In 1922, Truman won election as county judge for eastern Jackson County as a candidate of the Pendergast faction of the Democratic party. He failed to be reelected in 1924, but then won election as presiding judge in 1926. He served in this position, in effect as county commissioner, for eight years. He divided his time between the two Jackson County courthouses in Independence and Kansas City. His main accomplishments were to greatly improve county finances, to build a 230-mile county road system, a county hospital, and a new county courthouse in Kansas City, and to remodel the courthouse in Independence.
"...Everybody respected Truman," Edgar Hinde, a longtime friend and political associate of Truman's remembered. "...He ran the county in the proper manner and he conducted himself in the same way. He had a lot of power, I'll tell you. He had a lot of followers... He was absolutely honest in everything he did." (Edgar G. Hinde oral history interview.) Truman dedicated an enlarged and remodeled Independence courthouse (pictured) on September 7, 1933.
The Jackson County Courthouse stands on Independence Square. For more information contact: Harry S. Truman Courtroom and Office, Independence Square Courthouse, Room 109, Main at Maple Street, Indep., MO 64050, Phone: 816-881-4431.