T. J. Stiles

by Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War

  72. This version of Bunker’s experience comes from a statement he gave to Hanson a few weeks after the robbery (Hanson, 20–1), supplemented slightly by a narrative he wrote for George Huntington on August 24, 1894, “Recollections of the Northfield Raid,” in “Northfield Robbery.” Both he and Wilcox identified Charlie Pitts as Bunker’s assailant. Bunker, unfortunately, gave no descriptions; he simply named Bob Younger as the man who stood guard over him. For Wilcox’s quote, see Rice County Journal, September 14, 1876, and Chicago Times, September 11, 1876. For more on Bunker, see Northfield News, August 9, 1929.

  73. Northfield News, November 26, 1915. Cole Younger’s account included an elaborate description of how he wanted to call off the raid at this point; this was likely an attempt to curry favor with the prison warden, for whom he wrote his narrative. When Younger was taken to Stillwater prison a few weeks later, after fasting much of the time, he weighed 206 pounds; “Northfield Robbery.”

  74. Statement of J. S. Allen, September 8, 1876, “Northfield Robbery.”

  75. Affidavit of W. H. Riddell, July 8, 1897, “Northfield Robbery.” Riddell claimed to have been the first to raise the alarm; his account, however, was given twenty-one years later, making any such specificity suspect. The quote attributed to the robbers, however, appears in numerous contemporary accounts.

  76. Chicago Times, September 11, 1876; Minneapolis Tribune, September 8, 1876; Rice County Journal, September 14, 1876; Statement of J. E. Hobbs, September 8, 1876, “Northfield Robbery.”

  77. Chicago Times, September 11, 1876; Rice County Journal, September 14, 1876.

  78. Northfield News, November 26, 1915; Chicago Times, September 11, 1876; see also a slightly incorrect version in the Minneapolis Tribune, September 9, 1876; Affidavit of D. J. Whiting, July 12, 1897, “Northfield Robbery.”

  79. Rice County Journal, September 14, 1876; Affidavit of Ellen M. Ames, July 12, 1897, Affidavit of John Morton, July 8, 1897, Affidavit of P. S. Dougherty, July 12, 1897, A. E. Bunker, “Recollections of the Northfield Raid,” in “Northfield Robbery.” These accounts, though given twenty-one years later, support each other on all the key points. For the correct spelling of Gustavson’s name, see John T. Ames to George N. Baxter, November 14, 1876, “Northfield Robbery.”

  80. Chicago Times, September 11, 1876; Rice County Journal, September 14, 1876; Minneapolis Tribune, September 8, 1876; Faribault Democrat, September 15, 1876.

  81. Blanche Butler Ames, 403.

  82. Northfield News, August 2, 1929; Minneapolis Tribune, September 8, 1876; Chicago Times, September 11, 1876; Rice County Journal, September 14, 1876.

  83. Affidavit of D. J. Whiting, July 12, 1897, “Northfield Bank Robbery.” Though caution must be used in relying on accounts given two decades later (in this case), this is a particularly good description and fits well with contemporary reports. See also Minneapolis Tribune, September 8, 1876; Chicago Times, September 11, 1876; Rice County Journal, September 14, 1876.

  84. Blanche Butler Ames, 403; Rice County Journal, September 14, 1876.

  85. Northfield News, November 26, 1915; The Story of Cole Younger, 89–95.

  86. Rice County Journal, September 14, 1876; Chicago Times, September 11, 1876.

  87. Kansas City Times, October 15, 1872; Minneapolis Tribune, September 8, 1876; Rice County Journal, September 14, 1876; Statement of F. J. Wilcox, September 8, 1876, Affidavit of F. J. Wilcox, June 10, 1897, and A. E. Bunker, “Recollections of the Northfield Raid,” in “Northfield Robbery.” Smith, 183–92, summarizes the feverish speculation by popular writers about who shot Heywood (along with who cut him, who hit him, who shoved him around), much of it based on attempts to decipher Cole Younger’s dying words. But no special information is necessary; the obvious answer is probably right.

  88. Rice County Journal, September 14, 1876; Minneapolis Tribune, September 8, 1876. Cole Younger later claimed that Pitts mounted behind him; contemporary witnesses, however, cited in both the Rice County Journal and the Minneapolis Tribune, claimed that the “wounded man” with an injured arm rode behind someone else, making it clear that this man was Bob Younger.

