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According to the mother of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, working on his grandparents’ farm in Grandview, Missouri, is where “Harry got all his common sense.” It is not an overstatement to say that the farm is where Truman learned discipline, patience, and confidence: character traits necessary in a good leader.

Truman hadn’t expected to become a farmer. Although he lived on his grandparents’ farm for a few years as a child, treating its 600 acres as a park to be explored with his brother and sister, that idyllic time was cut short when his parents moved the family to Independence, Kansas, for better schools. Fifteen years later, though, Harry’s grandmother, now widowed, needed help running the farm, so the family moved back to the farm. Truman gave up a good banking job in Kansas City a year later and joined them.

The farm had few amenities. Twenty-two-year-old Truman slept in an upstairs room that he shared with his brother and the hired hands. There was no electricity or running water. To make the hard life more tolerable, the family relaxed together every evening after dinner with music and stories.

Truman had no farming experience, and his friends doubted he’d stick with his new career. Instead of quitting, though, he took their challenge to heart and gave it his all, even though he didn’t enjoy it. When Truman’s father died, Truman took over managing the farm, deciding on what to plant and where to plant it and when to take livestock to market. His diligence helped the farm to survive. In his spare time, he got involved in civic organizations, like the Farm Bureau, and he joined the Missouri National Guard. He also became postmaster of Grandview.

After eleven years, Truman left the farm to go fight in World War I. After the war, he tried his hand at several businesses, followed by his ascent from county to national politics. Back in Grandview, Truman’s grandmother died, and ownership of the land was successfully challenged by other heirs. Truman was able to recover some of the land and keep it for a while, thinking it might be a good location for a presidential library, but in 1950 he sold much of it to developers for shopping centers and housing. In 1994, the National Park Service salvaged ten acres, including the old farmhouse, and placed it on the National Register of Historic Places.

Today, the farmhouse is closed, but the grounds are open daily for self-guided tours. The historic landmark includes a reconstructed smokehouse, restored box wagon, stone fence posts that marked the farm’s original boundaries, and several other original and reconstructed buildings. Visitors to the property will be able to imagine Harry S. Truman toiling in the fields or hunched behind a plow, his character being molded equally by hot sun, icy winds, straining muscles, and perspiration.