Frank James
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Alexander Franklin James (January 10, 1843 - February 18, 1915) was an American outlaw and older brother of Jesse James.
He was born in Kearney, Clay County, Missouri to Baptist minister Reverend Robert Sallee James (July 7, 1818 - August 18, 1850) and his wife Zerelda Cole (January 29, 1825 - February 10, 1911), who had moved there from Kentucky. Frank was the first of four children. His younger siblings were:
* Robert James - (July 19, 1845 - August 21, 1845).
* Jesse Woodson James - (September 5, 1847 - April 3, 1882).
* Susan Lavenia James - (November 25, 1849 - March 3, 1889).
Robert James was a noted revivalist. Probate records show that he eventually owned six slaves, and was a commercial hemp farmer. In April 1850, the Reverend James left his family behind, put his farm in the care of a neighbor, Garland Gentry, and departed for California with the intent of preaching to the crowds of goldminers who had recently gathered there, during the California gold rush. But shortly after arriving in California, in August 1850, he contracted a fever. It has been suggested that as a result of drinking contaminated water he fell prey to cholera. Tradition has it that the Reverend James died on August 18, 1850, in the Hangtown Gold Camp, later known as Placerville. He was buried there in an unmarked grave.
Reverend James's death left his family saddled with debts, and many of his possessions, including one of the slaves, were auctioned off to pay them. His widow Zerelda married Benjamin Simms, a wealthy farmer, on September 30, 1852. The marriage proved to be an unhappy one, largely because of Simms's dislike of her two boys. Zerelda left Simms, but a divorce proved unnecessary when he died on January 2, 1854.
On September 25, 1855, Zerelda married for the third and last time. Her new husband was a passive doctor named Reuben Samuel (b. January 12, 1828). He proved to be a much better choice than her previous one and the marriage lasted. He moved onto the farm, raised tobacco, and acquired a total of seven slaves by 1860. The couple had four more children:
* Sarah Louisa Samuel - (December 26, 1858 - September 15, 1915).
* John Thomas Samuel - (December 25, 1861 - March 15, 1935).
* Fanny Quantrell Samuel - (October 18, 1863 - May 30, 1932).
* Archie Peyton Samuel - (July 26, 1866 - January 26, 1875).
Another member of the household, in later years, was Perry Samuel, a mixed-race child (1868? - March 1, 1936), widely believed to have been the illegitimate son of Dr. Reuben by a former slave. Zerelda would later state that she adopted Perry, though the 1880 census listed the child as a servant.
As a child, Frank developed an interest in his late father's sizeable library, particularly in the works of his favorite author William Shakespeare. Census records show that Frank attended school throughout his childhood, and he reportedly wanted to become a teacher.
In 1861, when Frank turned eighteen years old, his life was permanently altered by the outbreak of the American Civil War. Missouri, where Frank and his family still lived, was also set in a state of war. Though a majority of Missourians had voted against a secession from the Union, there was also a significant number of people with Confederate sympathies (including the outspoken Zerelda Samuel). This led to the formation of two separate governments with different allegiances during the war. Missourians would serve in the armies of both sides of the war until 1865. In Frank's case he joined the Missouri State Guard on May 4, 1861, fighting for the Confederacy.
The Missouri State Guard's first major battle was the Battle of Wilson's Creek, on August 10, 1861. Under the orders of Major General Sterling Price and along with the brigade of Brigadier General Ben McCulloch (in all about 12000 men), they fought against the Army of the West under Union Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon, in all about 5,400 men. Lyon was killed and his army, now under Major General Samuel D.Sturgis, had to retreat to Springfield, Missouri. The battle cost the Confederates 1,095 men and the Union only 1,235 men, estimated numbers, but it allowed the victorious Confederate forces to advance further north.
Sterling Price's State Guard, including Frank, marched north until September 13, 1861, when they reached Lexington, Missouri, where about 3,500 men of the Union army, under the orders of Colonel James A. Mulligan, were garrisoned. Skirmishes between the two forces lasted between September 13 and September 20, 1861. On September 20, Price's men finally attacked and by the early afternoon Mulligan and his men had surrendered and gave up their weapons. The Confederates had only lost about 100 men while the Union forces' losses were estimated at 1,774 men. The Battle of Lexington was the second major victory of the State Guard and Confederates took control of Southwestern Missouri by October.
Frank, however, fell ill and was left behind by the retreating Confederate forces. He surrendered to Union forces and returned home. There he was arrested by a local Unionist militia. He was released when he signed a statement of allegiance to the Union. But a bitter guerrilla conflict was being waged across the state between bands of Confederate insurgents (commonly known as bushwhackers) and Federal forces. By early 1863, Frank had joined a guerrilla band led by a former saddler named Fernando Scott. Before long he joined the infamous William Clark Quantrill, attacking both the Union forces and civilian Union supporters in western Missouri.
The warfare was savage, with atrocities committed by both sides. Militiamen searching for Frank and Fernando Scott's band, for example, raided the Samuel farm, and briefly hung Dr. Reuben Samuel, torturing him to reveal the location of the guerrillas. Shortly afterward, Frank joined Quantrill's band in the savage raid on Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863. The town, which was home to a number of prominent Union supporters, was attacked by 400 of Quantrill's men, killing at least 200 men and boys, and burning most of the buildings.
For the career of the James brothers after the Civil War, see Jesse W. James. Five months after the murder of his brother in 1882, Frank boarded a train to Jefferson City, Missouri, where he had an appointment with in the state capitol. Placing his holster in Governor Crittenden's hands, he explained, "I have been hunted for twenty-one years, have literally lived in the saddle, have never known a day of perfect peace. It was one long, anxious, inexorable, eternal vigil." Frank was tried for one of the many crimes he stood accused of, and was found innocent.
The last thirty years of Frank James's life saw him work in a variety of jobs including as a shoe salesman and then as a theater guard in St. Louis. In 1902, former Missourian Sam Hildreth, a leading thoroughbred horse trainer and owner, hired James as his betting commissioner at the Fair Grounds Race Track [1] in New Orleans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_James
