remain today as reminders of the first presidency of Harry S. Truman.

Senator Harry S. Truman

In the November 1934 mid-term elections, President Roosevelt’s already large Democratic majorities grew in the House and Senate. Among the increases was Harry S. Truman, who secured 59 percent of the vote to defeat incumbent Roscoe C. Peterson.

A few days later, The Washington Post began a series on “New Faces in the Senate.” The third installment was about Senator-elect Truman. The profile began:

After a lapse of 16 years, the once dominant “rebel democracy” of Missouri is to be in complete control of the State representation in the United States Senate. The election last Tuesday of Harry S. Truman, of Independence, a suburb of Kansas City, gives the Democrats the two Senate seats. The other one has been held the last two years by Bennett Champ Clark, son of the former Speaker of the House [Champ Clark (1911-1919] . . . .

Now comes another Democratic Senator from the rural part of the State, Harry S. Truman, to reunite the broken line of Democratic Senators. He hails from rural Jackson County, one of the bloodiest spots in the border warfare between Missouri and Kansas just before and during the Civil War.

The article recalled his early years on the family farm before coming into prominence during the World War. As a member of the 35th Division, he “helped to organize Battery B, 129th Field Artillery, a volunteer outfit” and made an enviable record in the Battle of Argonne. He had been commissioned as a first lieutenant, but during the war “was promoted to captain, and came out of the war a major.”

As for his Senate run, the Post recalled:

Clark induced Representative Jacob L. Milligan, a former captain in the Thirty-fifth Division and war buddy, to become a Democratic candidate for the senatorship. Truman was thrown on the opposite side of this [primary] contest by a force of circumstances, which resulted in the luckiest break of his life.

Thomas J. Pendergast, Democratic boss of Kansas City, who two years ago extended his political control over much of the State, is responsible today more than any one else for Truman’s elevation to the Senate. The new Senator-elect had engaged for a time in the retail business in Kansas City. Ten years ago Pendergast was looking around for a candidate for county court judge from the rural Jackson County district. He was attracted to Truman by the fact of his good war record, and his ability to make friends.

Pendergast was under attack from politicians across the State in St. Louis who had made the “boss” a target in the 1932 gubernatorial race, although Pendergast’s candidate, Guy B. Park, won:

The direct challenge to Pendergast’s political control of Missouri came without warning. The St. Louis Democratic organization brought out Representative John J. Cochran. The leaders boasted that if he were put over for Senator, the way would be cleared for St. Louis to grab the governorship and political domination of the State in 1936.

Then Pendergast, hard pressed for a senatorial candidate to meet the St. Louis challenger, turned to his county judge, Harry S. Truman, who was popular at home, but little known in the rest of the State. A battle royal between the Kansas City and St. Louis organizations ensued. Truman won the nomination easily, as a result of a record-breaking primary vote in Kansas City and Jackson County.

The Senator-elect would arrive in Washington “with little more than a local background.” The profile discussed his accomplishments:

As a member of the county court he was largely responsible for carrying out a $10,000,000 county road program. Probably his next greatest achievement on the county court was the building of the new $4,500,000 courthouse in Kansas City. Truman is a former president of the National Old Trails Association, and a good roads booster for many years.

His education was “limited to that which is acquired in the public schools, supplemented by reading later in life”:

He is not considered brilliant, either as an orator or as a scholar, but has great personal charm and is a tireless worker. He has never had time to develop hobbies.

During the campaign, Truman pledged 100-percent cooperation with President Roosevelt, and defended the New Deal:

However, like the party organization of the State, Truman is a conservative and has little in common with the new school of socialistic theorists who have risen to prominent places the last two years. Yet in his campaign he favored old age pension legislation and unemployment insurance, a part of the new Roosevelt program. Truman also pledged himself for immediate payment of the soldier bonus. In his campaign he defended the processing tax and the AAA program of farm relief.

