The James Boys In Kentucky

© Sandi Gorin

Part 13

Local Tid-Bits

THEY LOVE TO TELL THE STORY: More than a hundred years have passed since the JAMES boys had their last hurrah in Kentucky. There is hardly a family that has lived in Barren County that long that doesn't have a remembered legend of the James brothers in connection with their adventures in Barren Co. To this day, it's hard to find any who harbors a harsh judgment of them. Their names are perhaps better known that any president, surpassed only by the name of Daniel BOONE.

Charles R WININGER has scores of legends handed down in his family and in neighboring families who lived close to one of the two school sites where it seems definite that Frank JAMES taught. [Note - Mr. Wininger lives in that area and is a storehouse of knowledge, Sandi]. It is logical that Frank JAMES was well educated and entitled to his reputation as the best teacher in Barren County. His loyal state of Missouri acknowledged his exceptional ability when they elected him State Auditor, after he was acquitted of every charge against him. Wininger keeps alive the family legend that Frank JAMES lived in the nearby DARTER home, when he taught at Sinking Springs.

THE JAMES BOYS SLEPT HERE. Site of this school can be easily seen from Highway 68. It was behind the first brick house on the right, when going west out of Glasgow, after crossing the railroad tracks. [L&N]. WININGER sstates that Hiram LEWIS who has a store at Hays, had often talked with him about the night Mike LEWIS, his father, slept with Frank JAMES at the DARTER home. He said that JAMES was a delightful bedroom host. He pulled down the shades, and then brought out his guns and showed them. He also showed three bullet scars on his hip.

WININGER also said his father often met the school teacher walking in the woods. They enjoyed conversing on many subjects. The teacher once said, "What do you think of those JAMES boys?" When WININGER answered, "I don't blame them too much. I think they were provoked into their outlaw role." The teacher grabbed his hand, shook it and exclaimed, "You have more good sense than anyone I have talked to in Barren County." When a strange man on a fine looking hrose would ride up to the school, the teacher would send the children home for the day.

Ellis JONES, widely known historian of Cave City [deceased, sg], tells that a bundle of letters addressed to "Frank HOWARD" were found in a house where Frank JAMES last roomed, when a wall in the house was torn out. It was thought they were to him, but seems more likely he was keeping them for his brother, Jesse, who kept in touch with his gang by mail, under that name. Then, there was the widely sung ballad about FORD who was called the "dirty little coward who shot Frank HOWARD."