No one would ever think that the word peacemaker could be applied to Jesse or Frank James and they'd be mostly right. However, the two men were raised in a different time, when women were held in high esteem and treated politely and both men were raised to believe in God – their father having pastored at least three churches before his untimely death at 32.
Not long after the end of the Civil War, Jesse joined the Baptist Church, being baptized in 1866, and attending regularly for some time. Throughout his guerrilla and outlaw career, he carried his father's well-worn Bible everywhere with him and it was said he could quote scripture quite well.
Historical accounts state that there were times during the James gang's robberies that the women were treated with respect and oftentimes the men who appeared hard-working on the trains were not robbed like those who were more well off.
Though I have much more to study on Frank James' life, I have heard that he was not particularly religious later in life and may have died an atheist. I cannot say this with absolutely certainty yet, but if this is so, it is truly sad.
Little is known at this time of Zerelda's beliefs. She attended St. Catherine's Female School in Lexington, Kentucky, despite being protestant, as a young woman after her father died from a fall from a horse. It is believed that is how she met her future husband, Robert James when he was called to preach at a nearby church.
Zerelda was remembered by a neighbor as "a buxom country lass, with no over-nice sense of delicacy, brimming full of fun, a daring horsewoman, a good dancer and not afraid of the devil himself." From what I do know of Zerelda, that pretty well sums her up and is quite counter to her evangelistic first husband, Robert.
I recently read a letter from Robert to Zerelda before they were married, dated Sept. 24, 1841, where the highly romantic suitor writes, "... you excell (sic) them (over other women) as far as the winged eagle soars in the etherial (sic) sky above the genus on earth ... It is all impossible for me to describe the love that entwines in my bosom for you."
Ah ... he was a man of God and a poet too.
No photos exist for the public eye 172 years later of the young Zerelda and her future husband. Indeed, the only image of Rev. James is that which was drawn by George Warfel, an artist who did many drawings of the James family in the 20th century from family descriptions and photos. Nevertheless, the couple was deeply in love.
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| Rev. Robert Sallee James as he may have looked at the time he left for California, age 32 in 1850. |
They wasted no time getting married. Bonds were posted with 50 lbs. of tobacco and the couple were married on Dec. 28, 1841. They came to Missouri so Robert could meet Zerelda's mother, Sallie, who had remarried and was living in Clay County, Mo., in the area then known as Centerville, now called Kearney. Robert and Zerelda were taken with the countryside as it reminded them of their beloved Kentucky. Robert purchased the cabin and about 275 acres in 1845 that would be the family's home off an on for the next 120+ years.
Robert returned to Kentucky to complete his schooling at Georgetown where he was a Baptist ministerial student, leaving a pregnant Zerelda behind at her mother and stepfather's farm.
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| A photo of Zerelda Cole James Samuel - age unknown - courtesy of State of Missouri State Historical Society. |
Their first child, Alexander Franklin James (AKA Frank) was born Jan. 10, 1843 and Jesse Woodson James on Sept. 5, 1847. A son, Robert, was born in between Frank and Jesse, but lived only a short while, and the boys' sister, Susan Lavenia James was born Nov. 25, 1849. Jesse, Robert and Susan were all born at the James farm.
Rev. James left his mark on Clay County in the short period of time he lived there. In February of 1849, he became one of the 26 charter trustees of William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo. On Aug. 12, 1849, Robert became affiliated with the start-up of a new Baptist Church, called Pisgah, which is currently located just outside of the Excelsior Springs boundaries in Ray County. He was the first pastor of this still active church and it made the third church in which he had preached at and ministered in the area (the third being Providence Baptist Church).
At the time, this area where Pisgah was established was known as Fredericksburg and ironically, the church would be the institution that would help bury six soldiers from the Second Colorado Calvary Company B who had been ambushed by a group of Quantrill's men on July 17, 1864 that most likely included Jesse and Frank James.
In an interesting twist, the six men of the Second Colorado Calvary Company B who had been previously unidentified, were painstakingly researched by historian Brian Smarker of Excelsior Springs and identified. On July 17, 2005, the men: Charles H. Godfrey, 17; David Good, 29; John Picard, 29; William W. Robson, 24; Simon Simpkins, 20 (all privates); and Sgt. Truman C. Greenslit, 31, were honored and remembered in a ceremony with a granite memorial presented by the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War, Westport Camp #64 (Kansas City).
Despite the Rev. James' affiliation with William Jewell College, his son, Jesse, would not be welcomed there for the final burial of his body after exhumation for DNA testing in 1995.
Robert Sallee James, for some reason that has never been fully known to this day, decided to travel to the gold fields of California in the spring of 1850, leaving behind his wife and three young children. Rumors abound that he merely wanted to evangelize to the sinners who dug for gold, drank and had women, or that his wife, a strong-willed, often-described shrew of a woman had become more than he could abide. Perhaps by 1850, the honeymoon was over.
No one truly knows why he left, though I will cover more on the romance of Robert and Zerelda, the parents of two of America's most notorious outlaws in future blogs.
Robert also left behind his first church, New Hope Baptist Church thriving with 280 active members when he departed for California.
Sadly, Robert James died on Aug. 18, 1850 of fever at the miners camp in Hangtown, now present-day Placerville, California.
He was remembered by a Georgetown classmate as a high minded, honest fellow ... a general favorite and much esteemed."
I have long speculated what might have become of the boys, Frank and Jesse James, had their God-fearing and God-loving father survived to mentor them in a love for Christ. Perhaps had he lived, I would not be writing this blog today.
Still, during his short time on earth. Rev. Robert James was a maker of peace.
Side note: It is my personal belief that Jesse James died believing in Christ and may have repented his sins. Historical accounts also show that William Clarke Quantrill, the leader of the feared Quantrill's Raiders, who was shot in Louisville, Ky., shortly before the end of the war and paralyzed by his wounds, and having lived a month after being shot – confessed his sins to a priest and accepted Christ before he breathed his last.
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