IN SEARCH OF JESSE JAMES

After the first day of the on Friday, I decided to hang close to the Motel as everyone was keeping on the Weather. The weather was forecast to turn horrible later on Saturday with as much as 8-10 inches of snow beginning around sundown. Being a Saturday it is a little easier getting around the Kansas City area as for the most part you don't have to deal with rush hour.

Leaving the motel it was really cold and overcast, but the snow and rain was not scheduled to begin until late afternoon or early evening.  I decided to take a 30-mile jaunt up to Kearney and retrace the Steps of two of the old wests most noted outlaws, Frank and Jesse James. 

The James Farm is located on the east side of Kearney and is the where Jesse James was born on September 5, 1847.  Jesse's father was a Baptist preacher who died while preaching in California.

Jesse James Birthplace

 By the time Jesse was eight, his mother had remarried twice more. From her third marriage, to Dr. Reuben Samuels, Jesse gained two stepbrothers and two stepsisters. When but fifteen, he followed his brother Frank into the civil war. Frank rode with Captain William C. Quantrill while Jesse spent his time riding with "Bloody Bill" Anderson. After the war ended, he attempted to surrender at Lexington, Missouri and gain amnesty along with his  Frank and Cole Younger 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 Charlie and Bob Ford were tempted by a reward for his capture dead or alive. They went to his house and while his back was turned, Bob Ford shot him one time in the back of the head. Jesse's mother had him buried in the front yard of the James Farm with an imposing monument with a inscription condemning the assassin.

Jesse James Original Gravesite

The house in St Joseph where Jesse met his death is preserved as a museum.  There you can see the bullet hole made as it passed thought the skull of Jesse. During my trip to St. Joseph's I was disappointed to find that the House was closed.

Jesse James farm 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 Jesse, 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 at the farm that Pinkerton detectives threw an incendiary bomb into the residence killing his a younger step brother Archie Samuels, 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.

Jesse James Grave

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.
 
One of the most notorious bank robberies pulled by the James-Younger Games was the failed robbery of the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota robbery. On September 7, 1876 the gang enter the town, and alert citizens became suspicious and opened fire.  Outlaws Clell Miller, Bill Chadwell along with cashier Joe Heywood and citizen Nicholas Gustavson were killed. Frank and Jesse along with Charlie Pitts, Cole, Jim and Bob Younger were wounded. 

The Body of Clell Miller was photographed and place and display before being buried in the City Cemetery.  Later Miller's father claimed the body and had the remains reburied in the Muddy Fork Cemetery near Kearney.

The beauty of having a smart phone is that I can find just about anything including the Muddy Fork Cemetery.  Seeing that it was just a short distance from Mount Olivet I ventured north and was able to quickly locate the grave of Clell Miller.

A few snow flakes had started to fall so I decided to head back toward Kansas City. It was mid-afternoon when I arrived by in the Kansas City area. With only a few flurries in the air I decided to visit the Negro League Baseball Museum near 18th and Vine. 

The Kansas City Monarchs were on of the most successful Negro League Teams and was a charter member of the Negro National League. Some of the greatest baseball players of all time played in the Negro Leagues, including Josh Gibson, Leroy "Satchel" Paige, "Cool Papa" Bell, and Buck, O'Neil.

In fact it was Buck O'Neil who was a leading force in establishing the Negro League Museum here in Kansas City.  The museum is a great tribute to the greats who played baseball during a very difficult era.

While I enjoyed the museum and spent close to 2-hours watching the videos and taking in the artifacts, however all of the employees that I encountered during my visit was inattentive and just plain rude.  The lady at the gift shop was too busy with a person cell phone call to even acknowledge the visitors in front of me who were wanting to purchase souvenirs. The staff here at the museum were the most unprofessional group of people that I have ever seen. 

After finishing my visit to the Negro League Museum, it was getting close to dinner time so just around the corner is the original Arthur Bryant's BBQ. I had the pulled pork sandwich with fries and Slaw, and while it was good I actually preferred Gates BBQ.  The Arthur Bryant's sauce was a little bitter and for the lack of a better word, gritty. I can say that I have had both of Kansas City's famed BBQ's and for my money Gate's wins hands down.

By the time that I finished dinner the snow was coming down harder so I headed back to the Motel to hunker down for the night.