The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-12-23
Bandit REFORMS

FRANK JAMES PEACEFUL CITIZEN
ABOUT TO Die
WON'T talk OF HIS PAST
Desperate Acts Of His Famous Gang
Recounted-Killed Men Without
Remorse-Escaped Death Many
Times and Managed to Circumvent
His Pursuers at All Times.
At his home near Kearney, Clay
county Mo-, Frank James. ex-bandit,
Is dying at the age of seventy-two of
q complication OF diseases incident to
old age.
For twenty years the criminal ex-
ploits Of Frank and Jesse James and
Cole and Bob Younger filed the
newspapers. But for several years
Frank has lived quiet and peace
full life, and in Clay county and all
over Missouri he has won respect for
honesty and sobriety.
II don't care to talk about those
days." he said recently. when a yisi-
tor mentioned a noted bank robbery
in which Frank was leader. Jesse
has been gone these many years. Cole
Younger and myself have done pen
ance in prison and are living respect
able lives. Let bygones be bygones." !"
Druing late years Frank James
only public appearances have been as
starter of horse races at county fairs,
in which capacity he was drawing
card. In the last three years he has
seldom left his farm except to go to
the annual reunion of Quantrell's vet
erans in q suburb Of Kansas City two
days each fall, He owns the fine
stock farm which Is his home and
also property in Oklahoma.
Frank James was born In 1843. He
was still boy when his father died,
and he and his brother Jesse were
reared by their mother and her sec
ond husband, DR.. Reuben Samuels.
Joined Quantrell's Guerillas-
Even in boyhood Frank James
found himself in the midst OF border
trouble between the slavery sym
pathizers of his own Clay county,
Mo-, and abolitionists just across the
| line in Kansas. He was eighteen
when the Civil War began, and he
Joined the army of the Confederate
Cen. Sterling Price. At Springfield,
Mol, he became Ill with measles, and
| by the time he had recovered, Price's
army was too far away for him to
reach it. But Quantrell, the guerilla
leader, was not far away, and his
way Of fighting was more appealing
than Prices, so he joined Quaatrell,
and remained with him until Guam
trel1 was killed in Kentucky near
the close Of the war. Jesse James
Joined Quantrell in the spring OF
1853.
After the war Frank James re-
| NAMED in Kentucky some time to es-
cape threatened vengeance for some
of his Missouri ventures. Suddenly
| ne appeared near his home and mace
| the statement: "I'm going down to
see Alvas Daley"
Daley was found next day with
two bullet holes in his head. He had
incurred the enmity Of the James
| boys during the war. The killing
was not fixed upon Frank at the
time, but he confessed it years later.
When the James boys returned to
Clay county, Mo-, a few years after
the war, they were idols Of the
Southern sympathizers. The resi-
dents believed that i'll treatment by
Union troops had driven the James
boys into the Quantrell gang, and
this sympathy for them afterward
aided them many times in escaping
capture for train and bank robberies.
| From this time, it Is said, Frank
James did not appear in public for
years except in disguise.
Jesse James was at his home near
Kearney in 1857 recuperating from
wounds received in an exploit when
five men came to arrest him. Realiz-
ing that capture probably meant
death, he fred at them through q
door. Two men were killed, but IA
tally wounded and the fifth fed. Jesse
took the wounded men into his home
and gave them every care until other
men came to attempt the capture;
then he fed to Kentucky, where he
was joined by Frank.
In March, 1858, gang Of armed
men rode into the town Of Russell
Vile, KY, ordered the residents to
remain indoors, rifled a bank Of
100000 and i)len rode away: Pur-
suers followed them through Ten
nessee, but they escaped into Mis-
souri,.
Killed California Sheriff.
Frank and Jesse James were next
heard of in California, where they
were living Gin funds" Soon, how
ever, they were in trouble again. A
quarrel in a gambling den ended In
Jesse shooting one men who had
drawn a knife. The sheriff was play
ing at the same table. He pointed
revolver at the bandits breast and
ordered him to surrender. Jesse
slipped from in front Of the weapon
and the sheriff fell dead with bullet
In his heart.
There was general mix-up. Lamps
were overturned and friends fired on
friends in the confusion. Frank and
Jesse escaped during the melee, leaV-
ing behind six dead and eight ser-
ously wounded. They fed to the
mountains and spent much time with
the Indians before making their way
back to Missouri.
They then -eorganized their old
gang, and soon the bank at Gallatin,
Mo-, was robbed, the cashier, John
w. Sheets, being shot dead.
Columbia, a little village In Adair
county, KY, was the scene Of their
next operation. It was in April, 1872.
The gang entered the village in two
.,,+;o,e fropo onDocita ei6aS meeting