Wooden, McKinley Papers

Chief Mechanic, Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, 1917-1919

The papers of McKinley Wooden include correspondence, press clippings, speeches, military records, notes, and memorabilia concerning Wooden’s life, his military experiences, his relationship with President Harry S. Truman, and his connection with the Truman Library.

Size: 2.5 linear inches (about 50 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: No donation of copyright was received with this collection. Documents created by U.S. Government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents in this collection presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Kurt Schmeling (2019) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

The papers of McKinley Wooden include correspondence, press clippings, speeches, military records, notes, and memorabilia concerning Wooden’s life, his military experiences, his relationship with President Harry S. Truman, and his connection with the Truman Library. The collection is arranged in a Subject File.

The collection contains correspondence written by and addressed to Wooden, including three letters from Harry S. Truman and one from the Consul General’s Office of France in regards to Wooden’s receiving that nation’s Legion of Honor medal. Also included are Wooden’s invitations to the 1949 Inaugural Ball, a letter of commendation written by Truman as a Captain recognizing Wooden’s role in the maintenance of artillery guns, and three messages from Truman to Battery D reunions.

Several press clippings, newsletters, and magazine articles in the collection detail Wooden’s distinction of being perhaps the last surviving member of Battery D and his receiving France’s Legion of Honor medal. Also included are his military discharge papers; letters of commendation from other military officers; an excerpt from a history book about Walker, MO that provides details about Wooden’s family, early life, military career, relationship with President Truman, and career as a livestock trader; a transcribed speech made by U.S. Army Col. Michael Anastasio on presenting the Harry S. Truman Silver Veteran’s Medal to Wooden; and a Battery D membership card.

Related material on Battery D can be found in the papers of John Thacher, Edward McKim, Lorain Cunningham, Vic Householder, and L. Curtis Tiernan. The Library also has two transcribed oral history interviews with Wooden.