Adventures of
Jesse James
["Ottawa Weekly Republican," 15 April 1882, page 1]
The career of the noted Jesse James gang of bandits is chiefly remarkable for the immunity of the members.
The band was originally formed in 1860 by Chas. W. Quantrell, and has included as high as fifty men at one time, although that was during the war when they had frequent battles with the red legs.
After the war Jesse was wounded through the lungs in a quarrel, and was nursed through his illness by Dr. Lankford, of Kansas City.
The first exploit after the war was the robbery of the Liberty bank on Feb 14, 1866.
The job was done by Andie Maguire, Archie Clemens, Dick Burns, Payne Jones, and the two James boys. Maguire used his part of the swag in dressing himself up in broad cloth, and ran away with the daughter of old man Deering, from near Independence. They went to St. Louis, and were captured at the old Seventh street depot and taken back to Liberty jail, from which Maguire was removed and hung, with several other prisoners suspected of complicity in the robbery, but a mob. During the spring of 1867 two of the old Quantrell gang were arrested in the vicinity of Cracker Neck for horse stealing, and locked in the jail at Independence. Between 10 and 11 o'clock in the night of June 14, 1867, a band of horsemen galloped into town discharging firearms, and yelling and whooping. They rode to the jail and demanded the release of the two horse thieves. Several shots were fired into the residence of the jailer Buglor, who was instantly killed. His son, a lad 4 years of age, was seriously wounded, but recovered, and today is on trail at Independence on a charge of complicity in the second Glendale train robbery. The next job was the Lexington bank robbery, which occurred on Oct. 30, 1866; then the Savannah bank on March 2, 1867; Richmond bank, May 33, 1867; Russellville (Ky.) Bank, March 29, 1868. George Shepherd was caught and served a term in the Kentucky penitentiary. Next the Independence bank, April 1868. The Gallatin (Mo.) Bank was next robbed, Dec. 7, 1869, in which Maj. Sheets, the cashier of the bank and a young boy on the street were killed after the robbery.
After dividing the swag Dick Burns and a pal went to old man Deering's farm, just south of Independence, where they obtained a meal, and then went out to a hay stack to sleep, where Burns was found the next day with his head split open with an axe, and robbed.
Just prior to this robbery Payne Jones, one of the gang was shot and killed one night in Independence while in the act of stealing a very valuable horse from Jim Crow Chiles and Jones' friends suspected Burns of giving chiles information as to the time of the stealing, placing Chiles on his guard, and it is supposed that Jones' friends had something to do with Burns' murder.
The Corydon, Iowa, bank robbery followed June 3d, 1871; the Columbia, Kentucky, bank April 29, 1872, and the Kansas City fair grounds robbery September 26, 1872. This robbery was committed during the fair by four men at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when there were 15,000 or 20,000 visitors on the grounds. St. Genevieve bank, Mo 27, 1873, was next robbed; Then followed the first train robbery which occurred in Iowa, June 21, 1873. Then commenced the stage robberies. Hot Springs stage was robbed January 15, 1874; The Lexington stage was robbed on a sand bar in front of town prior to this.
The Iron Mountain train robbery at Gad's Hill occurred Jan. 31, 1874; Austin, Texas, stage robbery April 7, 1874: Muncie Kansas, train robbery occurred the same year. A few days after this robbery Bud McDaniels was charging around Kansas City on horseback, drunk and disorderly. He was finally landed in the calaboose, and upon being searched he was found loaded down with gold coin. He was claimed by the Kansas authorities, and while being transferred to Muncie tried to escape and was killed.
Then followed the Huntington, West Virginia bank robbery September 8th, 1875, in which Thompson McDaniels, a brother to Bud McDaniels, a brother to Bud McDaniels, was killed and Jack Kean was captured.
On the 1st of April, 1876, a suspicious gang hovered around the bank at McKinney, Texas. The owners provided for emergencies, and on finding the bank looked to much like an arsenal, the gang departed on the 8th taking the horses of the Fort Worth Stage Company which they left at Henrietta.
April 13, 1876, Baxter Springs, Kansas, bank was robbed, and on July 7, 1876, the Missouri Pacific train was robbered at Otterville.
Then occurred the attempted robbery of the Northfield, Minn. Bank, September 7th, 1876, in which they killed Cashier Heywood and Clel. Miller and Bill Chadwell were killed by citizens, and most of the gang, including the three Younger brothers, were subsequently captured, and Charlie Wells was killed.
The Chicago & Alton train robbery occurred Oct. 8, 1879, at Glendale, and the Rock Island robbery, at Winston, July 17, '81, when Conductor Westfall was killed and a passenger wounded.
The last robbery occurred on the C & A at Glendale, Sept. 7, 1881.
The Winston and two Glendale robberies were the work of Jesse James, Ed Miller and Dick Little, assisted by Ryan and Clarke and the usual complement of young men.