The James Boys In Kentucky
© Sandi Gorin
The 1868 Russellville, KY, Bank Robbery - Cont.
The bank robbed was the Nimrod Long Banking Co., which was located in the two-story brick building built for the Southern Bank of Kentucky in 1850. When this banking institution closed in 1863 it was followed by the Long Bank. The building was located at Sixth and Main Streets just in front of the Baptist Church.
The story of the actual robbery is well told by Dr. David MORTON, who was living in Russellville at the time and who was then president of Logan College:
"In the spring of 1868 three men stepped into the bank at Russellville and proposed to sell a bond which they exhibited. Mr. LONG examined it and finding some irregularities in its issue, declined to buy. Then they produced a large banknote and asked that it be changed, but the note was believed to be spurious and the change was not given. The men then told Mr. LONG that they were cattle buyers and would be some days in the county, and left the bank. In a day or two they called again, and after this, again, each time making some pretext for their visit, but never transacting any business.
"On the 20th day of March, about two o'clock, when both the clerk and the cashier were gone to dinner, three men again entered the bank, leaving a fourth at the door and another on horseback in the street. Approaching the counter rapidly, they again demanded the change for their spurious note and were again refused by Mr. LONG, who was the only officer in the bank. Upon his refusal, they drew pistols, two of them leaped over the counter, and Mr. LONG ran into the bank room, only to be met by the other man, who had just entered that room from a side door. This man shot him, leaving him for dead, joined his companions in the front room and robbed the bank of about nine thousand dollars with which they and their companions on the outside made good their escape. Mr. LONG was only stunned by the shot, so that he was quickly on his feet and gave the alarm on the street, but not in time to secure the captue of the bold freebooters. Jesse JAMES, leader of this gang, was the son of Robert James, the young preacher who was educated by LONG and MORTON. [The Mortons. David Morton, p. 26-27.]
POSSEE FOLLOWED THEM. Another source says that in addition to the $9,000 in currency about $5,000 was taken in coin, consisting of dollars, halves and quarters. A possee of about forty men followed the band a short distance out the Gallatin Road. Some reports indicate that the robbers turned into a wooded and hilly country between the Gallatin Road and the Bowling Green Road and there spent the night. A day or two later they were reported to have crossed the L&N railroad at Mitchellville, Tennessee. From here they have have gone back to Nelson County or have turned west for California or Missouri.
Accounts differ as to the identity of the five men who were in the robbery. J W BUWELL wrote much upon the subject and described conversations with some of those involved or their families in his Border Bandit series, in the volume, The James Brothers, he reports the bandits as Jesse James, Cole YOUNGER, George and Oliver SHEPHERD and Jim WHITE. Again in the same series in his volume The Younger Brothers, he says, "The Russellville band consisted of Cole and Jim YOUNGER, Jesse and Frank JAMES, and George and Oll SHEPHERD. (p. 40). Taking all the circumstances into consideration, it might well seem that the band consisted of Frank James, Cole and Jim Younger, George and Oliver Shepherd and that the sixth man was Jesse James, who was hiding nearby but did not appear on the actual scene. There has long been a story current in Logan County that Jesse James was suffering from an old wound and was waiting near Adairville. This could have been true or he may even have stayed in Nelson County during the actual raid. The Louisville and Nashville papers reported the robbery but did not immediately identify the participants. Neither the James nor the Younger brothers had attained the notoriety which was theirs later."