The profile, accompanied by a caricature of Truman in a grim, even sad and tired, look that contrasted with his personality, ended:

Truman is married and has one child, Margaret, 10 years old. [Alford, Theodore C., “New Faces in the Senate – Harry Truman of Missouri,” The Washington Post, November 12, 1934, page 9]

Truman had campaigned by car, traveling Missouri’s back roads. He told reporters he felt as if he were on a vacation. “Fact is, I like roads. I like to move. …”

Originally regarded as a lightweight sent to Washington by “Boss” Pendergast, Truman made his reputation as a determined investigator of financial finagling by the railroads. After the United States entered World War II in December 1941, he applied his dogged, common sense investigative skills to military procurement. The investigation began unofficially when he left Washington in his Dodge and drove to Florida, then to the Midwest, and finally to Michigan, stopping at Army installations and defense plants – and finding waste and fraud along the way. Based on the abuses he found during his tour, the Senate established the Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, commonly called the Truman Committee after its chairman.

In this new and highly visible position, Truman gained national stature. Although many still thought of him as the lightweight political hack he had appeared to be when he arrived in Washington in 1935, his success gave him the opportunity to be considered for the position of Vice President in 1944.

(Senator-elect Truman may have received a lucky break, as the Post put it, because of the cross-State political rivalries in the 1934 mid-term election, but of course no one could have predicted that the luckiest break of his life would come 10 years later during the 1944 presidential election when he was selected unexpectedly as the Vice Presidential nominee for President Roosevelt’s fourth term in the White House.)

Historians may have little interest in learning about the National Old Trails Road Association, but Truman never forgot his time traveling the road despite the many more urgent matters he would consider as a Senator, Vice President, and President. But after becoming a United States Senate, he and his family drove the old road, now mostly U.S. 40, between Independence and Washington many times – seeing places and people he knew from his days as president of the National Old Trails Road Association.

That his memory of those days was strong became evident during his famous whistle stop election campaign event in 1948. No one, except President Truman, thought he could beat Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York in the November election. That summer, President Truman, Bess, Margaret, and their entourage embarked on a nationwide railroad tour of the country, delivering speeches from the back platform of the train to large crowds in many towns, as well as major speeches in the big cities. He had planned to deliver written speeches from the train platforms, but he found that speaking extemporaneously was more effective, even though one of his aides had to record his words in shorthand for history.

In June 1948, his railroad tour passed through several of the National Old Trails Road cities. In mid-June, after a big speech in Los Angeles, he was on his way home to Independence. He gave brief speeches in Winslow, Arizona, and Gallup, New Mexico. In Albuquerque, he recalled:

I was here once as the President of the National Old Trails and Roads Association, and we set up a monument to the Pioneer Mother here in Albuquerque. Had a great time on that trip, and I met a lot of people in New Mexico. It looks as if they are all here today.

The trip continued through Las Vegas and Raton, New Mexico, then paralleled the National Old Trails Road. On June 16, in Dodge City, Kansas, he began his remarks:

If looks as if Dodge City really wanted to see what their President looked like. I used to come over here to Dodge City on road matters for the National Old Trails Association. I was the director of that organization, and I have been through here on numerous occasions on work for that organization. Those were the days when we didn’t have the roads we have now, and when it used to take the Santa Fe Railroad a little longer to go from Kansas City than it does now.

The tour continued through Hutchinson and Newton, Kansas. In Emporia, Kansas, he recalled:

I see one of my very old friends here in the audience, Bill Young. He used to be Mayor of Council Grove, Kansas, and a member of the National Old Trails Association. I have been from one end of Kansas to the other with Bill Young, and other members of the Association.

The campaign train continued through the States of the National Old Trails Road on June 17, including Terre Haute, Indiana, where he said:

I am certainly glad to see you, and happy to see so many of you out here today. I have been through this city and stopped here on numerous occasions. When I was in the Senate, and I was there for 10 years, I used to drive back and forth from Independence, Missouri, to Washington by way of highway number 40 – usually always stayed on that highway in Terre Haute going one way or another, so I am very well familiar with your city and its environs.

