Harry S Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri on May 8, 1884. He was the son of John and Martha Ellen (Young) Truman and was their first child to survive. Their first child, also a boy, was stillborn. Harry was named after his Uncle Harrison. However the parents struggled with the middle name. Their quandary was over which family to honor. In the end, his middle name was given as the single letter 'S' after either Solomon or Shipp to honor both grandfathers, Solomon Young and Anderson Shipp Truman.

Truman's maternal grandfather, Solomon Young of German descent, was born in Kentucky in 1815. He married a Scotch-Irish bride, Harriet Louisa Gregg in 1838 and after the birth of their second child in 1841, the family headed west into Missouri.

Solomon Young was a hard-working man who carried freight to the far West using the Santa Fe Trail. Within a period of only ten years he had increased his net worth approximately 10 times, and by 1860 his net worth was around $50,000 dollars.

Even before the breakout of the Civil War, another civil war was boiling in Kansas and Missouri with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Missouri was a slave state and it was feared that Kansas, a free state on the Missouri border, might cause a mass exodus of Missouri slaves who would never be returned. Although he considered himself a devout Union man, Solomon Young was also a slave owner. During the war one of his sons would join the Confederate Army.

The war was very costly to the Youngs since many Union men (Kansas raiders) marched through the farm, burning barns and stealing everything from livestock to the family silver. The estimated loss to the family during the war was $21,442. By today's standards, that would be approximately $250,000. The famous Order No. 11 issued by Union General Ewing, forced most of the people of Missouri's Jackson County from their homes. The buildings were burned and the crops destroyed. The Youngs were not spared this special order and were forced to leave their land in 1863 with only a single wagonload of possessions. Mittie, Harry's mother, remembered that day even though she was a small child at the time.

John Truman's family had also been run out of Jackson County by Order No. 11, but had returned after the war. In 1881 John Truman and Mittie Young announced their plans to be married. Unlike the Youngs, John Truman was not a man of wealth or education. He was a man of small stature, only 5 feet 4 inches tall, with a great deal of ambition and a bit of a temper. In their formal wedding picture, John Truman can be seen sitting with his wife standing behind him. It is believed the picture was taken this way to keep from drawing attention to the fact that he was several inches shorter than his bride. After their marriage on December 28, 1881 the couple moved to Lamar, Missouri. It was in this home that Harry would be born in a bedroom just off the parlor.

But Harry Truman would never know Lamar as home. His father packed up the family and moved just south of Harrisonville in Cass County not long after Harry's birth. It was there that his brother Vivian was born. After a brief stay of two years in Harrisonville and a failed business venture, John Truman moved his family to the Young Farm in Jackson County where Harry would spend his early years. It was on the Young farm that the third and final child, Mary Jane was born not long after Harry's fifth birthday.

By his sixth birthday, the family finally recognized that Harry was horribly farsighted. A trip to Kansas City remedied the situation and Harry got his first pair of eyeglasses. In this same year John Truman again moved the family. This time the destination was Independence, Missouri where Harry would receive a higher quality education.

Harry Truman began school at the age of 8 at the Noland School on South Liberty Street. Harry loved school and gained a great deal of respect from his early teachers. Truman was sailing comfortably through the second grade when, in the fourth quarter, he and his brother contracted diphtheria. Although his brother quickly recovered, Harry did not fair as well. In only a short period of time, he had lost the use of his arms and legs to paralysis. This condition continued for six months during which time his mother wheeled him about in a baby buggy. Finally he snapped out of it. The home-schooling which followed was so effective that he not only caught up but actually skipped the third grade altogether.

In these early years, a mishap with a cellar door nearly cost Harry his big toe. He accidentally slammed the door on his left foot and the end of the toe was cut off. With the aid of his mother holding the toe in place, and the family doctor's use of iodoform on the wound, "it stayed put and got well!" as Harry would say in his autobiography.

Truman performed well in the Ott School on North Liberty Street where he attended high school. Although he was not at the top of his class, he had a voracious appetite for reading. He stated later in life that he had read the bible twice through, by the age of 12. His parents bought him the four-volume series Great Men and Famous Women, which he pored over. His American heroes were Robert E. Lee and Andrew Jackson.

Although a bookish child with thick glasses, Harry was respected by his peers though he was not very popular. Harry had no close male friends, and his two closest friends were his cousins Ethel and Nellie Noland. But Harry's real interest was in the Noland's friend, and his fellow schoolmate, Elizabeth Wallace.

Bessie as she was known, was everything that Harry was not. She was a good athlete, very popular, well dressed, and had a family of considerable means. Harry said she was his "ideal". She also became his ideal standard. As no girl ever lived up to her, at least in his eyes, he never really dated.

Another of Harry's childhood interests that stayed with him through his adulthood, was his love of the piano. As one of the "modern" symbols of affluence, John Truman bought an upright piano for Mittie. Harry showed so much interest in it that he was soon given lessons. He practiced two hours a day and became so proficient on the ivories that at one time he considered playing professionally.

Truman never did play professionally, but his first paying job was at J. H. Clinton's drugstore. He would arrive promptly at 6:30 AM to open the store, then sweep, mop and dust before heading to school a half hour later. On weekends, the fourteen-year-old Harry would work from 4:00 in the afternoon until 10:00 P.M. After three months making three dollars a week, his father instructed him to tend to his studies and leave the job. Harry Truman graduated from Independence High School on Memorial Day, May 30, 1901. He did not graduate with honors and was not a speaker, but he was perhaps the most well read with a deep love for serious music.

Truman had aspirations of going on to West Point but was not accepted due to his poor eyesight. In an attempt to make it big, his father had gambled but lost everything on wheat futures. With this financial failure went any chance Harry may have had at a college education.