BLAZING THROUGH MISSOURI WITH JESSE JAMESText and Photography by Sandy Katz
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"Jesse James is the only American bandit who is classical, who is to this country what Robin Hood or Dick Turpin is to England, whose exploits are so close to the mythical and apocryphal"...Carl Sandburg.
Of all the world's legendary characters, few have attracted worldwide fascination like the outlaw, Jesse James. Some call him America's Robin Hood, one of America's most infamous and beloved outlaws; while others see him as a cold-blooded killer. Perhaps he was all of those things. Jesse Woodsen James was born in Kearney, Missouri on September 5, 1847. Some people say it was the cruel treatment from the Union soldiers that turned Jesse and his brother Frank to a life of crime during the Civil War. Within a year, Frank and Jesse are believed to have pulled off the first daylight bank robbery in peacetime. They made off with $60,000 from Liberty, |
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MO. Bank not far from their home, and one man was killed.
Jesse married Zerelda, his first cousin and had two children. For 15 years, the James boys roamed throughout the U.S. robbing trains and banks of their gold, building a legend that was to live more than a century after Jesse's death.
Jesse James was a moral paradox. He was a good father and family man, and was religious in his own way. Whether he stole from the rich and gave to the poor, or just kept it all, has never been decided. Jesse James died in 1882 at the age of 34 after living a lawless career for 16 years, but the legend of Jesse James continues more than a century beyond his death. Today Jesse and Frank are among the best-known Americans in the world. The Gang Tour begins
Hotel Patee House was the center of the nation's Westward expansion from the start of the Pony Express to the death of Jesse James. It was opened by John Patee as a luxurious hotel in 1858 with 40 rooms to serve travelers as the railroad pushed west to St. Joseph. Patee House was called World's Hotel when Jesse James was killed just a block away April 3, 1882. His widow was interviewed in this hotel the next morning. Today it is an extensive museum with a 1854 Buffalo Salon, "Streets of Old St. Jo" displays of western art, antique toys, telephones, cars 1992 fire truck, locomotive and much more. www.stjoseph.net/ponyexpress
Next morning we went to the Jesse James current gravesite where local historian, David Smith, gave an enlightening gravesite talk. The JESSE JAMES FARM & MUSEUM in Kearney was special because a Frank James historical interpreter dressed as Frank guided us through the farmhouse. Jesse's boldness and flamboyance as a bank and train robber, combined with sensational publicity from newspapers and dime store novels, soon made his name a household name. Before walking the trail to the James farmhouse, an audio-visual presentation recaps the history of Frank and Jesse James and the exploits of the James' band of outlaws. In the gallery, the world's largest collection of James family artifacts is on display including Jesse's boots and spurs. The trail to the farmhouse passes the picturesque stream where Jesse and Frank spent many summer days in their childhood swimming hole. Near the backdoor of the family home is Jesse's original burial site, the same home where Jesse lived and where his mom lost her arm when a bomb was thrown into the house as Pinkerton Detectives attempted to capture the fugitive. Some of my group members tried black powder pistol target shooting in back of the farmhouse. Tel: 816-628-6065 History unfolds in museums Later that afternoon we visited WINSTON'S HISTORIC DEPOT/MUSEUM - the 19th century Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Depot and Museum, site of the Great Train Robbery by James gang in 1881. It features James gang lore, railroad history and local history in a passionate commitment to Midwestern history featuring the site where Jesse's horses were tethered to the trestle near the Winston depot when the robbers jumped on then train. THE JESSE JAMES BANK MUSEUM is located on the Historic Square in Liberty, Missouri - the site of the first successful daylight bank robbery, during peace time. While the villains were never caught, the crime was attributed to the James gang. As visitors to this historic site step into the bank office, it is a revival of 1866. Period furnishings and an account of that fateful February 13th give patrons a vision of life in Clay County during the post Civil War era. Peering into the original bank vault was a reality jolt .816-781-4458 There are Courthouse Murals with images of Clay County 1830-1890, measuring 28 feet wide by eight feet deep featuring themes of water and transportation, both of which were instrumental settling Clay County, and there was also a Statue of Justice and a giant clock near the murals that were fascinating.
The two-story 1859 Jackson County Jail, with its barred windows and double iron doors, gives a chilling look at the rigors of frontier justice. It is thought to be the only such building remaining in the Midwest today. Four feet away from its dungeon-like cells and leg chains rises the back walls of a federalist-style house that fronts on Main Street, Independence. This was home to a succession of county marshals and their families until the early 1920's. 816-252-1892 In Lexington, Missouri, we watched a re-enactment of a bank robbery by the James gang. After lunch at the Victorian Tea Room, we attended an informative and entertaining panel discussion, “The Legend of Jesse James.” In St. Joseph today, the house where Jesse died stands as mute evidence that crime doesn't pay, yet more than 25,000 people a year visit the spot where Jesse gasped and died more than a century ago Psychologists today would brand Jesse as a "serial killer," and suggest his bad experiences during the Civil War forced him into a life of crime in "post-traumatic stress." A scoundrel, yes. But who among us, will be so well known around the world 113 years after our death with a tour dedicated to April 3rd as the day honoring the memory of Jesse James who died on that day in 1882
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A $10,000 reward offered by Governor Tom Crittenden for Jesse proved too appealing for gang member Bob Ford. He put a single bullet to the back of Jesse's head on April 3, 1882 while Jesse stood on a chair in the family room home in St. Joseph to dust and straighten a picture.
Our first stop on our Jesse James gang tour was at PATEE HOUSE MUSEUM in St. Joseph, a National Historic Landmark. In 1860 it was a pioneer hotel and headquarters for the Pony Express that lasted 19 months.
Next we visited JESSE JAMES MUSEUM HOME where outlaw Jesse James was shot and killed in his house on April 3, 1882. Exhibits include artifacts from Jesse's grave when he was exhumed in 1995 for DNA tests. Those results showed a 99.7% certainty that it was Jesse James who was shot in St. Joseph in 1882.
Independence, Missouri is the site of the 1859 JAIL,MARSHAL'S HOME AND MUSEUM. If the massive, limestone walls could talk, imagine the tales they could tell. The Old Jail housed everyone from minor offenders to Jesse James' notorious brother, Frank. And if your family was sympathetic to the South in Civil War, they very likely could have been imprisoned here as well.