On the other side of Indiana, in Richmond, he said:

I am happy to be here this morning, and I want to assure you that this is not my first visit to Richmond. I came here once as President of the National Old Trails Road Association and helped the Daughters of the American Revolution to set up a monument in one of your parks to the pioneer mother.

The text for the Richmond speech is from the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum. The American Presidency Project had a different version of the text:

It certainly is a pleasure to see all these smiling faces in Richmond. You know, I have through here at least a hundred times, and nobody paid any attention to me. When I was in the Senate, and even before that, I always used to drive through Richmond, and sometimes stayed at the Richmond-Leland Motel. I ought to get something for that plug, don’t you think? [Laughter]

Of course, he won the 1948 election and served until January 1953.

His name remained on the letterhead of the National Old Trails Road Association into the late 1940s.

In June 1941, Senator Truman received a letter dated June 15, 1941, from William L. Young, president of the Kansas Highway 50 and National Old Trails Association. The letter began:

Dear Senator Harry:

We read of you often and think of you considerable [sic] more and which makes us feel the old world is not so big after all, congratulations and our best wishes as you continue onward up the ladder of fame . . . .

He added, “Regardless we have the road and only road that can be depended upon at all times, you continue and will always by our President and I presume I still carry on as Executive Chairman, you will also notice some time ago we reorganized the state association at Lyons Kans with myself as state chairman.”

Young pointed out that as a result of recent flooding in the Midwest, he had written to Governor Payne Ratner and Highway Director D. J. Fair about the resulting road problems. The letters were enclosed. Young continued in disjointed manner:

Senator Harry note that part from a military standpoint, for illustration would’nt we be in a pickle in such an emergency, the following is a correct list of the east and west roads that were out, No 36, 24, 40 50 South, 54, 160 that leaves the road you are piloting No 50 North the N.O.T. the only east and west road open across the state, even R I and UP trains detouring from Herington through Council Grove to Kansas City, and these above mentioned roads were out several days.

He got to the point:

I am so in hopes you are in position to stick in the right kind of plug, more especially while the water is muddy for I am very well satisfied our Governor would like to move towards such an improvement if he was bolstered or touched up by the proper source, Missouri and Kansas papers filled with flood conditions as you will have noticed.

My personal thanks to you for what you do and best wishes to yourself, wife, and the girl.

Young appears to have been seeking Truman’s help in having the National Old Trails Road declared part of a strategic highway network that was under consideration as Congress debated what became the Defense Highway Act of 1941.

Truman replied on June 19:

Dear Bill,

It was certainly a pleasure to get a good letter from you dated June Fifteenth, and of course I am just as interested in the National Old Trails as I ever was. I am also interested in this military highway business.

I believe there is a good chance of our road being designated. You did the right thing in taking it up with the Governor of Kansas and the Kansas Highway Commission, because in the long run their decision will have a lot to do with what the Federal Government does.

You can rest assured that if there is an opportunity for me to put in a good word for our road I will be glad to do it. [Correspondence courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum]

Senator Truman’s Crash

Senator Truman was driving to Washington on U.S. 40, the former National Old Trails Road, on Sunday, March 27, 1938, with Bess and 14-year old Margaret. In Hagerstown, Maryland, Truman’s car crashed into a car driven by Robert Potts of Hagerstown, then struck a telephone pole. Margaret described the incident in her biography of her father:

Our trips to and from Independence were quite an ordeal . . . . On this semiannual commute, we always went by car. My father did most of the driving, and this always made for interesting family discussions. My mother was convinced that he drove too fast, and she was absolutely right. I don’t think Mother ever really saw any of the scenery between Missouri and the District of Columbia. She always had at least one eye on the speedometer.

Our route usually took us through Hagerstown, Maryland, and over the mountains to Cumberland. In 1938 we came to grief in Hagerstown, and another chapter in the history of Dad’s unbreakable, unlosable glasses was written. It was a Sunday morning, and a stop sign at a key intersection was obscured by a parked car. A man in another car plowed into us as we went through the intersection. Our car was completely wrecked. It was almost a miracle that we escaped alive. Dad had a cut on his forehead, and Mother had a badly wrenched neck. Sitting in the back, I escaped with nothing more than a bad fright.

