Robert was born July 17, 1818, in Logan County, Ky. His parents died when he was 9 years old and he was raised by his sister, Mary Mimms, who was 10 years older than he.
At the age of 21, Robert entered Georgetown College, a Baptist-affiliated institution in Kentucky. It was while he was attending college that he met his future wife, Zerelda Cole, who was a student at St. Catherine's Female School in Lexington, Ky., possibly while he was preaching at a church close to the convent.
A classmate of Robert's, Basil Duke, said that Zerelda had been left with an estate of about $10,000 (sometimes cited as $6,000 – no matter what – it was a considerable sum of money in those days. $10,000 in 1841 is equal to $219,000 in today's money) as her father had died when she was young. The money/dowry made Zerelda a good catch for some lucky young man.
Nevertheless, Robert, who appears to be an incurable romantic, had pledge his love to Zerelda by Sept. 1841, as his Sept. 24 letter of that year indicates.
"... How often have I thought of you and those beautiful lines you gave me, since we took the parting hand, and it is the last thought that leaves my mind at the lonesome hour of the night and the first in the morn."
Sigh ... He even makes MY heart go pitter patter.
Robert ends his letter with a promise to visit her within four weeks and he closed, "I remain your affectionate lover."
Robert's flowery declarations of love must have worked on the young 16-year-old woman because the couple were married Dec. 28, 1841, just a few months after the above mentioned letter was written.
After the couple visited Zerelda's parents in Missouri and found they loved the area now known as Kearney, Robert purchased a 275 acre farm. However, according to Georgetown College records, Robert continued to return to school for post-graduate work at the institution, receiving a Master of Arts degree in 1847.
James had been a licensed Baptist preacher since 1839 and after he settled in Missouri in 1843, he became the pastor of New Hope Baptist Church. He also founded Providence Baptist Church in Clay County during the same period.
New Hope's records show that there were only 20 congregants at the time the young evangelist began preaching there and by the time he left for California in the spring of 1850, attendance had grown to about 280.
While I was working at my last newspaper job in Excelsior Springs, Mo., just about 25 minutes southeast of the James farm in Kearney, I used to drive into Excelsior from east of that city, passing Pisgah Baptist Church as I headed down the hill into Excelsior.
I knew the pastor at the church, Doug Richey, as the religious beat was my responsibility. In researching the James family one day, I found that Pisgah had indeed been founded by Rev. James in 1850. I was surprised since the church was at least 10 miles or so from the James farm and since Robert had to travel by horse, I thought it impossible for him to preach at all three churches.
So, I call Pastor Doug and found I was wrong. I was rewarded with the pastor's eager offer to bring me the nearly 170-year-old record book to show me. These are the things researchers and writers get all excited about.
I was permitted to photo copy the pages I wanted from the book and thus transcribe the following:
"Ray County Mo – August 12th 1849"
The following persons being desirous of rendering service to God met at the stand near Fredericksburg (as mentioned yesterday, Excelsior Springs did not exist in 1850 and instead, a small town called Fredericksburg was in place along the area just east of what is current Excelsior Springs, near its golf course), and agreed to go into a constitution as a church.
After adopting the articles of faith, covenant and rules of decorum proceeded.
1st – To appoint Bro. Nowlin Clerk.
2nd – Called brother Robbert (sic) James to preach for the church one year. Brother James being present consented thereto.
3rd – Agreed to call the name of the church Pisgah.
4th – Agreed to meet on the second Saturday in each month for the purpose of transacting church business and preaching on the following Sunday.
5th – Brother Nowlin presented a letter to be filed for the purpose of joining the North Liberty Association and the following brethren were appointed to bear in Vis. B.W. Nowlin, C. Wyman, Samuel Clevenger and John Cox.
6th – Raised the sum of 75/100 Dollars for printing the minutes.
7th – The above church existed previous to constitution as an arm of New Hope Church of Clay County and was built up through the instrumentality of Brother Robbert (sic) James who commenced his labors with us in March 1849.
