The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-03-13
MRS. JESSE JAMES. JR.
Fell in Love With Her Hero
While He Was on Trial
ACCUSED OF PRACTICING
His Deceased Fathers Profess
SION Romance.

| New York. March 10.-Special correspon-
dence from Kansas City. to the Herald
says: Jesse James, son OF the once ia
nous bandit, and Stella McGown, who
grew interested in him last winter while
he was being tried for completely IN q
train robbery, were married January %.
They spent their honeymoon on the
James farm in Clay county, in the old
| bullet SCARED house that was both home
and fortress for Frank and Jesse James,
ST., in the days when they were outlaws.
They are now living with Jesse's mother,
who has ben very near deaths door, and
to whose bed side was called Mrs. Ze-
zelda Samuels mother of the famous
bandits, who lost one hand in those early
days of struggle trying to save her child
The morning was raw and bleak when
1 went to see young Mrs. James. The
house stands alone in wide stretch OF
ground, across which the wind sweeps
as only a Western wind can. Near by IS
the tree to which, it was said, the horses
weretied on the night Of the train wreck
ing at Leeds. 1t is a neat little cottage.
On this particular day it was surrounded
by black mud, dead brushwood and
gray sky. But there was cheer inside,
Notwithstanding sickness.
Young Mrs. James is just eighteen. She
has a slight figure, girlish pretty face
and shy manners. She met Jesse before
the trial-had kept company with him
to some extent-but she did not become
seriously interested in him until she saw
him fighting an accusation that meant, If
in no
Eyes" she said in answer to my in
quiry, 'of course I knew he was limo
cent, but they had so much evidence
against him I couldn't see how to get rid
of 1t. You know they first said that the
horses were tied out here to these trees
you can see them from this window-and
that Jesse did it, and that it happened
at half-past nine. But Jesse proved right
away that he was some place else at half
past nine. And then they brought up
other things and kept bringing them up
until it was awfully hard not to believe
them. Yes, I was at the trial every day"
During the time Jesse had a cigar
stand in the corridor of the Court House
and he was daily besieged by hosts of
girls who brought him flowers and ling
cred over the counter to try to make him
talk, that they might express sympathy
with him. On the morning after his &C
quittal Stella McGown was one of these
visitors. The flowers she gave him were
accepted and in return Jesse asked her
to attend a football game. That was the
real beginning of it, she says. The en-
gagement was announced soon afterward.
At the weddinf, which was a very SIM
pie one, held IN the brides home, were
some of the most prominent men in Kan
sas City. Among them T. T, Crittenden,
the present County Clerk; E. F. Swinney,
cashier Of the First National Bank; and
R. L. Yeager, the attorney who defended
Jesse in his trial Mr.. Crittenden has
been one of Jesse's closest friends for
long time. Mr.. Crittenden's father, for
mer Governor Crittenden. offered the re-
ward of $4,000 which caused the killing
of Jesse's father by two of his pals, the
Ford brothers. The groom's uncle, Frank
James, who was once the terror of many
States, was also at the wedding. One of
the first places to which Jesse and Stella
McGown went together was Mr.. Critten-
den's house.
Inside the James home on this bleak
morning everything was as cheerful as
cracking coal fire and a pleasant faced
girl could make it. The sitting room IS
small and cosey. The front room has
been given up to Jesse's mother. who is
just recovering from a severe Illness She
was not able to be present at the wed
ding, but she can now lie and see this
slip of a girl busying herself about the
house and making everybody happy. She
has lived to see her and her husbands
son and daughter grow up and become
as other peoples children. The daughter
lives with them when she is not teaching.
Mrs. Samuels has come here from the
farm in Clay county. where she still lives
in the bullet SCARED house where pill
grims frequently come to visit her and
write their names on her visiting book
'That other cottage, in which the honey
moon was spent, IS not much larger than
the one in which Jesse and his wife are
now living Within the yard is a green
mound and whit tombstone, sacred to
the memory Of Jesse's father. Mrs. Sam
uels, who lives there talks freely of the
adventures and hairbreadth escapes of
her boys The outside world has its own
story OF the greatest Of all guerillas, the
father of young Jesse James, accredited
with having invented the modern style
Of express train and bank robberies. This
modern knight of the road, after having
established himself among hero worship
pers. and invented an alibi system by
witch he eluded the matter Of fact court,
which do not recognize romance IN real
life. made the fatal blunder Of getting
out Of his region for his last daring act
o. robbery.
BUT there IS an inner side 70 the stories
OF bandits. and OF this side Mrs. sam
uels sometimes talks This mother of
gue-iilas is seventy-six years old and
well. She has been described as ''bony
~ f-ar,A s+-ong of muscle stern Of Wis