The James Boys In Kentucky
© Sandi Gorin
Bob Ford - James Assassin
FRANK JAMES REBURIED BUDDIES: The following article concerning one of the events in the exciting lives of Frank and Jesse James is taken from an old issue of The Dispath, St. Paul, Minn. The reference to Col. Jack CHINN, Harrodsburg, recalls that a number of years ago Frank JAMES came to look after the graves of four members of the JAMES gang who were buried in Oakland Methodist Church Cemetery, about two miles west of Harrodsburg. While on this trip Frank JAMES was the guest for several days of the late COl. Jack CHINN who invited a number of men to his home to meet the ex-bandit, a quiet, pleasant mannered man who made a favorable impressin. The JAMES boys and their associates wee known to be sober men, but in some way they had picked up one or two men who were not so abstaining. On thei way to Washington County, it was claimed that the JAMES boys and their men stopped at Stanford and one got on a spree, which led the officers getting wise as to their identity, and they were followed when they rode out of Stanford. Near Oakland Church in that area, there was a clash between the gangsters and the officers and four of the JAMES group were killed. People in the neighborhood buried them in the Oakland Cemetry. Frank JAMES, loyal to his men, made the trip to Harrodsburg for the purpose of looking after their graves, and their remains were takenup and reburied in the Confederate lot in Spring Hill Cemetery.
AND JESSE JAMES PASSED THROUGH. An event of widespread interest at that time, which still echoes down to the present, was reported in the Glasgow Times. The page told the story of the historic visit of the bandit Jesse JAMES and his gang to this section. The Times says, "Flem PAGE, returning from the West, tells of meeting Bob FORD, a former member of the notorious JAMES gang and assassin of Jesse JAMES. Flem says he first met FORD at Las Vegas, New Mexico [sic], while he was loafing in a barroom. FORD didn't have a cent in his pocket, and doesn't even draw a pension from the state of Missouri, a pointed example of that Commonwealth's ingratitude for his having gotten rid of the state's widely known and dead bandit.
Mr. PAGE goes on to tell, "The sole occupation of Bob FORD there seemed to be the consumption of liquor. I later met him in Santa Fe where he had fallen from his high estate of 'gentleman of the road' to the common occupation of "hashslinger" in a hotel, regarded in the West as the lowest occupation to which a he-man could stoop. With him were Bob LITTRELL and another former member of the JAMES gang, both just hang-oners at the hotel saloon. I talked often with FORD about his adventures and the assasination of JAMES, which FORD frankliy lamented as the "dirtiest and most cowardly trick he ever performed" while he was an outlaw.
FORD told how they robbed the bank at Columbia in the spring of 1872 and also how they had planned to rob the Deposit Bank of Glasgow, but were fooled by a circumstance. Frank JAMES, brother of Jesse, was at that time living in Nashville, under an assumed name, he conducted a livery stable. He planned the raid. His brother, Jesse, led seven men through Glasgow to Columbia. While passing through Glasgow, they made plans to return and rob the bank here after the Columbia job, before a warning had time to beat them here. Members approached the Columbia in divisions, and met at an agreed spot, riding straight in to the bank at three o'clock in the afternoon. Three dismounted .... killing Mr. MARTIN, cashier of the bank, a cowardly thing. Judge James GARNETT, of Columbia, was one of the men FORD recalled as having been at the bank during the hold-up. He saved his life by knocking up the pistol of one of the bandits as they dashed out of the bank, firing as they went. FORD went on to say that as they returned straight to Glasogw, but met a party of hunters on horse back as they approached town. Thinking that somehow word had reached here of the Columbia affair and the men were a possee out looking for them, they quietly disbanded and fled in separate directions, meeting many miles from Glasgow and they did not return." The joke was on the JAMES gang, for the men on horseback were only returning from a harmless game hunt, and didn't have their guns loaded."