Little known fact: Harry Truman had interest in LA Rams

[FangKC]

A little known fact revealed in a KC Star article: Harry Truman had a financial interest in the Los Angeles Rams in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/13/33 ... -next.html

[KCMax]

Yea, I read that over the weekend too. I always had the impression Truman struggled his whole life to make ends meet, even after the Presidency, but I guess the guy was a shrewd investor and extremely frugal.

[aknowledgeableperson]

There is something to be said about being frugal. It may not be cool but one can live a good life being that way.

[FangKC]

One has to remember that Truman never really had any money until after he left the presidency, and that most of his later wealth came from the sale of his share of the Truman family farm, and from his writings.

I'm estimating that he socked away about $150,000 from his presidential salary of $75,000 over 6 years and 7 months and $125,000 in the last year--probably in government bonds. I assume his saving of about 25% percent of his salary came from the knowledge that there were no pensions for former presidents while he was still in office. That changed later though after he left office, and he got one. I also assume he was putting away 25% of his senate salary during those years.

Even though Truman was a millionaire by the time he died, you can tell that the Trumans continued to live frugally if you have ever toured their home. It's a fairly simple house by today's standards. They saved jelly jars and reused them as glasses. They ate in their kitchen like regular people. The house really hadn't changed much from the time it was Madge Gates Wallace's house.

The other thing not mentioned in the article was whether Bess Wallace Truman had inherited any money when her mother died. Madge Gates Wallace's family (the George Porterfield Gates) had owned a profitable mill in Independence that produced a well-known national baking flour at the time--Queen of the Pantry flour.

[loftguy]

One thing in the article left me hanging. The author mentions that the Truman family lost the farm, and that Harry's mother was thrown off the place. They then mention, in passing, that "friends" bought the farm back and gave it to Truman and his sister.

Who are these "friends"?

[WSPanic]

Who are these "friends"?

Illuminati, of course.

[shinatoo]

Who are these "friends"?

Illuminati, of course.

Probably wasn't the Japanese.

[FangKC]

I think I read somewhere that friends bought the farm at the foreclosure sale, and the Truman family later bought it back from them once they assembled the money. Truman's mother had lost the farm, and the children bought it back. The friends paid $43,000 for the farm, and that is the price they sold it for when Vivian and Harry Truman repurchased it. The Truman children went on to buy back even more acreage of the original farm that Martha Truman had sold off over the years before she lost it.

The original Solomon Young farm (Truman's grandfather) was 1500 acres. The Truman children managed to reassemble about 529 acres of the original farm.

This was not uncommon in the years of the Depression and for years afterwards. Farmers sold off parcels over time to make ends meet since many weren't making any money. Many farming families lost their original farms in that era to the banks and county governments. Taxes and payments were still due even when the farmers didn't make a profit. There were no farm subsidies and no crop failure insurance. Many times it was due to back-to-back crop failures over a series of years. Farmers usually had to take out loans to buy seed and fertilizer with the farmland as collateral.

In my hometown, the president of the local bank and a grocery store owner ended up with large tracts of fertile bottom farmland during the Depression. The grocery store owner gave credit to farmers for groceries and supplies, and they couldn't pay him back so he took farmland as payment for debt.

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/places/gv31.htm