Family and Life and Times of Miss Margaret “Maggie” L. Phelps,the favorite teacher of President Harry Truman
By Gordon
Merritt
Harry
Truman introduced Miss Margaret “Maggie” L. Phelps to the world; she was his
favorite teacher. He told us about she
and her colleagues in his books. David
McCullough also mentioned her in the 1992 best selling book, “Harry
Truman”. McCullough described her as
tall, with dark upswept hair; her students said that she was exacting and
initially somewhat frightening to students.
She was
greatly admired by teachers and other readers of McCullough’s book. After the book was a published magazine
advertisement by a national teachers’ organization mentioned her by name, and
many people knew that she was a dedicated, and effective teacher. Mr. McCullough still gives speeches about the
top three teachers, and she is one of them.
We
knew that she was an energetic and dedicated teacher. Harry Truman liked her high school subject,
history, best, and studied it all the rest of his life. However, we don’t know much about her. Why did she like history, and what was her
family like? What was her training, and
where did she get her dedication to teaching?
What was her life like?
Margaret
was born in 19 September 1863 at Ottawa, LaSalle, Illinois. She was the youngest of eleven children of
Benjamin T. Phelps, born in 27 January 1810 in Bedford County, Virginia and
died 1 June 1895 at Independence, Jackson, Missouri and Margaret Ann Hitt
Reynolds born 17 May 1820, in Union Township, Champaign County, Ohio and died
26 June 1908 at Independence, Jackson, Missouri.
They
married 3 December 1837 in Ogle County, Illinois.
Children
of Benjamin and Margaret, born near Oregon and Mt. Morris, Ogle County,
Illinois, near the Rock River, “Rock Run”:
1. Richard Phelps born 20 February 1839 and died
2 December 1849 in Ottawa, Illinois.
2. Joseph W. Phelps born 3 November 1841 and
died 17 September 1864 near Natchez, Mississippi.
3. Robert F Phelps born 11 August 1843 and died
28 Nov 1864 in Colorado.
4.
Elizabeth
A Phelps born 24 August 1845 and died before 1900 probably in Illinois.
She
married her cousin Henry C Phelps, 24 August 1868 Ottawa, LaSalle, Illinois
(son of Uncle Thomas Phelps and wife Ann).
5. Laura Phelps born 16 November 1847 and died 14 November 1910, Brookfield, Missouri.
She
married Thomas Clemson Logan 3 Jan 1871, Ottawa, LaSalle, Illinois
Children
of Benjamin and Margaret born in Ottawa, LaSalle County, Illinois:
6. Anna Phelps born 30 March 1850 and died 17
January 1932 in Independence, Missouri.
She married William Wesley Peacock on 14
August 1884 in Independence, Missouri.
7. Nellie B Phelps born 6 July 1852 and died
after 1900 in Independence, Missouri.
8. James L Phelps born 1 January 1855 and died
26 December 1916 in Kansas City, Missouri.
He married Cornelia Gregg on 7 August
1883 in Independence, Missouri.
9. Charles B Phelps born 15 February 1857 and
died 10 Dec 1947, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
He married Martha Estella Griffin on 18
Jul 1883 at Ottawa, LaSalle, Illinois.
10. William W Phelps born 30 March 1859 and died
28 March 1922 in Independence, Missouri.
He married Marie B Noland in 1887 at
Independence, Missouri.
11. Margaret L Phelps born 19 September 1863 and
died 29 November 1939 in Independence.
Both
of Margaret’s parents were from energetic pioneering families who made major
migrations.
Her
father Benjamin, as a baby was carried on horseback, when the family moved from
Virginia to Central Tennessee in 1811.
He was considered a “learned man” in his pioneer settlement at Oregon,
Ogle County, Illinois. He was appointed
first Ogle Circuit Court Clerk in 1837 by Judge and later Governor Thomas Ford,
who paid his bond for the Clerkship. He
saved the court records in 1841 by taking them home in a wheelbarrow the night
before the new Court House was to open in Oregon, Ogle County. That night the new Court House burned down,
or was burned down.
He
helped his brothers run a ferryboat. He
helped clear the land and put up log cabins, and a mill; his family supported
the setting up of Rock River Seminary, a pioneering log primary school, which
later became a high school [it was later closed and Northwestern University
took its place]. He and his brothers
John and George later were merchants and set up mercantile stores in Wisconsin,
Illinois, Missouri, and Texas, and annually went to New York to buy goods. He was a Sergeant in the Black Hawk War of
1831. He entered seven land claims in
Ogle County.
