After his grandfather’s death, Harry Truman worked on his family’s 600 acre Missouri farm. In the 12 years he worked the farm before he left to serve during World War I, Truman proposed to his childhood friend, Bess, joined the Masons and the National Guard and honed his skills as a negotiator—all of which proved to be assets in his later political career. University of Central Missouri History Professor Jon Taylor talks about this rarely discussed period of the president’s life.