How can a quasi-historian named Bob Ford from St. Joseph, Missouri, talk about history without covering Jesse James?
Well, it’s been easy because Jesse James wasn’t a “Robin Hood,” or even a nice guy. He was a murderous, thieving thug caught up in the times.
As for the assassin Bob Ford, my namesake, he was a wimp with a gun who wanted to become famous.
I have a poster, REWARD $2,500, Wanted Dead or Alive, Notorious Badman Bob Ford, alias “The Dirty Little Coward.” Then a picture of Ford and underneath, “For the cold-blooded slaying of Jesse James. This coward is a good-looking young man, with dark brown hair, wavy hair, grey eyes, and a pleasant appearance. He is neat in dress. Usually employed as a manager of saloons.” Immediately contact the nearest U.S. Marshal’s Office.
I’ve been asked this a thousand times, so before we go any further, NO, I’m not related!
Jesse is another story. Gary Chilcote of the Patee House Museum and Jesse James Home in St. Joseph, where he was murdered, says “someone about once a month comes in claiming to be kin to Jesse.”
James was a product of the violence and turmoil in the mid 1800s involving this divided state. His parents moved to Clay County, Missouri, from Kentucky in the ‘40s; they were southern. There were not that many people in the area—allegiances were known.
Once hostilities broke out over how Kansas would enter the Union, free state or slave, young Jesse stayed on the family farm near Kearney. In 1861 older brother Frank joined the Missouri State Guard fighting against the Union and the Federal’s oppressive authority over state rights-minded Missouri citizens.
After the boy's father abandoned the family and headed to the California gold fields where he soon died, Jesse's mother remarried. Jesse witnessed the decline of law and civility as a band of Yankee “lawmen,” searching for information on Frank tortured and left his new step-father Dr. Reuben Samuels hanging from a tree, but still breathing. Physically affecting the doctor the rest of his life, this and other unprovoked acts filled Jesse with a lifetime of rage and justified to himself, the life he was about to lead.
Soon, at 16, Jesse left the farm and joined the fight.
Bloody Bill Anderson was a cutthroat bushwhacker with his own reasons for despising the Yankees and Jayhawks. The Border War between Kansas and Missouri had turned ugly as both sides murdered combatants and civilians while laying waste to towns and homesteads.
Unbiased facts and documented happenings in those brutal days are difficult to collect, but lore is rampant. Published in 1881, the 1,070-page book, “History of Buchanan County Missouri,” where St Joseph is located, in which there are only seven pages dedicated to the Civil War!
“The history of important events, which transpired in Buchanan County, during the period of the late war, would alone fill a large book. At this late day, when the old ship of state is sailing over the smoothest seas of prosperity, and the deep wounds and gashes made by the war are being healed by the flight of time, we are unwilling to recall the facts or incidents connected with it. So believing, we shall only allude briefly to some of the general features of the war.”
Seven pages out of a book with 1,070 pages to cover the Civil War because 20 years later people were still trying to heal? Makes me want to know what in the world happened! In Missouri, it was neighbor against neighbor and in some families even siblings were on opposite sides.
During the war, different farm houses were known to be safe havens for bushwhackers who could receive food and shelter.
Once, good lore has it, Jesse was staying at such a farm receiving food from a distraught woman—explaining that the bank was foreclosing on her farm and the banker was coming that very day to give notice. Jesse contemplated, gave the woman the money to pay off the farm note, then told her to make sure and get that receipt. Jesse hid in the woods until the carriage with the banker arrived. She paid off the farm, got the receipt and the banker was then predictively robbed by Jesse a short distance away. I knew you wanted a Robin Hood “feel good” story, so there you go.
The James brothers could have certainly been with Quantrill on their murderous raid to Lawrence, Kansas, but it is known that they were involved in the massacre in Centralia, Missouri, a year later. As reported, that’s when Bloody Bill Anderson and a few men pulled unarmed Yankee soldiers from a train and killed 23 of 24 in cold blood.
Jesse is thought to have been in the guerrilla camp just south of town when 147 green Yankee troops under Army Major Andrew Johnson arrived in town, discovered the bodies, incensed, he gave chase.
Locating the camp Johnson commanded his men to dismount with their muzzle-loading Enfield rifles and form a battle line. Anderson ordered his 80 hardened guerrilla fighters with several six guns per man onto their horses to attack. It was over in three minutes, with three guerrillas killed and 123 Union soldiers mowed down, most slain while trying to flee. Seventeen-year-old Jesse is said to have been the one that shot Major Johnson in the head, killing him instantly.
Much of Jesse’s bushwacking days are full of lore, while his later robbing exploits are covered in legend. More on that legend of Jesse James to come—and on that good looking coward Bob Ford.
—
You can find more of Bob’s work including his historical podcasts on his website bobfordshistory.com; also search for his YouTube videos. Bob can be reached at robertmford@aol.com.
Comments