"If you asked most people in the world who was the most famous American Western Outlaw in history, the name would most probably be JESSE JAMES. The name is so famous, it has become a part of our language. Movies have been made about him, books have been written about him, he is in TV advertisements, used to describe types of men, and all sorts of things. He is an American Western Icon. Some considered him a ruthless criminal. Others considered him a hero like Robin Hood who turned to crime because he had no choice. Both of these descriptions are true.
Jesse Woodson James was born September 5, 1847 in Missouri. At the age of three his father, Rev. Robert James, left Missouri to search for gold in California. His father died of yellow fever shortly after he arrived, leaving Jesse, his brother Frank, and his sister Susan orphans with a single mother, Zerelda, to raise them with little money on a farm in Clay County, Missouri.
In 1852, Jesse's mother Zerelda married a local farmer by the name of Benjamin A. Simms. Simms seems to have been a mean man to the kids so the James children hated him. Because he treated her children badly, Zerelda threw him out of her house and was going to divorce him. However, he was killed in some sort of accident with a horse.
In 1855, Zerelda married again to Dr. Rubin Samuel. Most writers say that the James children liked him and got alone OK with him. He treated them well and they respected him. Samuel had four additional children with Zerelda and the James children loved their half brothers and sisters. In 1863, Samuels even refused to tell a group of Union soldiers anything about his step son Frank James (who was at that time in Confederate Partisan Ranger service). For this, he was cruelly hanged three times to the point of death from a tree outside of his home. He survived but was never healthy again.
Jesse's older brother, Alexander Franklin (Frank) James joined the guerrilla group led by William Clarke Quantrill in 1861."
No comments:
Post a Comment