Harry S. Truman Papers Papers as Presiding Judge of the Jackson County (Missouri) Court

Eastern District Judge, Jackson County (Missouri) Court, 1923-1925; Presiding Judge, Jackson County (Missouri) Court, 1927-1935; United States Senator from Missouri, 1935-1945; Vice President of the United States, 1945; President of the United States, 1945-1953

The papers of Harry S. Truman as Presiding Judge of the Jackson County (Missouri) Court include: documents relating to the administration of Jackson County involving budgets, revenue projections, highway programs, and courthouse construction funding; allotments for and rules and regulations of various federal programs, such as the Civil Works Administration and the Public Works Administration, in effect during Mr. Truman’s tenure as Missouri Director of Federal Reemployment; schedules and outlines for various conferences Mr. Truman attended as Presiding Judge; Missouri State House and Senate legislation regarding county administrative issues; Mr. Truman’s transcribed “Pickwick Hotel” notes (musings regarding his life and his potential 1934 candidacy for United States Senate); and diary and appointment books kept by Mr. Truman, outlining his daily appointments as Presiding Judge and his automobile, lodging, and meal expenses, as well as trip mileages, during the 1934 senatorial race.

Size: 1 linear feet, 4 linear inches (about 2,400 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: Mr. Truman donated his copyright interest in any of his writings in this collection to the people of the United States. In addition, documents prepared by government employees of Jackson County, a political subdivision of the State of Missouri, and the United States, in the course of their official duties are also in the public domain. Copyright interest in documents, which do not fall into the aforementioned categories, is presumed to remain with the writers of the documents or their heirs.
Processed by: Erwin J. Mueller and Dennis Bilger (1975); Cynthia G. Edwards (as part of the Truman Library Internship Program), Randy Sowell, Janice Davis, and Sharie Simon (1999); Randy Sowell and Janice Davis (2008).

A more detailed timeline of Harry S. Truman's life and Presidency is available on the Truman Trivia Page.

The papers of Harry S. Truman as Presiding Judge of the Jackson County (Missouri) Court date from his initial term as Eastern District Judge (1923-1925) through his ascension to the office of President of the United States, with the bulk of the material arising from his years as Presiding Judge and his race for United States Senator in 1934.

The Jackson County (Missouri) Court, as constituted in the mid-1920s-1930s, was comprised of three elected members, a Presiding Judge (four-year term of office) an Eastern District Judge (two-year term of office) and a Western District Judge (two-year term of office), who exercised the corporate powers of the county. These powers included: the management and control of county property, both real and personal; the authority to purchase, receive, lease, sell or convey county property, both real and personal; the appropriation of county funds for use in administering county needs; and the ability to audit and settle all demands made against the county.

Among the significant documents in this collection are copies of county financial records (such as budgets, drafts of budgets, and revenue projections), county department payroll lists, maps and printed materials on highway programs, copies of financial records regarding courthouse construction funding, photographs of Charles Keck’s Andrew Jackson statue, legal opinion letters prepared by the county counselor, outlines of conferences, copies of legislative material, correspondence, speeches and handwritten drafts of speeches, all prepared or utilized by Mr. Truman during his tenure as Presiding Judge. In addition, there are memoranda regarding county employee allotments for, and rules and regulations of, federal programs dealing with public and civil works, utilized during his stint as Missouri State Director of Reemployment. Also of interest in this collection are documents, including speeches and handwritten drafts of speeches, correspondence, business cards, newspaper clippings, adding machine tapes, auto servicing records, printed campaign literature and other items relating, primarily, to Mr. Truman’s 1934 senatorial race. Of particular interest is a copy of his transcribed notes, known as the “Pickwick Papers” because they were written on hotel stationery while he was staying at the Pickwick Hotel, in Kansas City, Missouri. These notes include his reminiscences of his life, both personal and political, on the night before the announcement of his decision to enter the 1934 senatorial race.

Other materials at the Truman Library which relate to this collection include the personal papers of James Aylward, Rufus Burrus, Fred Canfil, H. H. Halvorson, Bryce Smith, and N.T. Veatch; and the Library’s oral history interviews with Harry Abbott, James Aylward, Rufus Burrus, H. H. Halvorson, John Hulston, and N.T. Veatch.