Jesse and Frank James Were Trained in Their Home to be Rebels, Robbers, and Rascals!
There is no doubt to anyone with a cursory knowledge of history that life on the Kansas-Missouri border in pre-Civil War days was unlike any other time and place. Neither the North nor the South can boast of any high-level commitment to acceptable peacetime or wartime behavior. It was a tiring, troubling, and terrifying time, especially at this border area.
And it got worse, much worse.
Abundant evidence proves the James and Younger boys were horribly mistreated by many government officials, but mistreatment does not justify thievery and murder.
As the war was winding down, radical Unionists rammed through the Missouri legislature a new constitution that prohibited former Confederates and sympathizers from voting, serving on juries, holding public office, preaching the gospel, etc. That was throwing gasoline on a house fire. Such action was why Time-Life Books declared, “Jesse James (partly) turned to crime as a means of exacting revenge on all things Yankee.”
I found plenty of candidates in assessing blame for the banditry, butchering, and bushwhacking by the James boys. For sure, corrupt government officials, crooked local politicians, and evil relatives were vicious and illegal. Still, Frank and Jesse James became killers because they were raised that way in their “Christian” home!
The James family cannot be faulted for their genes or place in society since Jesse’s ancestors were blue bloods, having arrived early in the Jamestown Colony. Later they fought in the War for Independence, and some were in high political positions. Jesse’s father was a highly respected educator and pastor and provided the family with a good living from the farm and preaching engagements.
In The Rise and Fall of Jesse James, Robertus Love wrote that both the James boys were “schooled deeply in the old-fashioned religion,” and the family attended church regularly. Not remarkable since Dad was the pastor. Moreover, it cannot be argued that Pastor James was a “modernist” or doubter of the validity of Scripture. Furthermore, every indication is he was a good example for his family.
Pastor James loved people and wanted their betterment, as indicated in his being a founder of the William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, and planter of various area churches. Some would add that he left the comforts of home to reach people in a westward wagon train and the California goldfields; a decision that cost him his life. I question his motives (which is always dangerous) for going to California.
Pastor James probably went to the gold fields to get away from an overpowering, oppressive, and obnoxious wife— Zerelda, known as Zee! Yes, even Baptists can have such problems, and leaving for the gold fields is never a wise move. Zee, who stood six feet tall, was known as a hard-working, strong-willed farm woman.