When
he moved in 1849 to Ottawa, Illinois, he was a canal boatman, merchant and corn
dealer and land dealer. Benjamin worked
to help set up the City government of Ottawa; in 1852 he was appointed to serve
on the board that set up the City election wards.
He
was elected to serve on the first school board.
He was a Jackson Democrat raised in Central Tennessee, and the other members of the school board were the Yankee Whigs who ran the town. The school board was assigned to build enough schools for the children but instead of building five schools they built one and part of another… they made sure that their children would have a high school education, but did not provide elementary schools for the emigrant’s children. He and all but one member did not run again for the school board. This must have been very frustrating for Ben if he wanted to supply schools for the children.
Margaret’s
maternal grandfather Martin Reynolds moved his family in 1820 from Maryland to
Ohio and 1830 to Deer Park Township (his was the first white family), near
Ottawa, Illinois.
Then
he moved in 1837 from Ottawa to Oregon, Illinois to help set up the Methodist
Church’s Rock River Seminary and some of his children were educated there. The Seminary was the literary center of the
area of southern Wisconsin and all of Northern Illinois. It was started by Martin and eight other men
who prized education for their children.
Martin
Reynolds was part of the Maryland Settlement there, made up of many native
Maryland settlers. He was a farmer and
returned 1844 to his farm in the Ottawa area.
Due to his early settlement, he entered eight land claims, in the Ottawa
area and the Oregon area, and was able to sell land to later settlers.
Besides
having much history in her family, Margaret’s family was close and the children
and parents were well loved. The oldest
brother Richard R Phelps died in 1849 when his was eleven years old and he fell
off of a horse. His father Benjamin
wrote to his brother: “It is with heartfelt sorrow I now write you. We have been deeply affected with the loss of
our Dear Boy Richard…We buried him yesterday.
You cannot imagine our feelings when we all meet at the table and that
there is one vacant place and that place was Richards. He was a comfort to both his dear mother and
myself. He was loved by all who knew
him… “ He was buried in Ottawa, at
Ottawa Avenue Cemetery.
Margaret’s
brother Joseph W Phelps, a 22 year old, when in January, 1864 he joined the 4th
Illinois Calvary, Company M and served in the Civil War. He was killed by a Confederate shotgun blast
on 17 September 1864 near Natchez, Mississippi, when Margaret was one year
old.
The
regimental history suggests that he may have been killed by mistake. He had been Captain Hitt’s clerk and wore an
officers’ blouse. He rode with a patrol
that day for recreation, and was apparently shot by confederates who mistook
him for an officer. They were angry that
the patrol picked up three confederate mounts the day before.
He was buried next to his brother Richard at Ottawa Avenue
Cemetery, in Ottawa.
Joseph
W Phelps, age 22, Co. M, 4th Illinois Calvary, photo taken at
Natchez, Mississippi 1864
The telegram Miss Maggie’s father
received said,
“From Cairo, to
Ottawa Sept 22, 1864, B. T. Phelps.
Joseph W Phelps
was killed on the seventeenth inst. Body will come by express immediately. Jos. E Hitt [Capt. Co. M] “
A few
months later her next eldest brother Robert FH Phelps, aged 21, was killed in a
gun accident in Colorado on 29 November 1864.
They were a close family and so these senseless deaths must have hit them
hard.
Her
family did well financially for the next four or five years. The children went to secondary schools with
the children of the wealthy Yankee town leaders, who ran Ottawa.
Her
sister Elizabeth married a cousin Henry C Phelps, 24 August 1864 at Ottawa,
Illinois, a boy who was raised on a wealthy plantation near Weston, Missouri,
by his parents Thomas and Ann Phelps.
Thomas died of cholera in 1851 and the family scattered.
Before
1870, and before the 1873 National Financial Panic, her father Benjamin’s
business failed. He was a commodity,
corn dealer and owner of scattered stores in small towns, however, in 1870
Census he said he had “No Business”.
He also may have been able to keep $7,000 worth of real estate and $400
cash (which he had according to the 1870 US Census report.) Her brother James Phelps, 17 years old, now
had to quit high school and he started teaching school and studying law on his
own at night.
Margaret,
age nine, was at school.
