Lady Belle Outlaw's Hidedout
Jesse James
Outlaw
by Lady Belle
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We are now in the presence of one of the most notorious outlaws of the Wild West,
a man who provided pulp to the popular dime novels of his era as a celebrated bank and train robber. He was the bandit-hero, a gallant rebel who kept Missouri in an uproar for an entire decade, a legend that has remained immortalized, and that man is no other than Jesse Woodson James.
Jesse was, by all accounts, a bad boy. As it was in the day of the Wild West, and
to this day for historians, nothing was more fascinating than an outlaw who was daring, bold and lived by his own codes.
Jesse was born in Clay County, Missouri on September 5, 1847. His father, Robert James, was a Baptist seminarian who left Jesse's mother, Zerelda to seek gold in California, where he later died. Zerelda married two more times; her third husband being Dr. Archie (or Reuben) Samuel in 1855. Zerelda was known as "Zee" and her maiden name was Cole (Zerelda E. Cole James Mimms Samuel.) She was very tall
for a female back then, and stood somewhere near six feet in height.
Jesse was described by those who knew him as generous, noble-hearted, intelligent, assertive, good-looking, having a prankish charm and courteous behavior to women.
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At the age of fifteen, Jesse, along with brother Frank and the Younger brothers and Jim Reed, joined the Confederate guerrilla band led by the infamous William C. Quantrill, the psychopathic killer who is remembered as "the bloodiest man known in the annals of America." Frank James and Cole Younger were with Quauntrill when, in August 1863, the town of Lawrence, Kansas, was hit and one hundred and eighty-two of its citizens murdered. Jesse and Jim Younger were with Quantrill's lieutenant, Bloody Bill Anderson, at the Centrallia massacre on September 20, 1864, and Jesse is credited for killing union major A.V. Johnson, when unarmed union soldiers were taken from a train and murdered by Anderson and the gang of ruffians.
Jesse and Frank James in their formative years.
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In 1866, Jesse and Frank became the leaders of a band of outlaws with the Younger brothers and Jim Reed, where their partnership in crime and trail of robberies and murders moved through most
of the central states.
The first James-Younger bank robbery (which is noted as the first bank robbery in daylight hours) was in Liberty, Missouri, on February 13, 1866 at the Clay County Saving Association Bank. They got away with sixty-two thousand dollars, $42,000 were in bonds, $518.00 in United States Government Revenue Stamps and the rest were in gold, silvercoins and greenbacks. During the robbery, one man was killed. During an interview, it was said of the men who robbed the bank, not one was under six feet tall.
After the robbery, for the next fifteen years, the James boys roamed throughout the United States robbing trains and banks. Jesse was dubbed the Robin Hood, and during these years, the Pinkertons Detective Agency trailed the gang. The James-Younger gang didn't limit who they robbed or killed. Sometimes innocent by-standers were harmed or killed.
Staying ahead of lawmen, blacksmith (Garner) McIntash Brown of Frontec, Kansas, would change the horse shoes on Jesse's horses and have fresh horses waiting for him at various hideouts (according to ancestor Jeff Brown.)
Jesse James was baptized at the Kearney Baptist Church near his home in 1868. He also sang in the church choir.
Crossing the James brothers could sometimes prove to be deadly. Holding a grudge against a Gallatin, Missouri bank president, on December 7, 1869 Jesse and Frank posed as customers. While former Civil War officer John W. Sheets did paperwork for the transaction, one of the brothers shot him in the head and heart, killing him instantly. As clerk William McDowell ran for the door, he was struck with a bullet in the arm. The brothers got away with several hundred dollars. A $3,000 reward was offered for the Gallatin murder and bank robbery.
By the mid 1870's, bank robbing was getting risky. The states rewards issued for the gang prompted townsfolk to establish a request for protection on banks and pump up security to the extent that time lock vaults would replace the older combination type.
That didn't keep Jesse and his gang from robbing. They took to stagecoach holdups and train robbing and began rolling in the money. On July 21, 1873, the gang robbed their first train at Adair, Iowa.
By 1874 Jesse's crimes were a chief issue in Missouri's campaign: whether or not to suppress outlawry so that "capital and immigration can once again enter our state." But nothing was done; his raids continued.
April 23,1874, Jesse married his first cousin, Zee Mimms, (named after his own mother) after a nine year courtship. The wedding ceremony was performed by Methodist Minister William James, Jesse's uncle and held in Kansas City. Perhaps the marriage, or visiting his kin at the family farm is what led the Pinkertons to catch wind of Jesse's return to Missouri.
