The James Boys In Kentucky

© Sandi Gorin

Part 9

Mysterious James Kin Buried Near Railton

MYSTERIOUS JAMES KIN BURIED NEAR RAILTON: There is a grave in the Pleasant Grove Churchyard of a man who confided to a trusted friend that he was a close relatiave of the famous JAMES brothers, and that Bill BERRY, the name he called himself, was not his real name. He came with his wife from Tennessee and bought property from J H JONES on the Coles Bend Road near the fork at Finney. [Barren Co.] He opened a store and was a respected business man, a member of the Masonic Lodge and a useful citizen. The name "Berry's Store" was given the community and is so marked on the county map.

This store was as mysterious as its owner. Lester Thomas [local researcher] says it was reputed to be geared up as a huge booby trap and guns of all kinds were hidden in every nook and cranny. BERRY always had one close at hand where ever he was. If anyone touched a closed door or window in his store, a cowbell or something similar would sound a franzied alarm.

It was said that certain horse deals with which he had been connected in Tennessee had generated such dangerous public complaints that he decided to move on before "the law" focused his attention on him, too close for comfort. A man who would occasionally visit him from Tennessee, he introduced as a relative, "Mr. JAMES." Actually, the famous JAMES family was in Kentucky long before the bandits went to Missouri and most of their connected families, the MINNS, POORS, WOODSONS, and LINDSEYS remained in Tennessee and Kentucky, law-abiding and respecting families.

BERRY died at an advanced age, too senile to hear his cowbells and customers sneaked out many of his guns, after his eyes were too dim to catch them. The Masons buried him and sent his wife to the Masonic Home in Louisville, where she died a short time afterward. The weather turned too severe to bring her remains to the side of her husband.