September 29 - The Trail of Jesse James

We wanted to leave by 8:30 so we would be at the M & I Bank in Liberty, MO around the time it opened at 9 to replenish our cash supply until my new debit card arrives. I Map Quested it and it was right on the way to our first real stop, Kearney, MO. Took no time to get there but the directions led us into a shopping center, leading me to believe the bank should be someplace in the plaza. Well, we didn’t see it and followed the road around and it came out on the highway we started on, so we stopped at a gas station and asked if there was an M & I close by. The lady said yes and if you stayed on the road you could see it from the road but can’t get to and she wasn’t sure how to get to it. So we drove by and saw it and you do go in from the shopping center but you can’t see it from the interior road because another big building is in front/behind it. Anyway, we got there and had no trouble getting cash. Even though Bill has his DL, I felt better knowing I have my passport. I’ve had to show it a couple of times for photo ID using the credit card.

Jesse James Birthplace AKA
James Farm

The grave is the original in the
yard of the James Home but the
monument is a replica

Another 20 minutes or so up the road is Kearney, MO, birthplace of Jesse James and location of the Jesse James Farm and Museum. It’s a little ways out of town but easy to get to. They have a nice video presentation and 3 galleries in the visitor center. The staff was very knowledgeable and even told us about the James family descendents. Frank had only one child, a son, who was a scholar and never married. Jesse and his wife, who was his first cousin on his mother’s side, had a son and daughter. The son only had 3-4 daughters and his daughter had children but there were no more “James” after Jesse’s son. We toured the farm house which started off as a log cabin and their mother ordered a catalog house which was fairly common at that time, and had it built on to one side of the log cabin. The cabin is pretty much as it was after Jesse’s mother died and then Frank and his wife lived in it a couple of years til he died and then his wife lived another 29 years. At that time the descendants sold the house to the county, who now runs it. The story is that the boys started out at guerillas because they were a slave owning family who was persecuted by the locals who were anti-slavery. Frank joined first and after Jesse was badly beaten and his step-father beaten and tortured by the locals, he joined when we was only 14. They fought with the Confederates although they were not technically in the army. Then after the war ended, they robbed banks that were owned by Unionists. So now they are not considered to be “outlaws” in the sense we think. On the way from the farm we stopped at the Mt Olivet Cemetery to see Jesse’s grave. His mother and step-father are also buried by him and his wife.

Where Jesse was killed

The framed area in the middle
is the bullet hole in the wall
from Jesse's being shot

When we left Kearney we stopped for lunch at Arby’s on the way further up the road to St Joseph, MO to the Jesse James House. Jesse, who was going by the name of Tom Howard, lived in a small house with his wife and 2 children. The children thought their names were Howard. Jesse’s gang met there and planned their robberies. Two members of his gang, Charlie and Bob Ford, had been offered a $10,000 reward and amnesty if they killed Jesse. Jesse never took his guns off, so it took a while for them to have the opportunity to kill him as neither could out-draw Jesse. One day when they were meeting, Jesse took off his guns and climbed on a chair to straighten a picture on the wall. Bob Ford shot him in the back of the head and he died instantly. There have been claims over the years that it wasn’t Jesse and that he got away and was never caught. In 1995 his body was exhumed and DNA tests were done using his great granddaughter and a great nephew (from his sister’s family) and it was 99.7% certain. They then held a funeral for Jesse James and he was buried in the Mt Olivet Cemetery in Kearney. At the time he was shot, his mother had him buried in her front yard at the farm so she could watch over the grave and prevent grave robbers. Later it was determined that it was illegal to bury someone in your yard so he was moved to Mt Olivet. So he was buried 3 times and had 3 funerals. The largest in 1995.

The slowest horse I've
ever been on

Last stop today was the Pony Express Museum, also in St. Joseph. It’s housed in the original stable where the first rider left St. Joseph on April 3, 1860. The building has been a number of things since but is now back where it started. They have nice movie on the development of the Express and the 3 men who backed and planned it and the reasons for its demise. Mainly it was too expensive and because the telegraph system made the east to west connection. Only 1 of the riders was killed and that was due to an Indian uprising. There were 400- 500 horses in use at the relay and home stations along 2000 miles from St. Joseph to Sacramento. The riders each, one going east and one going west, carried 20 pounds of letters, getting them across the country in 10 days. Riders passed the mail bag every 75 -100 miles and horses every 10-15 miles. That’s why it was expensive, to man the stations along the way. I think it was only in operations no more than 18 months. It’s a very interesting story and again, I sure learned a lot.

Denny, Diane and I after dinner

We managed to get home about 3:45, giving us a chance to rest a bit, change clothes, walk Xena and leave at 5:30 to meet my old friends Diane and Denny Junge for dinner in Kansas City. We used to play co-ed and women’s softball together some 30 years ago. We had time to walk around the city plaza/shopping mecca a bit before meeting at the BBQ place. Kansas is known for its BBQ and Diane said this was her favorite restaurant, so we let her pick. Dinner was great and we visited for 3 hours, catching up on our families and reminiscing about softball and the people we all remembered. It was great to see them and maybe we can get together before another 18 years go by!