Jesse Woodson James

Birth 1847 • Centerville, Kearney, Clay, Missouri

Death 3 APRIL, 1882 • St Joseph, Andrew, Missouri,

10th Cousin

Parents: 

Robert James (1816-1850)

Zereida Cole (1825-1911)

1860 United States Federal Census

Name	Jessie W James
Age	12
Birth Year	abt 1848
Gender	Male
Race	White
Birth Place	Missouri
Home in 1860	Washington, Clay, Missouri
Post Office	Missouri City
Family Number	920
Household Members	Name Age Reuben Samuel 33 Zarilda Samuel 35 Alxander James 16 Jessie W James 12 Susan L James 10 Sarah Samuel 1

U.S. Family Photo Collection c. 1850-2000

Name	John Wesley James
Image Title	The James Family
Annotation	These are the Decendent of Jesse James , Jesses James Great great great Grandparents and my Great great greatgrandparents are Brothers
People In Photo	John Wesley James
State	Kentucky
Area	Ashland
Year	1905

Civil War Pension Index

Name	Jesse W James
Place Filed	Missouri, USA
Relation to Head	Soldier

Photos

Robert Sallee James with sons Jesse and Frank 1850

James, Jessie Woodson (1847) photo

 

James, Jesse Woodson (1847) wanted dead or alive poster

Road Past and Present…to James Farm

A post card collection showing the road to the James Farm looking up the hill from the east. The photo on the right is how the road looks today. Interesting how the road is pretty much the same, just a little wider and less muddy. The telephone line poles date the postcard to sometime between 1911 and 1920. (Jesse James Farm and Museum website)

James, Jesse Woodson (1847) headstone

Kearney, Clay County, Missouri, USA

Birth: Sep. 5, 1847 Death: Apr. 3, 1882 Western Outlaw. He was born Jesse Woodson James in Kearney, Missouri to Baptist minister Reverend Robert and Zerelda James and the younger brother of James. His father heeding a calling left for California with the intent of preaching to gold miners but contracted cholera and died. He is buried in an unmarked lost grave in Placerville. By the time Jesse was eight, his mother had remarried twice more. From the third marriage, he gained two stepbrothers and two stepsisters. As a youth, he was churchgoer, baptized at the Kearney Baptist Church and sang in the choir wanting to emulate his father and become a Baptist preacher. Jesse had very little formal education but was skilled with horses and a natural leader. When but fifteen, he followed his brother James into the ranks of Quantrill’s Raiders. After the war ended, he attempted to surrender at Lexington, Missouri and gain amnesty along with his brother Frank, Cole Younger and others but a gun battle ensured. The remnants of the “Raiders” were forced to hide out in the woods. With no means of livelihood, the James-Younger gang came into being. For the next fifteen years they robbed banks and when security made that difficult, they turned to stagecoaches and trains. After the failed disastrous attempt to rob the bank in Northfield, Minnesota, many of the gang member were wounded and captured, However, Jesse slipped away and lived quietly in St. Joseph Missouri under an assumed name. Two of his gang members were tempted by a reward for his capture dead or alive. They went to his house and while his back was turned, Robert Ford shot him one time in the back of the head. His mother had him buried n the front yard of the James Farm with an imposing monument with a inscription condemning the assassin. The house in St Joseph where Jesse met his death is preserved and is the epitome of morbidity. Here you can see the bullet hole made as it passed thought the skull of Jesse. The structure is filled with James memorabilia. The house was actually moved here after being saved from the jaws of demolition. Now more has been added. Artifacts from the controversial exhumation of 1995. A bullet from his right lung stemming from an old civil War injury, the tie tack he was wearing when first buried and fragments of wood, the handles and the glass fragments from the coffin front piece grace a glass cabinet. Jesse James boyhood home today remains relatively secluded in the countryside near the small town of Kearney. After Zerelda’s third and very successful marriage to her neighbor a country doctor, the two farms became one and was very prosperous with several slaves doing most of the work. After the death of her son, a defiant mother sat on the front porch giving tours of the house and selling stones from the grave and supposed pistols owned by her famous son. It was here Union soldiers harassed the family known as confederate sympathizers and attacked Zerelda and tried to hang her third husband. The incident defined young Jessie’s determination to join the Confederate army. It was here Pinkerton detectives threw an incendiary bomb into the residence killing a younger step brother and maiming Zerelda. After her death and Jesse’s wife, his body was moved from the farm to the family plot in Mount Olivet Cemetery Kearney and interred beside her. Frank James in his old age kept up the tours by charging 50 cents until his death. Clay County purchased the rundown property and after two restorations, 75 percent of the original material remains. It contains original furnishings. The James home is perhaps one of the most authentic birthplace sites in America today. Now, the Clay County government at the Jesse James Farm and Museum is still selling pebbles for 25 cents along with shirts, books and toys. (bio by: Donald Greyfield) Family links: Parents: Robert Sallee James (1818 – 1850) Zerelda Cole James (1825 – 1911) Spouse: Zerelda Mimms James (1845 – 1900) Children: Jesse Edwards James (1875 – 1951) Gould James (1878 – 1878) Montgomery James (1878 – 1878) Mary Susan (James) Barr (1879 – 1935)

Family Tree

Works Cited

• 1860 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009, search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7667.
• Ancestry, Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original Data: Family Tree Files Submitted by Ancestry Members., http://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree.
• “Soldiers and Sailors Database.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1999, http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm.
• Edmund West, comp. Family Data Collection – Births, Online Publication – Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2001. search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=5769.
• Edmund West, comp. “Family Data Collection – Deaths.” Family Data Collection – Deaths, Online Publication – Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2001., search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=5771.
• Edmund West, comp. “Family Data Collection – Individual Records.” Online Publication – Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000., search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=4725.
• Famous Kin Family Trees &Amp; Relationship Charts | Free Ancestry and Genealogy Website, FamousKin.com, 2017, famouskin.com/.
• Jesse Woodson James. Historic Missourians. The State Historical Society of Missouri, n.d. Web.
• Millennium File, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2003, search.ancestry.com /search/db.aspx?dbid=7249.
• National Park Service. “U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865.” Civil War Soldier Records, U.S. | Ancestry, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007, search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1555.
• “Relative Map.” Relativefinder.org, BYU Family History Technology Lab, 2017, http://www.relativefinder.org/#/relatives/all/user.
• U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004, search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7836.
• U.S. Family Photo Collection, c. 1850-2000, U.S. Family Photo Collection, c. 1850-2000, 2005, search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8789.
•  U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012, search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=60525.