Details
TRUMAN, HARRY S., President. Typed letter signed ("Harry") to Hon. Harry B. Hawes, Transportation Building, Washington, D.C.; U.S. Senate, 15 February 1939. 1 page, 4to, 265 x 202 mm. (10 7/16 x 7 15/16 in.), on Senate letterhead.
WAS TRUMAN'S MOTHER AT JESSE JAMES'S WEDDING?
"I have just received a letter from my sister regarding the wedding of Jesse James. My mother was not at the wedding, but her next-door neighbor did go. Her name was Miss Anna Ricketts. The girl that Jesse married was a cousin to Miss Ricketts, and Mother thinks her name was Mildred Mims [actually Zerelda Mimms]. She said that Jesse was married under the name of Howard. She had seen him many a time long before he was married, in his association with Luther and Crawford James, sons of T. M. James, whose china business in Kansas City has been the biggest in that part of the country for a long time. T. M. James was an uncle of Jesse. I was mistaken in saying that my mother was present at the wedding. Sincerely yours, Harry." The Truman family traditions seem based in historical fact: Jesse James was married to Zerelda Mimms in April 1874; "Thomas Howard" was the name he assumed when he resided in St. Joseph, Missouri, until he was gunned down by a member of his own band on 3 April 1882.
WAS TRUMAN'S MOTHER AT JESSE JAMES'S WEDDING?
"I have just received a letter from my sister regarding the wedding of Jesse James. My mother was not at the wedding, but her next-door neighbor did go. Her name was Miss Anna Ricketts. The girl that Jesse married was a cousin to Miss Ricketts, and Mother thinks her name was Mildred Mims [actually Zerelda Mimms]. She said that Jesse was married under the name of Howard. She had seen him many a time long before he was married, in his association with Luther and Crawford James, sons of T. M. James, whose china business in Kansas City has been the biggest in that part of the country for a long time. T. M. James was an uncle of Jesse. I was mistaken in saying that my mother was present at the wedding. Sincerely yours, Harry." The Truman family traditions seem based in historical fact: Jesse James was married to Zerelda Mimms in April 1874; "Thomas Howard" was the name he assumed when he resided in St. Joseph, Missouri, until he was gunned down by a member of his own band on 3 April 1882.