In later years her brother James said in written autobiographies: firstly, that he had not finished high school, and secondly, that he had graduated in 1871, and thirdly, that he had graduated from high school in 1874. He had become a lawyer and in later life ran for office, Chief Deputy of the County Clerk at Independence and it seemed that he would have liked to have graduated from high school. His sister Margaret was probably very aware that life had cheated her brother out of a coveted high school education; this may have made her more determined to help children receive their educations.
Her
sister Laura was married in Ottawa, Illinois to Thomas C. Logan, on January 3,1871. They moved to Kansas. By 1910 she was blind, 62, living with her
daughter and husband.
The 1880
US census, at Ottawa, showed her father, Benjamin 70, retired, her mother
Margaret, 60, was keeping house. Her sister Anna 30 was helping in the home,
sister Nellie B, 28, was unable to work due to disability, brother William W,
21 was school teaching, and she herself Maggie, 16, was at school.
Margaret
was probably a student of Ottawa High School, as her brother James had been.
She had a good education. She probably graduated about June 1882 at age 17.
Later in
1882 Benjamin and his family moved to Independence, Missouri. It was a hospitable southern town of about
3,000. Southern Democrats were in the
majority. They ran the town; Benjamin
must have felt at home. He also probably
appreciated the more moderate climate, rather than the cold winters that he was
used to in Northern Illinois.
Benjamin
purchased a house on a mortgage (prices were high due to a boom in housing). Moving with him was his wife Margaret, and
grown children: James L, Anna, Nellie,
William W, and Maggie.
Phelps
Homestead, 216 East Elm, (152 was the house number before City renumbering)
The home,
216 East Elm, is a modest but roomy two-storey house built in an L shape,
probably in the 1870’s. The house is
about 40 foot long and the wing in the back was about 45 foot long. It is on a 50 foot by 130-foot lot. There
are also two lots adjoining, totaling about 130 x 130 feet. The larger vacant
lots could be used to raise a garden and support a cow and horse. Fruit trees
could be planted and the site was an easy four-block walk to the First
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) a one-block walk to Woodlawn Cemetery
and ten-block walk to the Independence High School. It was also a short walk to the rail line
that went to Kansas City. Margaret
lived there the rest of her life.
When the
Phelps moved to Independence it was still rough, almost like a frontier
town. It was a starting place for the Oregon
and Santa Fe trails. The streets were
mud, and there were no telephones, electric lights, or piped water. The Court House Square was lined with horses
and wagons and carriages tied to hitching posts. There was no library, and schools were small wooden
buildings. There were fights each night
around the Square and liquor flowed like water.
The name
of Margaret’s college is not known; she probably had four or five years of
training at a college in Independence or Kansas City. Most teachers had a bachelor’s degree and
some had a master’s degree. It is
probable that her father could not help her with the cost of college. She probably lived at home and possibly
worked and her siblings may also have helped her pay college expenses.
TEACHING:
By about
1887 Margaret started working as a teacher in Kansas City. The next April she went to Lenexa, Kansas,
on a visit to Miss Julia HALL, formerly a teacher in the public schools of
Kansas City (Margaret’s brother James worked for the Kansas City Examiner, when
they printed that notice). Later
Margaret was hired to teach history at Independence High School in the Ott
School Building.
Truman
wrote that, at that time history was taught by the paragraph; a book covered a
part of history, and each major event was covered by a paragraph. He read books about each event, to learn the
true facts behind the event. He wanted
to learn from what happened and find what a leader did right or wrong about the
situation he was faced.
In 1899
Margaret was teaching history at Independence High School. It was a new building, at Truman Road and
Pleasant Street. It was about an
11-block walk from her house. .
1901 Independence High School
Graduates: The first graduating class,
including HarryTruman, a future President, top 3rd from left, Bess
Wallace, future first lady right side, second row, and Charlie Ross, future
Presidential Press Secretary and Pulitzer Prize winner, front row left side, Elmer Twyman, back row
holding hat, Will Garrett, sight boy in back row in front of Harry .
Truman said that none of his
teachers had been bad. “They gave us our high ideals, and they hardly ever
received more than forty dollars a month for it” (forty dollars would be worth
about $1021 in 2008).
A former teacher, Mrs.
Palmer said: “Several times my father was asked to come to the high school in
those days and talk to Miss Margaret Phelps’ history class about his
experiences in the War Between the States.”