As I was pulled out of the car window, I saw Dad’s glasses on the floor, surrounded by upended suitcases – intact. He had flung them over his shoulder at the moment of impact.

First the police were inclined to give the Trumans a very hard time for missing the stop sign. But Dad pointed out that the stop sign was obscured by the parked car . . . . Dad called his secretary, Vic Messall, and he got dressed in record time and drove down to pick us up. We never did go back for the car. I guess it was towed to the nearest junk heap. [Harry S. Truman, pages 97-98]

The Washington Post reported:

The Senator received minor bruises when his head struck the windshield. Mrs. Truman and the daughter suffered severe shock.

According to police, Senator Truman’s car passed through a boulevard stop sign and the other auto, driven by J. Robert Potts, of Hagerstown, skidded 40 feet before coming to a halt. No charges were placed against either driver although police obtained a writ of foreign attachment for $90 on the Senator’s car, pending further investigation. [“Truman Hurt In Auto Wreck At Hagerstown,” The Washington Post, March 28, 1938, page X9]

According to The Evening Star, Truman’s car was “virtually demolished” in the crash. At the application of Potts, Magistrate John Dunn “issued a foreign attachment for $90 against the Senator’s automobile.” In other words, Truman paid Dobbs $90 for the crash. [“Three Crashes Are Fatal to Two; Three Badly Hurt,” The Evening Star, March 28, 1938; page 17]

The Last Road Trip

Shortly after President Eisenhower took office in January 1953, citizen Harry S. Truman went to Union Station for the train ride home to Independence, Missouri. He shook hands with his Secret Service escort and said goodbye – in those days, former Presidents did not have government protection.

Back home, he bought a two-tone green Dodge coupe for himself and a four-door black Chrysler for Bess. In May 1953, he received an invitation to address the Reserve Officers Association in Philadelphia on June 26. As a former reserve officer, Truman decided to accept the invitation – and drive to the meeting to give the Chrysler "a real workout." He and Bess would visit friends in Washington before driving to Philadelphia; after the speech, they would drive to New York City, where Margaret lived, before driving home to Independence.

Not having driven the road for 8 years, he planned the trip carefully. “I took out the road map and figured the distance – exactly 1,050 miles from my garage door to the door of the Senate garage. I decided on the best places to stop over on the way, as I always used to do.” From Independence, they would take U.S. 24 to Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi River. They switched to U.S. 36 to Indianapolis, where they visited friends. From Indianapolis, they took U.S. 40, the former National Old Trails Road to Washington.

As Matthew Algeo put it in his book on the trip:

He couldn’t have been happier. “I like to take trips – any kind of trip,” he wrote. “They are about the only recreation I have besides reading.” [Algeo, page 35]

To convince Bess to go, Truman had to convince her they could travel without being recognized – and promise that he would obey the speed limits.

They left Independence on June 19, with 11 suitcases in the trunk and the back seat of the New Yorker:

As Independence faded in his rearview mirror, Harry Truman might have been the happiest man in Missouri, if not all forty-eight states. He loved to drive. Back when he was a county judge, he’d driven thousands of miles touring country courthouses from Colorado to New York before the construction of the new courthouse in Independence. When he ran for the Senate in 1934, he campaigned by car, crisscrossing the Show Me State in his shiny new Plymouth. He enjoyed it so much, he said he felt like he was on vacation. As a Senator, he drove thousands of miles investigating fraud and waste on military bases throughout the South and Midwest and, of course, he regularly drove between Independence and Washington. He always preferred the freedom of the road to the plush confines of a Pullman car. Even when he was president, he would occasionally take the wheel of his limo, much to the consternation of his Secret Service agents.

Driving not only satisfied his need to keep moving; it also helped him gauge the country’s mood. “You have to get around and listen to what people are saying,” he said.

He fancied himself an excellent driver, naturally, but in reality, riding shotgun with Harry Truman could be a hair-raising adventure. As his longtime friend Mize Peter once told an interviewer, rather diplomatically, “I have driven with him when I was a little uneasy.”

