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Photo by Kevin Morgan
Visitors to the Jesse James farm begin their tour at the Visitor's Center, which houses a souvenir gift store, small theatre, and museum. The James farm home is located west of the Visitor's Center along a path with a small foot bridge crossing a stream in the property.
The two front rooms of the James home were mailed ordered from Sears catalog. A third room came with the kit, but was unused in the construction when it was added on to the original log cabin. The first of the two front rooms was used as a bedroom by Frank and his wife, when they lived at the farm. Their son, Robert, was the last James to live in the house. The second room of the house was a family/dining room. A table which Rev. James and Zerelda brought with them from Kentucky is here. A cupboard houses some of their clothing, along with a set of golf clubs that Robert used. At one time Robert set up a golf course on a portion of the farm. Family portraits adorn the walls.
From here visitors enter the original two-room cabin and can see the actual bed that Jesse James was born in. A door leads to a porch from this room which bears the bullet holes of a raid on the farm by Pinkerton men trying to capture the James boys. In a corner closet, a stairway leads to the attic portion of the cabin where the James children slept and, quite possibly, Frank and Jesse hid out at times.
The second room of the cabin was the kitchen. It was through the north window that Pinkerton men threw a bomb, trying to rouse Frank and Jesse from the home. The bomb rolled into the fireplace and exploded. Zerelda lost part of her arm due to the blast. Young Archie James was killed when a piece pierced his chest as he lay sleeping in a bed in the room. Frank and Jesse were not at home during this raid.
The tour continues to the north yard, where Jesse's horse is buried, although the exact location is lost. The slave cabin in back of the house is restored. The south yard features Jesse's original grave site, before removal to the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Kearney, Missouri. The walnut tree from which Dr. Samuel was hanged was lost during a storm, but another was planted in it's place as a historical marker and as a commemorative to Milton Perry, longtime researcher of the James family and curator of the James Farm.
For more about current happenings at the farm, click here. |
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