216 North Delaware Street

Home from 1900 of Truman's uncle and aunt and cousins--Joseph and Ella Noland, and their three daughters Ruth, Nellie, and Ethel. The Nolands, like the Trumans, who perhaps followed their example, moved to Independence from a farm in order to be near good schools. They also lived in a house on Maple Street from 1883-1893, and at 318 North Liberty Street from about 1883 to 1900. "We saw a lot of [Aunt Ella] and her three daughters after we moved to Independence," Truman remembered. "We grew up and went to school with cousins Nellie and Ethel Noland [pictured below]... Nellie would translate my Latin lesson for me when I was in high school and I would escort Ethel to parties and learn how to be polite from her." (Memoirs.) The Noland house on Delaware Street was across from the Gates-Wallace house at 219 North Delaware. Bess sometimes came over to study Latin with Nellie Noland and Harry Truman. "I don't know whether they got much Latin read or not," Ethel Noland remembered, "because there was a lot of fun going on, and Harry had become interested in fencing...so we would sometimes practice fencing...and we had...fun...with a little Latin intermingled, maybe." (Mary Ethel Noland oral history interview.) Truman apparently didn't see Bess from 1901, when they graduated from high school together, until 1910, when he seized an opportuity to run a cake plate across the street to Mrs. Wallace for his Aunt Ella. Bess answered the door, and Truman began courting her soon after.

216 North Delaware Street is a National Park Service site. (816) 254-2720.

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