“Father [Mr. Hopkins
Hardin] was… in General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia…he had been wounded
three times in Pickett’s Charge and left on the field as dead; and … three days
afterward, he was found by Catholic sisters going over the battlefield looking
for wounded soldiers and was taken to Baltimore to be nursed back to health;
and … after his recovery, and on crutches, the United States Government asked
for his allegiance, which he wouldn’t give; and … he was kept in prison from
then until the end of the war..” In the
late 1920’s Judge Harry Truman liked to ask her to tell about her father’s war
experience.
The official notice from
the Independence High School of it goals and rules were in a booklet: “Course
of Study and Rules and Regulations of the Independence Public Schools…Adopted
by the Board of Education of Independence, Mo, March 15, 1909…
Department of History, Margaret L
Phelps, Callie B. Mitchell
This department
offers a four years’ course, consisting of classroom and reference work. No pupil should omit any part of it. It cultivates every faculty of the mind,
enlarges sympathies, liberalizes thought and feeling, furnishes and approves
the highest standards of character. The study of history should be pursued in the
order of its development: Ancient, Mediaeval, Modern, with special courses in
English and American History. This order
places the history of United States and Civil Government in the Senior
year. As the pupil steps out into the
nation, the High School introduces him to his surroundings. Such a comprehensive view of man should lay
well the foundations for the future citizen.” [underlines added]
Students were expected to "be
punctual and regular in attendance; obedient in spirit; orderly in action;
diligent in study; gentle and respectful in manner."
During a
1912 rail trip to Texas, Miss Maggie sent a letter to farmer Harry Truman,
invited him to her house for dinner, and she said that she was a good
cook. She probably took sightseeing
rail trips each Summer. She had some
cousins in Texas she may have visited this year, and there were many sites of
historical interest to see. And she did
have Harry Truman over to her home for dinner that year.
The 1914
“Gleam” yearly senior student publication at Independence High School was
dedicated to Margaret Phelps.
Margaret wrote a letter, December, 1918, to
Army Captain Harry Truman December, 1918, fighting in France.
In 1919
the new William Chrisman High School on North Union and West Maple street was
completed. It was only a one-block move
for the teachers.
William
Chrisman High School 1919
Margaret
taught there about ten years and then about the school year 1929-1930 she had
to retire due to bad health.
CHURCH
LIFE:
Margaret’s brother, James L Phelps, was a lawyer in 1878 in Illinois and
practiced in Newport, Arkansas, and Atchison, Kansas. He was appointed to be Justice of the Peace
at Atchison, Kansas. He was a Democrat,
and in 1889 was appointed Marshall of the Court of Appeals in Kansas City, and
1895-1907 he was elected Chief Deputy in the office of County Clerk at
Independence. He joined the
First Christian Church in Independence in 1889 and was a Deacon in 1892 and
later a Sunday School Superintendant.
A
magnificent new First Christian Church was completed in 1909 at new location:
Pleasant and Kansas Street. This was a
ten blocks from Margaret’s home. Many
teachers belonged to this church. Her
brother James was a Deacon and Sunday School Superintendant. Bess Truman’s sister-in-law, May Wallace,
remembered him: “ Mr. Jim Phelps …was a
rotund man who liked to sing, stood in front of the assembly of all ages to
lead the singing. I can see him now, belting out ‘Trust and obey, for there’s
no other way.’”
At the
turn of the century, a person’s church membership partly determined one’s
social standing in the small-town atmosphere of Independence. Mary Paxton
Keeley, a writer and a community resident, recalled in an oral history:
“Everything was divided socially by churches, and the Presbyterians, I would say
were top on the pole, then the Campbellites (the Christian Church).” She then
ranked the other churches in this order:
North Methodists, Southern Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans and the
Catholics. Later, she added: “The status of the Mormons was just a cut above
the Negro. People went to hear them sing in the Stone Church, but that was
all.”
1909 First
Christian Church, Independence, Missouri
In Feb
1918, the First Christian Church burned down.
The Fire Department was slow to react, and the whole building was
lost.
The new
First Christian Church in Independence was completed in 1926. It looked similar to the building it
replaced, though it was larger and cost much more.
Margaret’s
brother Jim and his wife, and sister Anna and her husband both belonged to the
First Christian Church for many years.
Its possible that Margaret belonged to this Church also.
