Life and adventures of Frank and Jesse James, the noted western outlaws

"Oh, the dread of by-gone days!-- A fearful tale they tell, When rung the woodland echoes round To warlike shout and yell, When fiercely met the hostile bands, And deadly grew t...

"Wide is our home, boys, Freely we roam, boys, Merrily, merrily, o'er the brown lea; Brief though our life, boys, With peril rife, boys, Oh! it has wildness, and rapture, and gl...

The ranche of the James Boys furnished a temptation to the Mexican border brigands, which they were in no wise able to resist, even if they had possessed the least particle of t...

It had been some weeks since the people of the West had enjoyed a sensation growing out of the robbery of a train, or the plundering of a bank. Frank and Jesse James, and Cole,...

Immediately after the Russellville robbery, Jesse James appeared once more in his old haunts in Missouri. But his physical system had been greatly taxed by the tremendous strain...

Jesse James is not an educated man in the scholastic sense of that term. In this respect he differs widely from his brother Frank, who has a fair knowledge of the Latin and Gree...

"In Southern climes where ardent gleams the sun, Gilding each rivulet, and tree, and flower, With crimson radiance--and gaily flings On all around of light a golden shower-- Whe...

The name of George W. Shepherd, which attained prominence during the old Guerrilla times, when he was one of Quantrell's most trusted lieutenants, had passed out of the public m...

The wild, adventurous career of the boys has been wonderful. They loved the road, loved to ride at will over the land, and set at defiance the officers of the law.

The James Boys were believed to have been the projectors and leaders of the Gadshill enterprise. Soon after that event they returned to Clay county. Traces of their trail throug...

The eastern part of Jackson county, the western part of Lafayette, and down southward through Cass county, constitute the very center of the field of operation chosen by the old...

As Frank and Jesse James, the celebrated outlaws, live separate and apart from the rest of mankind, they have no confidence in men, and will not receive the confidence of others...

After Northfield, Missouri was deemed an unsuitable field for operations by the James Boys. Nor did it afford a safe place of retirement for persons who had engaged in such a de...

Hitherto the brigands, led by the Jameses and the Youngers, had only committed outrages in those countries with the physical features of which they were well acquainted. They ha...

Sometime before noon on the 7th of September, four well mounted and well armed men approached Northfield from the north. They did not at once enter the town, but remained on tha...

Russellville is a beautiful village--almost grown to a city--in a lovely region of country in Logan county, Kentucky. The people of Russellville are educated and refined. It is...

"Wherefore, in the hour of need, Shall a people house them? Wherefore did our brothers bleed, When great wrongs did rouse them? Is this the sod, So blest by God, That slaves swe...

They used to say that the James Boys and the Younger Brothers might kill men who attempted to impose upon them, but they would not rob or steal. Those who rob men of life must b...

After Whicher's melancholy fate, Allan Pinkerton had motives aside from those of gain for pursuing to the death the celebrated border bandits, Frank and Jesse James. In one year...

During the days succeeding the robbery, the marshal had learned sufficient to satisfy him that the robbers had gone into retreat in Clay county; and becoming aware of the fact t...

"Oh, say not that my heart is cold To aught that once could warm it; That Beauty's form, so dear of old, No more has power to charm it; Or that the ungenerous world can chill On...

The days of Guerrilla warfare were drawing to a close. The retreat of Price and Shelby from Missouri left the Federals free to operate against the Guerrillas. The old bands were...

During the morning of January 31, at the hour of 9:30 o'clock, the St. Louis and Texas express train, with a goodly number of passengers, and the mails and valuable express frei...

The bold act of brigandage at Gadshill aroused the whole country. The outlaws had become formidable. Missouri and Arkansas were alike interested, and the citizens of both states...

The most formidable band of robbers in this country had suffered terribly in consequence of the raid on Northfield. Charlie Pitts, Bill Chadwell and Clell Miller--the last-named...

Ste. Genevieve! To many it calls up sweet memories, and in many hearts the name is sacred and holy. The very words sound as if full of gentleness, and love, and purity. And yet,...

Of prophecy, many have a doubt. And yet there are prophecies from simple lips, and warnings from babes and sucklings, which if we could but interpret aright, might assist us to...

There can be no doubt that there was a heavy undercurrent of popular opinion in favor of the James Boys, generated by a conviction that they were the victims of cruel and uncall...

The Rev. Robert James, the father of Frank and Jesse, was a native of Kentucky. His parents were quiet, respectable people, belonging to the middle class of society. Their desir...

"The loves and hopes of youthful hours, Though buried in oblivion deep, Like hidden threads in woven flowers, Upon life's web will start from sleep. And one loved face we someti...

