The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1915-02-25

But to my surprise a few weeks
| later he walked into the office OF the
governor, turned over his pistols and
as he termed it gave himself up.
Finis Farr, the governors secretary,
| was sent with Frank to 1ndepen-
| dence, where he was turned over to
me. l turned him over to Con
| Murphy, then county marshal, and
he was locked up in the lndepen-
dence Jail. He remained there about
three weeks, when he was taken to
Gallatin in Daviess county, and plac-
| ed in Jail charged with the murder
of the stonemason, Mcmillan. Con-
ductor Westfall was also killed dur
| ing the Winston, Mo-, robbery, but it
was always conceded that Jesse
James killed him.
Frank was in Jail at Gallatin
about a year before he was tried. |
assisted in the prosecution. 1t was a
hard fought trial of several weeks,
but after his surrender there was
great deal of sympathy for him and
he was acquitted.
Frank James never was convict
ed of any of the crimes charged
against him and never spent an hour
in states prison. Two of the James
gang did, however, and through that,
perhaps, the impression got out. Bill
Ryan was convicted by me at indie
pendence in 1881 of completely in the
Glendale robbery, after one of the
most spectacular trials ever held in
this county, and sentenced to twenty
five years in prison. After seven
years he was pardoned because it
l. l., RI hnV
Clarence Hite, Frank James cousin,
who was brought back from Ken
lucky, plead guilty at Gallatln, MO-,
to completely in the Winston, Mo-,
train robbery and was given twenty
five years. A few years later he was
pardoned and soon died OF tubercu-
losis.''
Alexander Franklin James was the
christened name OF Frank James,
who was born in Clay county, Mis-
souri,, on January 10, 1S43. His
brother, Jesse Woodson James, was
born on September 5, 1S47. Both of
these dates were written in the fam
lily Bible by their father, Dr.. Robert
James, a pioneer Baptist minister of
Clay county.
Both boys were reared on the farm
near Kearney by their mother, their
father having died soon after joining
the rush of "forty-niners' to Califor-
MIA after gold What education they
possessed was obtained in the public
schools in the neighborhood.
Terror as Bushwhacker.
His service in the confederate
army, which caused his neighbors to
protect him through the years of his
outlaw career in the belief he was be-
ing prosecuted by vindictive north
erners, was begun by Frank James
in 1861.
He was present at the capture of
Lexington and marched with Prices
army into southwest Missouri.
Measles put him on the sick list and
while in the hospital in 1852 he was
captured and paroled.
Twice arrested for violation OF
his parole, James took to the
brush and became terror to the
community as bushWhacker.
Near the close of the war he turn
ed up at Centralia as member OF
desperate gang under the leadership
of CHIP Anderson, all OF whom mad
served under Quantrell.
They had not been in Centralla
very long until there arrived large
number of Iowa and Illinois soldiers,
who had just been mustered out. An
derson learned that the soldiers had
several months back pay and were
,unarmed.
Few on Train Saved Lives.
When the train arrived Anderson
and his fellows proceeded to kill
almost everyone on board, only a few
escaping, and to rob the bodies and
the safe of the express car.
An Iowa regiment that happened
to be in the neighborhood hanged
Anderson and several others of his
command, but the James boys escap- |
ed.