Jesse James in Kentucky | Kentucky Life | KET

one of the biggest challenges of telling the story of Jesse James time in Kentucky is sifting the facts from the legend and as researcher Harold Edwards tells us the James family roots ran deep in the bluegrass Jesse's parents were born here their father was a Baptist pastor preacher from Adair vo Kentucky his mother was thrilled a cold she was from around Midway Kentucky they met at a revival he was preaching in Lexington Kentucky around 1842 they got married and moved to Clay County Missouri both Jessie and his older brother Frank were swept up in the tide of the civil war and the brutal guerrilla warfare in the West including right here in Kentucky they had gotten a good background to banditry during the Civil War and as they as they lived their outlaw years they have those skills they learned during that time became very useful to him Frank and Jesse came here after the war primarily because they had friends and family here one of the first opportunities the James Gang got to employ those skills took place in 1868 in the small community of Russellville Kentucky six men rode up to the Russellville Bank the nearby log Bank they've been there before they had scouted the territory pretty well they'd been in the bank before they walk in and asked for change for a $50 bill and the cashier gets nervous one of the men pull a gun and he takes off for the door they shoot at him they actually grazed his scalp the bullet lands in the wall he runs out the back they grabbed the money $9,000 about three to five thousand dollars in gold and silver and they write out and terrorizes the citizens they're Russellville no one was expecting anything like that to happen such a bold and brazen act in broad daylight something they never experienced before the daring heist was just the beginning four years later the robbery of the Bank of Columbia Kentucky turned deadly two of them entered the bank cashier RAC Martin was sitting by his desk and as they burst in for some unknown reason one of the robbers shooting they drug him to the vault he probably wasn't in a condition to open the vault but he had given his word that after the Russellville robbery that he would not open his safe for anyone and he did they rode out Burkesville street after they left the bank they came upon a farmer by the name of Conover William Conover and he was standing near a gate and mr. Conover did not have any idea of what was happening who they were what was going on and they rode up and they said open the gate and he said boy she want the gate open get out and open it yourself they pull their guns and stuck it in his face and said we said open the gate and he said why sure boys I'll open the gate and he opened the gate and they rode on and bless his heart he stuck with the name for the rest of his life open the gate Conover through the years Jessie James continued to crisscross Kentucky often with a law close behind one fateful day in Bardstown their paths converged DeLoss Yankee Bly the detective from Louisville George hunter who was the sheriff of Bardstown and a couple other men had found out that the James boys were in town staying with Donnie pence the to James's and Donnie were in the central hotel eating lunch one day young man by the name of Ben Johnson came up the street and he saw them coming and he thought he would warn them that they were out there he went in the back and he told him he said the sheriff's out here and he said I'm afraid there's going to be trouble and Jesse and Frank told Donnie he said we've never went out a back door before and we're not going out at today we're going out the front door so as the detectives came into the lobby of the hotel jessie was the first one to walk to the door he put his hands on his revolvers under his coat stood then looked at him slowly walked to the door got to the front door stopped turned around his brother Frank came out did the exact same thing detectives just stood there and looked at him they asked him later to you know you had your chance why did you make your play at him and he said well they were expert gunmen and we thought we were outnumbered and we thought we'd better let him walk good choice despite the close calls Jessie continued to target the region and in 1880 the legendary outlaw set his sights on the stagecoach at Mammoth Cave a stagecoach ran from Cave City Kentucky to Mammoth Cave to haul tourists and there was sometimes two or three stages running at the same time it was very popular attraction even back then as they were riding in the stagecoach named Florida they were eight passengers judge Rutherford Roundtree his daughter Lizzie was on the stage they were from Lebanon Kentucky and as they noticed as they rounded a curve there in the road they saw two men riding alongside the stage getting ready to pull a stage over they stopped the stage ordered their only people out except Lizzie judge Roundtree was robbed of his watch and all his money and something unusual happened these two bandits asked for their names so he wrote all their names down and said if they'd had a pretty good haul that day they might send some of the stuff back but of course that didn't happen they let him get back on the stage and right away they took Lizzie's rings and judge around to his watch when Jesse was shot in st. Joseph Missouri by Bob Ford later he had that watch on his person and his wife Z had Lizzie's rings and they were sent back to the family through the years the exploits of Jesse James became the stuff of dime-store novels and The Outlaw assumed the role of a modern-day Robin Hood for Harold Edwards the comparison doesn't ring true I know of no instances where he robbed from the rich and gave to the poor in any way I think Jesse was about Frank and Jesse eventually giving up the outlaw life Frank James tried his hand at a variety of jobs including here at the New Salem Baptist Church in Dietz Ville for a short while Frank was amazingly a sunday-school teacher when he came there to teach they would turn the chairs around the room so that he wouldn't have his back to the door because he had was so nervous about being anywhere that he couldn't see the door that he couldn't couldn't teach unless they changed the room around for him incredibly over 130 years after his death The Legend of Jesse James is as popular now as ever there was one article that I read said it was more historical markers put up to Jesse James other than Abraham Lincoln than any other American so we have this we have this interest in him because of his bigger than life status I'm not sure that I can fully understand explain why the there's the interest in the Jameses I don't think they could either I think they'd be amazed if they will have today

Channel: KET - Kentucky Educational Television

Views: 79,499

Rating: 4.8416424 out of 5

Keywords: Jesse James, Kentucky, Outlaw, \American Outlaw\, \Wild West\, Logan County, History, Tobacco and Heritage Festival, robbery, robberies, bank robbery, legend, American legend, Deposit Bank of Columbia, Adairville, hideout, Ky, Kentucky Educational Television (TV Station), \Kentucky Life\, Confederate, guerrilla, gang, KET

Id: UX7SP8kmMus

Length: 7min 46sec (466 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 29 2013