FAMILY
HISTORY IN HER LIFE
About
1899, Margaret, received the long awaited two-volume Phelps genealogy book:
“The Phelps Family in America” by Oliver S. Phelps and Oliver Serving. Her father Benjamin had ordered the book,
and sent in information for it. He wrote
to the authors in 1865: "If memory serves me right, my great-grandfather,
John Phelps, was born on the James River, while it was a colony of Great
Britain. I have understood he was a Col.
in the British service. At an early day
he settled in Bradford Co. [Bedford Co., VA], where he died. My grandfather, John, was born in Bradford
Co., [Bedford Co.,] Va., or at least if he was not, he was young when he
settled there." His
great-grandfather John Phelps was a pioneer Justice of the Peace and
representative to the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was a Colonel in the militia in the French
and Indian War and he was a large landowner.
Benjamin’s grandfather John Phelps was born there, he was a
Revolutionary War militia Lieutenant and he was married twice and had sixteen
children.
In the
summer of 1920 Margaret was touring by train in the Northeast, with her niece,
Margaret Julia Phelps, “Julia” was only four years younger than Miss
Maggie. They stopped to see at old
Windsor, Connecticut, a Phelps homestead and talked to Martha Phelps. She was the last Phelps owner after 300 years
of continuous Phelps ownership.
Margaret
had read about this home in the “Phelps Family of America”.
In the Kansas City area were many relatives. Her cousin James CT Phelps, son of her Uncle John Phelps, lived on the bottoms, below Kansas City, near the State line in the Kaw valley, on a hill. When they were to build their house on this one hundred foot hill, they found that it was a burial ground for an Indian in full regalia with all of his weapons.
Cousin James’s son Frank N Phelps,
Sr., lived in Kansas City, and Miss Maggie had told him about the Phelps Family
book. He bought one and enjoyed reading
it.
Cousin James’s grandson, Charles
Phelps Cushing, was a reporter for the Kansas City Star. He specialized in writing stories and
illustrating them with his own photography.
He took pictures of main streets for the rest of his life. While a reporter he loved to travel in the
Ozarks and take pictures of the farmers and their towns. They looked like they had for the last fifty
years. He rode the train and slept on
his coat, while traveling around the Ozarks every weekend. In 1921 he wrote a historical summary of
Kansas City for the Kansas City Star (he also wrote this story in a booklet
form called, “A Birthday Book For Kansas City: 1821-1921”). Much later Charles was famous as the
youngest editor of a major magazine, and on the initial staff of “Stars and
Stripes”. He took many pictures of
historical spots, especially after he moved to New York in 1910.
While
seniors in high school Harry Truman and friend came to Margaret’s home for
twice a week in the evening for some advanced training in geography and history
for the military academy entrance test.
Harry stopped when he found out that his glasses would disqualify
him.
The first of the new high school
graduating class was June 1901. In this
class were future President Harry Truman, his future wife and First Lady, Bess
Wallace, and his future and presidential press secretary, and Pulitzer Prize
winner, Charlie Ross. Harry Truman
wrote many years later “I think all of us enjoyed that two and one-half years
more than any other two and one-half years in our lives.“ He also thought that none of his teachers
had been bad: "They gave us our high ideals, and they hardly ever received
more than forty dollars a month for it."
(Forty dollars would be worth about $1044 in 2021).
FAMILY
LIFE IN THE PHELPS HOME
Margaret
was a spinster teacher, as the school rules required, but she did not sit home
alone. She took care of her family and
they took care of her. She was the one
constant in the Phelps home.
Her
brother James moved out the year after they moved to Independence, when he
married a neighbor Cornellia “Nellie” Gregg.
The year after, 1884, sister Anna moved out when she married William
Peacock.
Then the
family in the home included the parents, Ben and Margaret, and Nellie, William
and Margaret. This home stayed stable
for over ten years. In 1895 her father,
Ben, died at age 85. He was buried in
nearby Woodlawn Cemetery, as were the rest of the family who died in
Independence.
The next
year, 1896, brother William married Marie B Noland. They moved to Topeka, Kansas, and later to
Denver, Colorado.
By 1900
there were only three in the home: the mother Margaret, 78, and Nellie, 46, and
Margaret, 34, school teacher.
Her
mother Margaret died in 1908, at age 89.
Her obituary notice was printed as a news item in the Kansas City
Star (where her cousin Charles Phelps
Cushing worked as a reporter). Probably
her disabled sister Nellie died about that time; cemetery records were burned
about 1916, and she did not have a gravestone.