  89. Rice County Journal, September 14, 1876.

  90. Blanche Butler Ames, 404–6.

  91. Ames soon left Northfield and joined Blanche in Massachusetts. He became a very successful businessman; in addition to the family flour mill, he invested in textile manufacturing and real estate. He became a prolific inventor as well, developing everything from a pencil sharpener to flour-milling machinery. He returned to the army to serve as a brigadier general in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, and retired to Florida, where he became a close friend of John D. Rockefeller. He died in 1933 at the age of ninety-seven, the last surviving Civil War general of either side. See New York Times, April 14, 1933; Stiles, Robber Barons, 429; Robert Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (New York: Random House, 1998), 611; Blanche Butler Ames, 617, 618, 620; Ames Ames, 495, 516–18.

  PART FOUR: FATE

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Resurrection

  1. Eric Foner, Reconstruction, 1863–1877: America’s Unfinished Revolution (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 575–87; for a discussion of this period in Missouri, see Lawrence O. Christensen and Gary R. Kremer, A History of Missouri, vol. 4, 1875 to 1919 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997), 9–13. Richard Zuczek writes that the 1876 electoral canvass in South Carolina “was really a military operation, complete with armies, commanders, and bloodshed”; Richard Zuczek, “The Last Campaign of the Civil War: South Carolina and the Revolution of 1876,” CWH 42, no. 1 (March 1996): 18–31. C. Vann Woodward’s classic Reunion and Reaction: The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966; orig. pub. 1951) places great stress on the role of Pennsylvania Railroad chief Thomas Scott, who lobbied to make aid for his Texas and Pacific Railroad part of the deal. But, as Richard Franklin Bensel argues in Yankee Leviathan: The Origins of Central State Authority in America, 1859–1877 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 368–78, “When northern Republicans and southern Democrats began to bargain in earnest, asking for written commitments and honor-bound promises, the subject of negotiations was not the Texas and Pacific Railroad but withdrawal of federal troops from the Louisiana and South Carolina state houses.”

  2. Nashville American, October 9 and 10, 1882; St. Louis Republican, April 22, 1882, and September 9, 1883; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 24, 1923. See also Yeatman, 197–206, who provides extensive minutiae (though he relies heavily on the questionable oral history of the Post-Dispatch article).

  3. Much has been made of the gang losing a guide when Chadwell died; however, he had not spent much of his life in southern Minnesota. A native of Monticello (north of Minneapolis), he had lived in the Dakota Territory and Texas for the previous two years; Minneapolis Tribune, September 26, 1876. No contemporary source states that Jim Younger was wounded in Northfield, though Cole Younger was firm about it in his 1897 account; Northfield News, November 26, 1915. No accounts from the scene in Northfield describe the other three men as wounded, and Younger explicitly stated a few days later that the James brothers had not been injured; Faribault Democrat, October 6, 1876.

  4. Minneapolis Tribune, September 8, 1876; Faribault Democrat, September 15, 1876.

  5. Rice County Journal, September 14, 1876; Minneapolis Tribune, September 8, 1876; John E. Risedorph Diary, John E. Risedorph Papers, MnHS; A. W. Henkle to Cousin William, September 29, 1876, “Northfield (Minnesota) Bank Robbery of 1876: Selected Manuscripts Collection and Government Records” (microfilm publication), MnHS (to be cited as “Northfield Robbery”).

  6. Minneapolis Tribune, September 9, 1876; Faribault Democrat, September 15, 1876.

  7. Faribault Democrat, September 15, 1876; Minneapolis Tribune, September 11, 1876; see a description of the robbers’ trail-masking methods in Minneapolis Tribune, September 15, 1876. Cole Younger vividly described the gang’s escape in Faribault Democrat, October 6,
1876.

  8. Minneapolis Tribune, September 13, 1876; Faribault Democrat, October 6, 1876. For a reference to Jesse James as “our captain,” see Clarence Hite’s confession in St. Louis Republican, November 12, 1883.

  9. Faribault Democrat, October 6, 1876; Minneapolis Tribune, September 11, 13, 14, and 18, 1876; see also Bob Younger’s comments, Kansas City Times, September 26, 1876. An excellent account of the pursuit, by one of the hunters, appears in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 5, 1876.

  10. Minneapolis Tribune, September 15, 1876; Faribault Democrat, September 29 and October 6, 1876; Kansas City Times, September 26, 1876; A. W. Henkle to Cousin William, September 29, 1876, “Northfield Robbery.”

