the allure of jesse james
The outlaw Jesse James has long been recognized as an infamous criminal in the history of the United States. He was born September 5th, 1847 in Kearney, Missouri, and after serving with the Confederate Army using geurilla warfare, he continued on in life to become a bank and train robber. Even now, people still recognize the name Jesse James and know the stigma that surrounds it. But even with the stigma, people still find his story intriguing and interesting. In Kearney, the hometown of this Missourian outlaw, there are still two historical sites to visit for people to learn about and remember Jesse James.
Jesse James Farm, one of the historical sites, is located on the land where the house that the James family used to live in. It contains historical information about Jesse James, his family, and the Civil War. From 1860-1882, the James gang ruled the West as powerful outlaws. There were many different myths about what they did with their money, though supposedly no one knows the truth. One of the myths that has never been proven true nor false is that the James gang was like a Robin Hood group of bandits, robbing the rich and giving some of their money to the less fortunate. Throughout their bank robbing days, the group is thought to have stolen around $200,000 worth of money, but nobody truly knows what the brothers did with it.
“It’s interesting to kind of have a famous or infamous sort of person in town to kind of learn all the history about him,” says Tristan Day, a tour guide at the Jesse James Farm, “I mean they did rob banks, they didn’t do the greatest things but Jesse and Frank, they would give back to the people sometimes. Like whenever they were on the run once they’d stay at people’s houses sometimes or in caves but whenever they visited someone’s house they always made sure they paid for their stay. They never threatened them or anything they just paid them and left.”
People need to learn from history, even from an outlaw’s story. Steve Otto, a storyteller visiting the Jesse James Farm said, “You would hope that we would learn something, and you know that’s part of the problem today. We are people that are in charge of going through, and never got to learn from the history of what happened.”
Another historical site in Kearney is the Jesse James Bank Museum, which is in Liberty, Missouri – a neighboring town to Kearney. The bank is the home of the first day time robbery, thanks to Jesse James and his gang. Visitors can hear the story of how the James gang robbed the bank and learn about the consequences that happened because of the robbery. When asked why James was such an interesting part of history, tour guide Ashley Pooker said, “He was accused of so many robberies yet never convicted. Back then any robbery that occurred they would say oh, it was Jesse and his gang. Jesse never paid for any of his robberies.” So much of what is historically known about Jesse James is all based off myth instead of factual information, giving power and glamour to the legend instead of what actually happened. The allure comes from the mystique of his criminal actions and how he got away with everything that he did.