By far his biggest vice was speed. Bess was right: Harry drove too fast. [Algeo, pages 40-41]

Margaret Truman, in her biography of her father, told about the start of the trip:

They weren't on the road more than an hour, when Mother asked, "What does the speedometer say?"

"Fifty-Five."

"Do you think I'm losing my eyesight? Slow down."

As they slowed down, other motorists passed them and quickly began recognizing the ex-President:

Soon they heard people shouting, "Hi, Harry – Hey, wasn't that Harry Truman? Where are you going, Harry?"

"Well," Dad said, "there goes our incognito – and I don’t mean a part of the car."

Everywhere they stopped along their route, Dad was instantly recognized by motel owners or filling station attendants. Local reporters were notified, and police chiefs rushed to escort or guard them. The trip became almost as well publicized as a whistle-stop campaign.

Truman, on November 29, 1953, replied to a letter from an Army friend, Vic Housholder, by describing his trip:

Mrs. T and I thought we’d solved the problem when I bought a Chrysler car and we started for Washington. When we’d crossed the Missouri River at Waverly on highway 24 on our way to Hannibal, the “boss” said to me, “Isn’t it good to be on our own again, doing as we please as we did in the old Senate days?” I said that I thought it was grand and that I hope we’d do as we pleased from that time on.

We stopped at Hannibal, Mo. for lunch at the junction of highways 61 & 36. Everything went well until a couple of old time County Judges, came in and saw me. They said, “Why there’s Judge Truman” and then every waitress and all the customers had to shake hands and have autographs. We went on to Decatur, Ill and stopped for gas at a Shell station where I used to stop when I was a Senator. The old man kept looking at me as he filled up the gas tank and finally he asked me if I was Senator Truman. I admitted the charge and asked him if he could direct me to the good Motel in the town. We’d never stayed at one and we wanted to try it out and see if we liked it. Well he directed us but he told everybody in town about it. The Chief of Police got worried about us and sent two plain clothes men and four uniformed police to look after us.

They took us to dinner and escorted us out of town with a sigh of relief.

At Greenfield, Indiana, the State police had set up a roadblock to give traffic safety brochures to passing motorists, as Algeo explained:

The Trumans had passed through the roadblock unnoticed, but as they were pulling away, a state trooper named R. H. Reeves recognized them. Harry was done in by his fastidiousness. “It” – his car – “was so clean that my attention was attracted to it,” Reeves said.

Reeves shouted for Truman to pull over. He did, and got out of the car. “What’re you selling here?” he asked the trooper. Reeves explained the traffic-safety program and asked the former president to pose for a picture to promote it.

“I’m running about two hours late, but I’ll take time for that,” Harry said. “I certainly endorse your program.”

As President, Truman had launched a major highway safety initiative, so it was an issue he fully endorsed. (For information on President Truman’s safety program, see “President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Federal Role in Highway Safety” and “A Moment in Time: President Harry S. Truman’s Highway Safety Crusade” in the General section of the Highway History page on this Website.)

While Bess sat and waited inside the sweltering Chrysler, Harry spent about twenty minutes at the roadblock, standing in his shirtsleeves, chatting and signing autographs. Then they were off again. [Algeo, pages 82-83]

Leaving Wheeling, West Virginia, Truman continued on U.S. 40 across the Allegheny Mountains in southwestern Pennsylvania:

Truman later said he was “impressed with the way the highway over the mountains had been improved from the old blacktop hairpin curves” that he had driven as a senator. [Algeo, page 96]

Driving through Frostburg, Maryland, Truman was flagged down by a passerby, Dr. Martin Rothstein:

Looking for a place to eat, Harry had just turned onto a side street when he saw a man in a suit waving him down. Bemused, he stopped the car . . . .

“I’m sorry, Mr. Truman,” Doc said a little sheepishly. “But you’re going the wrong way.”

“What do you mean?” Truman said.

“This is a one-way street,” Doc explained, “and you’re going the wrong way.”

Bess leaned across the front seat to the driver’s side window.