  11. Minneapolis Tribune, September 15, 18, and 19, 1876; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 5, 1876; Kansas City Times, October 13, 1876; A. W. Henkle to Cousin William, September 29, 1876, “Northfield Robbery.” There has been some confusion about whether the James brothers were hit by the shotgun blast; Cole Younger, however, explicitly stated a few days later that they were not wounded prior to their departure; Faribault Democrat, October 6, 1876. The man wounded in the knee would often be identified as Frank; Dr. Mosher of Sioux City, who saw them a few days later, clearly identified the larger of the two—Jesse—as the man so injured; Minneapolis Tribune, September 22 and 26, 1876.

  12. Minneapolis Tribune, September 15, 1876; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 5, 1876. The horses’ owner was described as a Methodist minister named Rockwell, according to the Globe-Democrat, or Rockwood, according to the Minneapolis Tribune; he had brought them there to help the resident farmer (named Seymour) with his harvest.

  13. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 5, 1876; Minneapolis Tribune, September 19, 1876 (the Tribune’s valuable story seems to have been copied in the St. Louis Republican, October 22, 1876).

  14. Minneapolis Tribune, September 19, 1876; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 5, 1876.

  15. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 5, 1876; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 25, 1876.

  16. Minneapolis Tribune, September 22 and 26, 1876. Yeatman, 184, gives the doctor’s full name as Dr. Sydney P. Mosher, but he relies heavily on accounts given decades later, erring in the date of this encounter and the identity of the brother who changed clothes with Mosher. For descriptions of Jesse James as a large man, close to six feet, see the testimony of Dick Liddil and John T. Samuel in George Miller, Jr., The Trial of Frank James for Murder (St. Louis: n.p., 1898), 40, 113.

  17. James McDonough to Governor C. H. Hardin, October 19, 1876, Papers of Charles H. Hardin, MSA. McDonough thought that Frank had the wounded knee.

  18. St. Peter Tribune Extra, September 22, 1876; Kansas City Times, September 26, 1876; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 25, 1876. Yeatman, 181, notes Sorbel’s correct name (given as Suborn in the press).

  19. Entries for September 22 and 25, John E. Risedorph Diary, John E. Risedorph Papers, MnHS. See also Settle, 93–4.

  20. Joseph Have Hanson, The Northfield Tragedy: A History of the Northfield Bank Raid and Murders (St. Paul: n.p., 1876), 67–9. Clearly, the Youngers did not recognize Ames, despite accounts that the bandits identified him in Northfield (Yeatman, 172).

  21. Settle, 94; Yeatman, 191; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 25, 1876; James McDonough to Governor C. H. Hardin, September 22, 1876, Charles H. Hardin Papers, MSA; Minneapolis Tribune, September 26, 1876.

  22. Stilson Hutchins to Gov. Woodson, telegram, January 31, 1873, Thos. C. Reynolds to Silas Woodson, January 23, 1873, and Julius Hunicke to Silas Woodson, January 27, 1873, Silas Woodson Papers, MSA.

  23. McDonough sent the governor a detailed list of expenses, which shows the movements of his men during this period; James McDonough to Governor C. H. Hardin, October 25, 1876, Charles H. Hardin Papers, MSA. See also his letters of August 15 and 19, and September 12 and 22, 1876. The order creating this special force does not appear in Shoemaker.

  24. Kansas City Times, October 13, 1876; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 15–19, 1876; James McDonough to Governor C. H. Hardin, September 29, 1876, and October 19, 1876, Charles H. Hardin Papers, MSA. The man arrested was John Goodin of Louisiana.

  25. Kansas City Times, October 17, 1876.

  26. Kansas City Journal of Commerce, October 18 and 20, 1876. Van Horn was quite correct; the confession of later gang member Dick Liddil included a lengthy list of former secessionists who regularly hid the James brothers; St. Louis Republican, September 9, 1883.

  27. Kansas City Times, October 17, 1876.

  28. Ibid., October 24, 1876.

  29. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 16, 1876.

  30. Lloyd A. Hunter, “Missouri’s Confederate Leaders After the War,” MHR 67, no. 3 (April 1973): 371–96. Bensel, 405–13, details the rising Confederate representation in Washington; in the Forty-seventh Congress (1881–1883) rebel veterans held an actual majority of the Democratic House seats.

