4/14/2022

Jesse James Life Story

Introduction

A teenager when he rode off to join Confederate guerrillas in 1864, Jesse James never really stopped fighting the Civil War. Unable to accept the defeat of the secessionist cause, Jesse trained his. MERAMEC CAVERNS, Mo. (KMOV.com) - We’ve all heard about infamous outlaw and Missouri native Jesse James. Supposedly his life ended on April 3, 1882 in St. Joseph, Missouri when he was shot in the. Jesse James was born on 5 September 1847 to Zerelda and Robert James in Clay County, Missouri. His father was a rich man, a hemp farmer and Baptist in Kentucky; he later migrated to Missouri after getting married to Zerelda. They had a big farmland and some six slaves and lived a prosperous life. When Frank and Jesse James appeared in the family history of Tony Johnson, he turned to DNA. Tony wanted to learn and know the truth of his family’s story. The story was told to each generation for over 150 years. In 1975, I had a high school project requiring me to build a family tree.

Jesse James was a daring outlaw from Missouri. He became a legend in his own lifetime by committing crimes supposedly out of revenge for the poor treatment he, his family, and other Southern sympathizers received from Union

Union is the term used to identify the United States and its government during the Civil War.

soldiers during the Civil War

The Civil War was a military conflict that began on April 12, 1861, when Southern forces fired on Fort Sumter outside of Charleston, South Carolina. Several Southern states had seceded from the United States (also known as the Union) and formed the Confederate States of America (also referred to as the Confederacy) out of fear that the United States' newly elected president, Abraham Lincoln, would not allow the expansion of slavery into new western states. Battles and skirmishes were fought throughout the country by Union and Confederate forces. General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865. As other Confederate forces heard the news of Lee's surrender, they surrendered as well and the war was soon over. Over half a million men were killed or wounded in the war. Thousands of former slaves gained their freedom. After the war, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution were passed prohibiting slavery, providing equal protection for all citizens, and barring federal and state governments from denying citizens the right to vote due to their race, color, or status as a former slave.

. James sought personal recognition and publicity by writing letters to the press. His crimes terrorized innocent civilians and stifled economic growth in Missouri in the years following the Civil War.

Early Years

Clay County, Missouri

Map of Clay County, Missouri.
[SHS 028513] Prosperous farms in Clay County, Missouri, around 1877.
[SHS 028509] Prosperous farms in Clay County, Missouri, around 1877.
[SHS 028510]

Jesse Woodson James was born in Clay County, Missouri, on September 5, 1847. He was the third of four children born to Robert and Zerelda Cole James, both Kentucky natives. Jesse James had an older brother Frank, a brother, Robert, who died in infancy, and a younger sister, Susan. His father was a slave-owning farmer and popular Baptist minister in Clay County. Intending to preach to the gold miners, lured by the prospect of gold, or simply restless, Robert James left his familyA census record listing the James family living in Clay County in 1850.
[1850 U.S. Census, Clay County, Missouri]

Jesse James Life Story Cast

and traveled to California when Jesse was three years old. He never returned to Missouri, dying—probably of cholera

Cholera is a sickness caused by a water-dwelling type of bacteria. Its symptoms include extreme nausea and diarrhea, often causing dehydration and death. Cholera spread from Asia to Europe in the early 1800s, then to America at the beginning of the 1830s. Since cholera lives in water that has been contaminated with feces, it thrived in highly populated areas around rivers and other bodies of water with poor sewer drainage systems. Cholera outbreaks affected several American cities in the Mississippi River Valley during the mid-1800s. St. Louis was one of the cities hardest hit during this period, enduring cholera epidemics numerous times between 1832 and 1867. The 1849 and 1866 epidemics were especially severe, killing several thousand people. Cholera became less of a problem in American cities later in the 1800s as sewage systems improved and public health awareness increased.

—in a gold mining camp James

In 1848 gold was discovered in the river near John Sutter's sawmill in Coloma, California. This discovery inspired a mass migration of fortune seekers from other parts of America and several foreign countries in 1849. These migrants came to be known as 'forty-niners.' Very few of them found riches, and many went broke. Some died of sickness, exposure to the elements, or violence in the relatively lawless environment. Overall, about one percent of America's total population migrated to California during the gold rush, and California afterward became known as 'The Golden State.'

in 1850.

Robert JamesRobert Sallee James (1818 – 1850), father of Jesse James.
[SHS 94-0007]

The Jameses owned a hundred-acre farm Documentary

A descriptive narrative about the birthplace of Jesse James. The farm is now operated by the Clay County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Sites.
[Missouri Historical Review, v. 52, no. 1 (October 1957), back cover] James family farm in Clay County, near Kearney, Missouri.
[SHS 024388] James family farm in Clay County, near Kearney, Missouri.
[SHS 005230-2]

where they used slave labor to grow hemp and raise sheep. When Zerelda became a widow, she was responsible for her three children as well as five enslaved children and one adult. She remarried, first to Benjamin Simms, then in 1855 to a doctor named Reuben Samuel. Known as a strongwilled, opinionated woman, Zerelda was the head of the household for years to come.

Zerelda JamesZerelda Cole James Samuel (1825 – 1911), mother of Jesse James.
[SHS 001138]

Jesse James Life Story

Jesse James grew up on the farm. He was both popular in the community and outwardly religious. Some townspeople believed he might become a minister like his father. The Civil War, however, derailed this possible career path.