“He never listens to me,” she said to Rothstein. “I thought he was making a wrong turn.”

Truman asked about a place to eat and was directed to The Princess:

Truman was familiar with the Princess. He’d stopped there a couple times when he was a senator making the trip between Independence and Washington . . . . Harry and Bess sat in a booth near the front and ordered the Sunday supper special: roast chicken with stuffing, lima beans, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, rice pudding, and coffee – for seventy cents.

The word was soon out that the former President was in Frostburg:

The Trumans did not enjoy a quiet repast. Children badgered Harry for his autograph. The adults weren’t much better behaved, constantly interrupting the couple’s lunch to shake hands.

Howard Ward, a reporter for the Cumberland Evening Times, observed the Trumans. “Through it all,” Ward reported, “they remained gracious and were not annoyed”:

“We lunched at Frostburg,” Truman later recounted, “at the Princess Restaurant . . . . I had been there before, but in those days they didn’t make such a fuss over me. I was just a senator then.” [Algeo, pages 100-101]

That Sunday, June 21, the Trumans reached the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. at 5:40 p.m. Margaret, who had arrived from New York, greeted them. [Algeo, page 111]

Truman took the train to Philadelphia on Friday, June 26, for his speech. He then took the train to New York City, where he met Bess and Margaret who had driven the Chrysler to the city.

McCullough, who described the trip in his biography of Truman, concluded his account with the following incident:

Heading home for Missouri, "perking along" on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Truman was signaled to pull over by the police. According to what State Trooper Manly Stampler told reporters, "Mr. Truman" had twice cut in front of vehicles trying to pass him. "He was very nice about it and promised to be more careful." But according to Truman, who had never had a traffic violation, the young man had only wanted to shake hands.

It was his last venture with Bess on their own by automobile. Thereafter, they would go by train, plane, or ship. [McCullough, page 935]

They reached Washington, Pennsylvania, where the Trumans turned onto U.S. 40 for the ride home.

On July 7, they were in Richmond, Indiana, as recounted by Algeo:

On the morning of Tuesday, July 7, Ora Wilson, the sheriff of Wayne County, Indiana, got a call from a friend at the Ohio State Highway Patrol. His friend advised Wilson that Harry and Bess Truman were headed his way, and helpfully supplied a description of their vehicle and an ETA . . . .

Wilson called his son Lowell, one of his deputies, to help keep the Trumans safe and get a picture with them while they were at it. With a Palladium-Item photographer in the car, the Sheriff and Deputy waited for the Trumans to drive into town:

Around noon, Ora and Lowell Wilson spotted the Trumans’ Chrysler heading into Richmond on East Main Street. They pulled it over.

“Sheriff,” asked Harry with some exasperation, “what did I do wrong?”

“We just wanted to welcome you to Richmond,” said the elder Wilson, who added that it would be awfully nice if Harry and Bess would pose for a picture with him in front of the Madonna of the Trail statue. Harry had come to Richmond to help choose the site for the statue back in 1928, when he was president of the National Old Trails Road Association. He had been scheduled to return to Richmond later that year for the dedication of the statue, but, just a few days before the October 28 ceremony, he sent his regrets, saying he was “very busily engaged in politics” at the moment.

As Vice President, Truman had been scheduled to visit Richmond to address a soil conservation conference in Richmond on May 9, 1945, but his responsibilities after the death of President

Roosevelt on April 12 prevented him from making the trip:

So, by stopping in Richmond (albeit involuntarily), Harry was making good on unfilled obligations. The Wilsons escorted the Trumans to Glen Miller Park, where the Palladium-Item photographer snapped a picture of Ora, Harry, and Bess posing in front of the larger-than life Madonna . . . . Afterward, the Wilsons escorted the Trumans to the Leland Hotel in downtown Richmond, where Harry and Bess had lunch. [Algeo, pages 193, 197-198]

Harry remained on U.S. 40 through Indianapolis, where the Trumans again stayed with friends, and on to Independence, arriving home to 219 Delaware Street around 9 p.m. on July 8, 1953. They had driven 2,600 miles over the course of 19 days. They were recognized throughout the trip home. “Harry,” as Algeo commented, “never took another long car trip.” [Algeo, page 217]

Place in History

The National Old Trails Road Association, founded in 1912, was one of the first of the major named trails, providing a template for the 250 or so named trails that came after it. The Lincoln Highway Association, established a year later, was better funded from motor vehicle industry executives and had stronger public relations elements – it was more famous in its day than the National Old Trails Road. Both, however, were among the most popular interstate roads during the named trails era.