  31. Hunter, 385–97. For a discussion of the Greenbackers’ rising success in Missouri, see Christensen and Kremer, 13–14. Missouri congressman Richard P. Bland was also a forceful champion of silver, having helped push through the Bland-Allison Silver Act of 1878, which required the federal government to purchase and coin at least $2 million in silver each month.

  32. Dick Liddil later described Jesse’s custom of remaining in the woods, even when hosted by relatives and sympathizers; St. Louis Republican, September 9, 1883.

  33. Liberty Advance, November 30, 1876; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 26, 1876. The St. Louis newspaper identified the man encountered by the posse as Frank James, though his identity could hardly have been clear on this dark, rainy night, in the midst of a gunfight. A controversy ensued when the county refused to pay members of the posse; see Settle, 100–1.

  34. Richmond Conservator, November 24, 1876.

  35. Nashville American, October 9 and 12, 1882; Yeatman, 207–9, 216; Miller, 19–20. In court in 1883, Frank contradicted himself on his arrival date (Miller, 123, 134); his comments to the press seem far more accurate.

  36. Nashville American, October 9, 1882; Miller, 96–7, 238; Yeatman, 203. Many people testified to Frank James’s love of Shakespeare over the years; see, for example, Miller, 61, 78, 88.

  37. Recent research has revealed how traumatic experience can permanently change brain chemistry; see, for example, Debra Niehoff, The Biology of Violence: How Understanding the Brain, Behavior, and Environment Can Break the Vicious Circle of Aggression (New York: Free Press, 1999), 115–49, especially 121.

  38. Nashville American, October 9, 1882; St. Louis Republican, April 21, 1882; Miller, 35; Robert M. Utley, Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989), 124, 247–8; Yeatman, 209–11. The coincidental meeting of these two utter strangers, in a place Jesse had never frequented, at a time when he zealously guarded his identity, is patently absurd.

  39. Liddil’s full confession, given in 1882, appears in the St. Louis Republican, September 9, 1883; an edited version appears in Miller, 283–305. It is thorough and remarkably accurate. See also the Kansas City Times, October 9 and November 5, 1879; Kansas City Journal, October 10, 1879; Settle, 113; Yeatman, 211–12. Richard S. Brownlee, Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West, 1861–1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1958), 258, lists Morrow as a follower of Quantrill. One of the Hulse clan was killed by the state militia in July 1866; see p. 179.

  40. Grimes may have relented and let them in; Kansas City Times, October 9, 1876; Kansas City Journal, October 10 and 11; Expressman’s Monthly, October 1879, 282–6; Settle, 114; see also Dick Liddil’s detailed confession, St. Louis Republican, September 9, 1883.

  41. Kansas City Times, October 9, 1876; Kansas City Journal, October 10 and 11; Expressman’s Monthly, October 1879, 282–6; Liberty Tribune, October 17, 1879. An even division of the loot gave each man $1,025, Liddil reported; St. Louis Republican, September 9, 1883.

  42. Esther Rogoff Taus
, Central Banking Functions of the United States Treasury, 1789–1941 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943), 63–4, 79, 85–6, 102, 112; Milton Friedman and Anna Jacobson Schwartz, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), 3–14, 113–22. Industry periodicals often discussed the express companies’ role as financial intermediaries; see, for example, Expressman’s Monthly, February and October 1879.

  43. Christensen and Kremer, 44–5; Campbell Gibson, “Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990,” Population Division Working Paper no. 27, June 1998, Population Division, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C.; see also Charles N. Glaab, Kansas City and the Railroads: Community Policy in the Growth of a Regional Metropolis (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1962).

  44. Kansas City Journal, October 10, 1879.

  45. Kansas City Times, November 5, 1879; Howard L. Conard, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri (St. Louis: Southern History Company, 1901), 2: 355; Settle, 101–3.

  46. Kansas City Times, November 4–6, 1879; Liberty Tribune, November 7, 1879.

  47. Richmond Democrat, November 20, 1879.

  48. Nashville American, October 9, 1882.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN: Assassins

  1. Ryan stopped at the Hite farm in Kentucky, rather than continue on to Nashville with Jesse; Kansas City Journal, April 4 and 5, 1882; St. Louis Republican, April 22, 1882, and September 9, 1883; Nashville American, October 6, 9, and 12, 1882; see also Yeatman, 217–18, though he relies too heavily on Jim Cummins’s highly questionable memoirs and reminiscences given decades later.