The James Boys were good travelers, and did not confine themselves to narrow limits. One week they might be in Clay county, Missouri, and the next in Nelson, or Logan, or Jessam...

It had been a lovely day. Nature had put on her richest habiliments of bloom and beauty. The sun shone with a genial warmth, and the air was soft and perfume-laden from the thou...

Fair time! Kansas City was gay with flags and streamers and banners. It was a holiday season. The streets were thronged and trains from Leavenworth and Sedalia, and St. Joseph a...

"Robin Hood and his merry men," of Sherwood forest fame, have left a name indelibly written on the pages of history. In the days of our youth we have heard or read about Claude...

A strange question, no doubt, many readers will think, in the light of the history of their lives. And yet it is a pertinent question, when we consider the tendency of the human...

"Where I am injured, there I'll sue redress, Look to it, every one who bars my access; I have a heart to feel the injury, A hand to right myself, and by my honor, That hand shal...

"Still Fate, regardless of a mortal's woe, May have reserved for him a cruel blow-- A blow more dreaded than the passing breath, Of the grim spectre men call gloomy death."

During the time General Jone's amnesty measure was pending in the Legislature of Missouri, Jesse and Frank James remained very quiet. They even opened up communication with Gove...

The presence of armed men wearing the blue uniform of the Federal army in the counties of Platte, Clinton and Clay, Missouri, was commingled gall and worm-wood to the souls of t...

Frank James went down to Wakefield's house, where the noted Guerrilla chieftain, Quantrell, lay wounded unto death. Had the terrible scenes of the hard, cruel Guerrilla warfare...

Allen Parmer is a Missourian. His boyhood days were passed principally in Jackson county. When the late war broke over the country, Allen Parmer was a youth, little fitted to en...

"Fancies, bright as flowers of Eden, Often to his spirit come, Winging through the mind's brief sunlight, Glad as swallows flying home. Love is the true heart's religion! Let us...

steam whistle was the signal agreed upon to call the citizens together in case the approach of the robbers was noted. They therefore turned aside from the main streets, and soug...

At last the war-cloud, which had been hovering for months over our fair land, burst with a fury that was appalling. Cheeks were blanched and hearts were made tremulous in agony....

When the war closed, Jesse James was sorely wounded. It was only by the most persistent and sureful nursing that he could expect to recover. When he was able to travel he was fu...

Jesse James, soon after the night attack before related, proceeded to Kentucky, where Frank was stopping with friends. He had not recovered from the effects of the terrible woun...

The sudden appearance among the people of a peaceful community of a band of armed men, who whoop like savages, fire off pistols, swear fearful oaths, and issue sharp commands, i...

After Gallatin, the situation of the boys became perilous, for although their denials and the affidavits which they were able to procure, served to convince their friends that t...

"Wherefore this tangle of perplexities, The trouble or the joys? the weary maze Of narrow fears and hopes, that may not cease, A chill falls on us from the skiey ways, Black wit...

Muncie is a little wayside station on the Kansas Pacific Railroad, not many miles from Kansas City, in Wyandotte county, Kansas. The situation, surroundings and small importance...

After the affair at Glendale, the marshal of Kansas City, Major James Liggett, a cool-tempered, clear-headed man, took charge of the case and directed all movements intended to...

Thus far no arrests had been made of the plunderers of the banks at Russellville, Kentucky; Gallatin, Missouri, and Columbia, Kentucky. Boldly the brigands had ridden, and skill...

"Like one who on a lonely road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round, walks on, And turns no more his head, Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close beh...

BRIDE.--How Annie Ralston carried off the honors of her class at college--A belle in society--Her admiration for Frank James--She quietly collects her effects, and leaves her ho...

DEATH.--The raid on the bank--The cashier shot--Bill Chadwell killed in the street--The citizens come to the rescue--Fusilades in the town--The bandits forced to go out in quick...

and youth of Shepherd--His adventures in Utah--Enters the Confederate service--Joins Quantrell's band--Gets into trouble with the gang at the time of Russellville--Becomes inimi...

ROBBERY.--A band of robbers in the streets--The people alarmed--Demand upon Mr. Oney--The robbers make off with the bank's funds--Capture of Jack Kean, and death of McDaniels--T...

Big Springs ventures--The persons who engaged in it--Large amount of gold coin taken--Pursuit of the robbers--Death of Collins at Buffalo, Kansas--Jim Berry trailed to Missouri-...

to avenge Whicher's death--Preparing a trap to catch Frank and Jesse at the Samuels place--Fire balls and bomb shells--A terrible scene--Death of a boy and wounding of Mrs. Samu...