“Blue River Country”—Jackson County and the surrounding areas—is a name for the western Missouri frontier in the 1840s. The Truman family history is linked to this area. Many of those who relocated to western Missouri, mostly by steamboat, were farmers with big families. They were also of Scotch-Irish descent, Baptists, and Democrats who, McCullough says, “believed that those who labored in the earth were the chosen people of God” (12). He adds that the extreme climate made farming difficult. And he notes that, at this time, Missouri had a population of up to 50,000 enslaved people.

Anderson Shipp Truman, Harry’s grandfather, relocated from Kentucky in 1846. Eventually, he married Mary Jane Holmes. The Trumans were not slave owners. Truman’s mother’s side comprised Solomon Young and Harriet Louisa. Solomon’s father was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. The Youngs were German and Methodist. Solomon Young amassed a fortune through trade by age 35.

During the Civil War, the civilian population suffered from both the Union and Confederate sides. In the 1863 Lawrence Massacre (Quantrill's Raid), hundreds of civilians were killed by Confederate soldiers. The family of Solomon Young, on the other hand, suffered when the Union soldiers appropriated or destroyed items from his family’s farm on multiple occasions.