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JESSE JAMES “HERO,”SATS GRANDDAUGHTERHeard All About Him From His Brother Frank.KENOSHA, Wis.—Quiet, demure and unassuming, quite unlike her adventurous grandfather, the notorious Jesse James, whose exploits still ring in the ears of the older people of Missouri, Miss Jo Frances James, just out of her teens, has come to Kenosha to live here with her aunt, Mrs. Marie McGowan.Working as a secretary in Kenosha, she appears to be quite the opposite of her grandfather. She is proud of her ancestry; to her, her grandfather wag not a bandit, but rather a Robin Hood of America, a man who lived largely to help others, whose misdeeds have been much overestimated. And strange to say, that is now the most generally accepted conception of Jesse James, around whose life of- adventure the years have thrown an air of romance.Miss James had lived quietly In Kenosha for many weeks before it became whispered about that ehe was the granddaughter of Jesse James. Her grandfather was killed years before she was born, but she can tell stories that she heard at the fireside of Frank James, brother of Jesse.From him Bhe heard as a little girl the story of how her grandfather was shot and killed with his back turned, by a guest at his home in St. Joseph, Mo., April 4, 1882. Jesse James was then 34 years of age, and Jesse James Jr., the Kenosha girl’s father, was a boy hardly old enough to know what it was all about. Her father is now a retired lawyer in Kansas City, while Uncle Frank died at the old James homestead In Excelsior Springs, Mo., several years ago.How did she happen to come to Kenosha? Well, she hardly knows herself. She came here for a short visit and liked the city so well that she has continued to live here. She is a capable secretary and has made many friends in Kenosha. Miss James is quite reticent in discussing the life of her grandfather.“People so misunderstood him, she says. “The popular conception of Jesse James and his brother is that each was a bold, daring, bad bandit, who did nothing but rob, hold up and murder. Because people are so willing to believe that, it hurts us to talk about them. But I know differently. I know that my grandfather was one of the noblest men in the country during the period of the Civil War and the days of unrest that followed. The Quan-trell gang was not a death-dealing, 'blood-curdling lot of men; they were human and made mistakes, but they ‘appreciated the right and j wrong of things. I think of him as a man who was true to his own code of ethics and who took to booty only when driven to desperation.” |Miss James recalled how her , father, Jesse James Jr., had pro- , duced a film called Jesse James Un- i Jer the Black Flag in an effort t^ ] clear up the misconceptions held re- | gardfng the original Jesse James. |“Uncle Frank, she said, was i known to every man with a star in . Missouri as the man who ‘never i broke bis word.’ My grandfather | gave no quarter and asked none. ] He never went into a place where be couldn't come out, and it was only through treachery and a breach ; of trust that he was killed at the ' age of 34.Miss Jamen said she takes the same attitude toward her grandfather that her father took years ago when reporters besieged him to deny or admit the many things that had been said about Jesse James. , If I denied them,” he said, according to the daughter, everyone would call me a liar, and if 1 admitted them, people would call me the , greatest scoundrel unhung. (We have our own opinion of our grandfather, she added. “He was a brave, courageous, kindly man. You may think as you please.And whatever one may think of 1 Jesse James, all here who have come to know his granddaughter have learned to think of her as a charming, ambitious young woman, wati-ing for her big opportunity to prove that she at least has inherited only the kindly traits which made her grandfather, notorious as he was. beloved among those who knew him bast.
Newspaper Details
Hayti Missouri Herald
Hayti, Missouri, US
Fri, Oct 19, 1923
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Joplin P.
MO, USA 05 Aug 2024
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