Surely named for author/journalist Benjamin Cummings Truman (1835-1916). He wasn’t just the only guy named Truman in Los Angeles when this street was named in 1874 – he was also a big man in town. The Providence, RI native first made his name as a New York Times correspondent during the Civil War; he was also a major in the Union Army and worked as President Andrew Johnson’s “confidential secretary”. Yet he truly blossomed in California: sent here in 1866 as a special agent with the U.S. Post Office, he stayed on to publish the Los Angeles Star, among other newspapers. That’s just the tip of the iceberg for the prolific writer, traveler, and bon vivant, but Truman’s most important achievements, as far as local boosters were concerned, were his writings that touted the wonders of California: they would attract countless transplants to the region. Ben C. Truman was by all accounts a jovial man who knew seemingly everybody. He had a wife, Augusta, and a daughter, Georgie.
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