The house
was put in Margaret’s name. There still
was a mortgage on it. She was alone for
a short time. However, by 1910 her sister Anna and her brother-in-law William
Peacock had moved in (they had recently lost their only child named Lessie, in
1908). Her brother Charles, 52, a
travelling salesman, had moved in, with his daughter Marie M Phelps. Charles was divorced at that time.
Margaret’s
brother James and his wife Nellie were neighbors, however Nellie died in 1913 at
age 56. James died in 1916 at age
61. Charles and his daughter Marie
reunited with his ex-wife Martha and moved back to Albuquerque.
And, by
1920 Margaret, 54, and sister Anna, 68, and William Peacock were still living
in the home. Margaret’s brother William
was living nearby with his brother-in-law Jack Noland. However, he moved back into the Phelps home
later. In 1922 her brother William,
62, died.
By 1930
Margaret, 64 had retired from teaching due to bad health. Her sister Anna, 80, and William Peacock, 81,
City Collector, still lived in the Phelps home.
The next
year her sister Anna, age 81, died, and City Hall was closed down for the
funeral at the Phelps home. Also her
brother Charles’s daughter Marie died in Albuquerque.
In 1936
Charles’s wife Martha died in Albuquerque.
In 1938
her brother-in-law William Peacock died at age 90. He was still the very popular City
Collector.
Margaret
became ill and died at age 76, on November 29, 1939. Her brother Charles B., 82, was by her
side. She had suffered for ten years
with liver failure and later stomach cancer.
She would have continued teaching if her health had allowed. (Her colleague Janie Chiles, was said to
have taught at the high school for 65 years before anyone asked her to
retire.)
At
Margaret’s funeral, at her home, the pallbearers were all former students and
the crowd included former students, now grown men and women, friends, and
teachers. Floral tributes came from
former colleagues.
By 1940
the Phelps home was listed as vacant in the city directory. The house still stands today and is a rental
property; the land next to it is used for trailer park space. There was a Jackson County Court probate
Descendant Estate listing for Margaret’s estate in an old Index book but no
notes survive on this listing. Her
brother, Charles B. returned to Albuquerque where he died in December, 1947,
when he was almost 91 years old. Charles
lived to be the oldest of anyone in his family.
City of Indpendence owned, Woodlawn Cemetery
Epilogue
Margaret
and her colleagues left a legacy, which was evident in the town of Independence
in 1940. The town streets were now
paved, the town had modern police and fire departments. There had been a city library for forty
years. Schools and Churches were large
buildings. There was good telephone
and utility services. And the town had
become quiet and civilized.
Moreover,
the historic courthouse on the square had been preserved, inside the new
building. This was through the efforts
of Judge Harry Truman. He had also saved
all of his papers and records due to his respect for history.
When he
first became President in 1945, he was talking with Charlie Ross, his classmate
from school and his new Press Secretary.
They thought Miss Tillie Brown, their English teacher would be tickled
that they were together again. They
recalled that on their graduation night she had kissed Charlie Ross, who had
taken all the English honors. Harry
asked her if he would get a kiss too, but she said that he had to do something
to deserve it first.
The
President immediately called her and asked her, “Can I get that kiss now?”
She
laughed and said, “Yes, come and get it anytime.”
President
Truman was the 33rd President, and for nearly eight years he led the
country and world through the ending of World War II, the formation of the
United Nations, NATO, the Marshall plan, the successful operation of the Berlin
Airlift, the Korean War, and the starting of the Cold War.
He saved
all of his presidential papers and records, and his Library became the model
for the future Presidential Libraries under the new Federal Archives
control. It was dedicated in July 1957,
in Independence, Missouri. He continued
to study the lessons of history for the rest of his life.
And, in
1945, Margaret’s cousin James Phelps’s son, Frank N Phelps, Sr., of Kansas
City, wrote an unpublished typescript for his family describing his life and
experiences. He had gotten Margaret’s
scrapbook, after her death, and it was considered by the family a document of
considerable interest. His grandson,
Courtney Phelps of Saint Louis, inherited the scrapbook in 1988 and upon his
death in 2010 its whereabouts became unknown.
It would be exciting to read any diary or history that she had written,
however none are known to have survived.
Her letters to Harry Truman survive in the Truman Presidential
Library.
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