The covenant adopted by the Church is as follows, Manually, we the undersigned being desirous to worship God and promoted his cause do this day agree and covenant together that we will erect a house of worship to the true and living God."
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| The above page from Pisgah Baptist Church Records prove the original statement of constitution at the founding of that church in March 1849 and lists Robert James as the first pastor. |
An interesting side note to the above constitution. B. Nowlin mentioned as the clerk, may very well be the same Brian Nowlin who had been in the mercantile business in the mid 1850s with one Darius Sessions of Missouri City – not very far distant from the location of Pisgah. If it is one and the same, Brian and son, Sam Nowlin, had been the owners of a small store in Missouri City where, on May 19, 1863, Frank James – a newly recruited member of Quantrill's guerrillas, came with a small group of his fellow bushwhackers to raid the store after killing Sessions, then a Union officer as well as the mayor of Missouri City. The reason for the murder? Sessions had arrested the young 20-year-old wife of a Confederate officer, Lurena (Lou) McCoy for feeding the enemy (her husband) and helping to clothe others who had signed up to serve for the Confederacy.
Lou McCoy had been questioned and taken to St. Joseph, Mo., and jailed. Her husband had sought the aid of Quantrill to avenge her honor. By this time in the war, many of the wives, sisters, mothers and female friends of Confederate soldiers and bushwhackers had been the target of Union soldiers as a means of coaxing the enemy out into the open. Most of the time this tactic backfired on the Union soldiers.
Sam Nowlin had served with Frank James in the Missouri State Guard and both, it is believed, fought together at the Battle of Lexington (Missouri) in Sept. of 1861. Incidentally, the Confederates won that battle despite the Union eventually taking possession of Lexington through to the end of the war. Lexington is where both Frank and Jesse, separately, surrendered.
It never ceases to amaze me that these coincidences in names pop up regularly. The names Wyman, Clevenger and Cox are still common names in Excelsior Springs. Indeed, it was Wyman himself who is one of those credited with discovering and verifying the efficacy of the mineral waters – then helping to found the city of Excelsior Springs in 1880.
Robert James is listed on the first page of the record book, which lists the pastors as the first pastor from March 1849 to March 1850. At this time he decided to leave with a party headed for the gold fields of California. To this day, it is not fully known why Robert left his young family and three congregations behind, but he was somehow drawn to evangelize to the men of the gold fields.
Additionally, Robert's brother, Drury Woodson James, had settled already in California and done well for himself.
Ted Yeatman, author of "Frank and Jesse James, the Story Behind the Legend," describes a young Jesse James, who would have been about 2 1/2, "crying and clinging to his father's leg, begging him not to leave, but Robert had made a promise, and with much regret, he departed. His letter to Zerelda of April 14, 1850 ended with, 'Give my love to all inquiring friends and keep a portion of it to yourself and kiss Jesse for me and tell Franklin to be a good boy and learn fast.'"
Little Susan James would have been less than a year old when her father left for California.
Unfortunately for Robert Sallee James, a man of superb belief in God and faith, the dreams he'd hope to realize by preaching to the miners of California never came to pass.
On Aug. 18, 1850, Robert died of a fever at a gold camp in Hangtown, now present day Placerville, Calif. He was two years younger than Jesse would be when he was murdered in 1882.
The town where Robert died burned in 1856 and because the cemetery had wooden markers for the graves, all trace of where Robert James is buried have vanished. Jesse and Frank went to visit their Uncle Drury just after the war ended, Jesse suffering dearly from a second shot to his right lung and hoping to partake of his uncle's mineral water springs. The boys tried to find their father's grave and never located the grave.
An Oct. 25, 1850 edition of the Liberty Tribune stated this about Robert James, "He was a man much liked by all who enjoyed his acquaintance; and as a revivalist, he had but few equals in this country ... Peace to his ashes."
Despite a short life, some of Robert's essays and letters to his wife survive to this day. New Hope and Pisgah Baptist churches are still in operation and he will always be remembered more as a man of faith, hope and obedience unto God before he is remembered as the father of Frank and Jesse James.
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