The major named trail associations supported a Federal program – generally preferring Federal construction to a Federal-aid program with State construction – to improve the country’s roads, and, of course, they thought the money should be spent on their road. In the advocacy by private interests, they helped build the groundswell of support for what became the Federal-aid highway program in 1916 and the revitalized Federal-aid highway program in 1921.

Judge J. M. Lowe, the first president of the National Old Trails Road Association, was a well-known national leader in the good roads movement, as well as an active fighter for his road in an era where funding had to be secured county-by-county and road-district-by-road district. At the time of his death in 1926, the National Old Trails Road was nearly as well-known as the Lincoln Highway and better known than any other named trail – even as it was about to be replaced by the U.S. numbered highway system. The road’s importance is reflected in the fact that large portions of the National Old Trails Road were included in two of the best known of the U.S. numbered highways, namely U.S. 40 and U.S. 66.

Harry S. Truman, the second president of the association, was energized by the National Old Trails Road Association at a low point in his life. It gave him opportunities to enjoy several of the things he most liked to do, namely travel by car, meet people, and get things done. Even as he moved ahead in the political world of Missouri, he continued his work with the association.

Starting in Missouri, the Daughters of the American Revolution helped create the National Old Trails Road and continued to advocate for it well into the 1920s. Although the Madonna of the Trail monuments were not meant to mark the end of the National Old Trails Road, they served that purpose as it turned out. The name would continue to pop up in travel articles for many years, and the occasional restaurant or other facility named after it remained on the map.

But in the end, the National Old Trails Road represented a stage in the country’s transportation history that had to pass out of the present and into memory – same as mountain men, covered wagons, stagecoaches, and the pony express – as the country moved on to the next stage that the National Old Trails Road Association had helped generate.

Historians and biographers research every detail of their subject. And yet, as noted earlier, they generally don’t feel compelled to find out what the National Old Trails Road Association was or how it affected the country. Even in books about President Harry S. Truman, the topic is usually confined to a sentence or two, in passing, as if it were of little importance in his life, without accurately explaining what the road was or what he did for it.

Historians may not have believed the National Old Trails Road Association deserved much attention, but Harry S. Truman never forgot it, as reflected in his informal speeches during the whistlestop campaign tour. Former President Truman, in interviews with Merle Miller, discussed, briefly, how the National Old Trails Road Association helped him overcome his ill feelings about the battles between Kansas and Missouri stemming from the expansion of slavery in the mid-19th century. Truman told Miller:

But the bad feeling that these things cause dies a very slow death. I had to overcome some of that hatred when I was president of the National Old Trails Association, which has branches from Baltimore to Los Angeles, and I had to go over to Kansas on many occasions and got to know the people over there. And I found out that they didn’t have horns and tails. They were the same kind of people as we have over here . . . . I’ve always felt that people were pretty much the same everywhere, but isn’t it a pity that we have to be taught that?

Miller, in his 1974 compilation of the interviews, provided this helpful footnote to explain what the National Old Trails Road Association was:

In 1925, after Mr. Truman’s defeat in his second race for county judge, he needed a job; he was forty-one years old and, as he has said, “completely broke and without much prospect of being any other way.” He first got a job selling memberships in the Kansas City Automobile Club and later became president of the National Old Trails Association, which involved traveling all over the country to promote the idea of building highways over the famous trails that had been so important in the various historical moves West. [Miller, Merle, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman, Tess Press, 2004, pages 65-66]

As usual, he didn’t bother getting this one detail right.