History

Who is Jesse James and why should we care?

BY ERIK ANDERSON

Special to The News-Post

Who is Jesse James, and why should we care? I’ve found myself regularly returning to some version of that question since I was a little kid.

I grew up in Frederick, but my dad’s job took our family on many extended road trips out West, and we drove through dozens of small towns that seemed desperate to stake any small claim they could in the infamous outlaw’s biography. Throughout the Midwest, especially in Missouri, we encountered Jesse James historical markers, souvenir shops and museums.

Even as a child, I recognized many claims on James’ history as mostly just gimmicks to profit from curious passing tourists, but the big question is why are those gimmicks so effective? Why does a man who, together with his brother, murdered his way through about two dozen bank and train robberies 150 years ago still command our intrigue?

The answer likely lies in the triple confluence of the man, the time and the place, with the place being the most important factor. I think we tend to assume the legends of “Wild West” outlaws gained their current popular forms as a result of their Hollywood film treatment starting in the 1930s. We think that the telling and retelling of history turned real men into mythology, that the hazy lens of time generates the romance that makes the old West “wild” in our imaginations.

But in truth, the term “Wild West” was coined at least 20 years before James was born on Sept. 5, 1847 in Kearney, Missouri. The mythologies that grew up around him and other outlaws were well underway during their own lifetimes. A modern reader has access to a clearer view of James today than did his contemporary fans following him in the newspapers.

The adjective “wild” was less about the American West itself and more about its relationship to the more “civilized” parts of the world, such as New York and London. The educated elite of the Victorian period looked to the supposedly lawless Western territories to validate a belief that they lived at the pinnacle of well-ordered human civilization. Exaggerated tales of cowboys and train robbers provided fantasy escapism from the tight social strictures of that same civilization they were so proud of.

James, a former Confederate guerrilla fighter who refused to fall into normal civilian life after the war, became a hero to Confederate sympathizers. They saw his streak of robberies and murders from Minnesota to Mississippi as a strike against an imposed Union government, though most of his gang’s many victims were unconnected to government authorities. His legend took on an almost supernatural quality because he survived several near-fatal wounds and was never captured or killed by law enforcement during his 17 years as a wanted criminal with a high price on his head, though that price did eventually catch up to him.

His unlikely death on April 3, 1882, by the hand of one of his own accomplices looking to collect a reward elevated the legend of Jesse James to stratospheric heights. Because he had survived so many gunfights, it was hard for the public to believe he allowed himself to be shot in the back while cleaning a dusty picture on a mantel in his safe house.

For many who accepted the story of his demise, the betrayal James suffered made him a sympathetic figure like the medieval Robin Hood. Popular dime novels portrayed him as robbing from the rich to give to the poor. But in real life, many of his targets were not wealthy, and there is no historical evidence of him sharing his plunder with anyone outside of his gangs.

But it’s probably an even more outlandish aspect of the James legend that has made it impossible for him to disappear from the public consciousness. It didn’t take long for rampant speculation about James’ supposed survival to spread throughout the country. Sightings of him were reported for decades, culminating with a man named J. Frank Dalton who claimed to be the infamous James at the age of 101 in 1948.

Library of Congress

Jesse James

Jesse James Day

When: 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. July 9, Aug. 8, Sep. 10 and Oct. 15. Rides last 70 minutes and are held rain or shine. Where: Walkersville Southern Railroad, 34 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Walkersville Tickets: $15, free for children 2 and under Info: 301-898-0899, wsrr.org

(See HISTORY 18)

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