On January 26, 1875, the Pinkertons tossed a "bomb" into the James farmhouse. Killed in the blast was 8 -year-old Archie P. Samuel -- Jesse and Frank's little half-brother. Their mother Zerelda was wounded and later had to have her hand amputated. After this, the public was angry at the Pinkertons, and had much sympathy for the James boys -- as they were often referred as.
While honeymooning with his bride Zee on the Gulf of Mexico at Galveston, Texas, a reporter from the St. Louis Dispatch, did what the Pinkertons had failed to do, track down Jesse.
Jesse and Frank continued their outlaw ways with robbing banks and trains. Two days after Jesse's 29th birthday, on September 7, 1876, the James-Younger gang attempted to rob the First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota. The robbery did not go as planned. Three members were shot and killed, and all three Younger brothers were captured, thus the James-Younger gang coming to an end.
After moving to Texas, Kansas City and Tennessee, Jesse
and Zee welcomed two children, a son and daughter: Jesse
Edward and Mary (or Susan) born in Tennessee. Jesse
and Zee used the aliases Thomas and Mary Howard.
Jesse dyed his light-colored hair dark and grew a beard to
conceal his real identity while laying low for many months,
and took to farming with his wife. But with such a high price
on his head of more than $50,000 in rewards for him, it was
proving difficult to stay on the dodge -- and live a 'normal' life
with his wife and children.
Jesse Edward and Mary, circa 1881
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With his new gang, and after robbing another train at Winston, Missouri where they took all the money, Jesse moved his family to St. Joseph, Missouri. By then, Charles and Bob Ford joined Jesse's new gang. It was on April 3, 1882 Jesse's life as an outlaw came to an end when Bob Ford shot him in the back of the head as Jesse was straightening a picture on the wall, at the age of thirty-four.
Jesse was buried in the front yard of the James farm and his mother Zerelda allowed tourists to view the grave of her son for 25 cents and sold rocks from his grave. Legend has it that when the rock supply ran low, she simply restocked from the river.
Shortly after his death, the inscription on Jesse's monument near the Kearney Baptist Church read:
In Loving Remembrance of My Beloved Son
Jesse James
Died April 3, 1882
AGED 34 YEARS, 6 MONTHS, 28 DAYS
MURDERED BY A TRAITOR AND COWARD WHOSE
NAME IS NOT WORTHY TO APPEAR HERE
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During his fifteen years of outlawry, Jesse James held up eleven banks, seven trains, three stages, one county fair, and one payroll messenger, in the process looting some two hundred thousand dollars and killing at least sixteen men.
On October 4, 1882, Frank James surrendered to Missouri Governor Thomas Crittendon. Frank was released in 1885.
For the next 30 years, Frank lived a peaceful and honest life, taking up various jobs as horse race starter for country fairs and a theater doorman at a St. Louis burlesque. In 1903, at the age of 60, he and Cole Younger started the James-Younger Wild West show. Years later, Frank returned home to the James farm, where he died at the age of seventy-two on February 18, 1915.
Facts about the James brothers:
January 10, 1843 - Alexander Franklin "Frank" James is born.
September 5, 1847 - Jesse Woodson James is born.
February 13, 1866 - First recorded daylight hours bank robbery
July 26, 1866 - Archie P. Samuel is born. (Frank and Jesse's younger brother)
December 7, 1869 - The James brothers rob Gallatin, Missouri bank and kill bank
president John W. Sheets. $3,000 reward offered.
July 21, 1873 - First James-Younger gang train robbery at Adair, Iowa.
April 23, 1874 - Jesse James marries Zee Mimms.
January 26, 1875 - Pinkerton's bomb the James farmhouse. Little half-brother Archie
is killed. Mother Zerelda loses her hand as a result from blast.
1876 - Frank James marries Annie Ralston.
September 7, 1876 - Failed bank robbery destroys James-Younger gang.
April 3, 1882 - Jesse James is killed by Bob Ford.
October 4, 1882 - Frank James surrenders to Missouri Governor Thomas Crittendon.
1885 - Frank James is released.
1903 - James-Younger Wild West show is started by Frank James and Cole Younger.
February 18, 1915 - Frank James dies at the age of 72.
The James gang. May they forever ride that open range as riders in the sky...
* My grandpa tells me that my great-great-great-great grandparents lived on the neighboring
parcel of land next to the James farm, and Jesse James and his gang used to ride by their
farm often. ~ Lady Belle
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To learn more about the movie, click on the movie poster.
Image provided to me by Orna Zadeh, Senior Publicist at Warner Bros. Studios
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Harry Tracy - The most notorious outlaw of the 20th century
Jesse James - Bank and train robber of the Wild West
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Jesse James, 1876
Zee James
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