Aug. 10, 1821
Missouri is admitted to the Union as a slave state. The first capital is St. Louis, then St. Charles and in 1826 it is moved to Jefferson City.
Aug.12, 1849
Rev. Robert James organizes the Pisgah Baptist Church in Excelsior Springs. Since moving to Clay County from Kentucky in 1842, he has reorganized New Hope Baptist Church, ridden the Baptist circuit, earned both undergraduate and masters degrees from Georgetown College in Kentucky, helped found the North Liberty Baptist Assn., and served as a trustee of William Jewell College in Liberty.
Aug. 18, 1850
Rev. Robert Sallee James, 32, of Clay County, Mo., dies of a disease thought to be cholera, just a month after arriving at Hangtown, Cal. He left his wife and three children in April to accompany members of his church to the gold fields. His gravesite has never been found.
Aug. 10, 1861
The Battle of Wilson’s Creek begins when Union Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon attacks a Confederate encampment about 10 miles southwest of Springfield, Mo. Lyon’s men are greatly outnumbered by the combined forces of Gen. Sterling Price and his State Guard volunteers and Brig. Gen. Ben McCulloch’s Arkansas troops. Lyon is killed, the first Union general to die in the Civil War. Unionists thought of him as the savior of Missouri for his efforts in preventing the state from seceding. Price, as the victor, will become famous. Future notables participating in this bloody battle include Confederates Frank James and William Clarke Quantrill, and Union scout William Butler (Wild Bill) Hickock.
Aug. 30, 1861
Union Maj. Gen. John C. Fremont, who commands the Department of the West, places Missouri under martial law. The decree includes a provision to free slaves owned by Union loyalists. However, this break-through idea is revoked by President Abraham Lincoln in hopes of maintaining the loyalty of other border slave states.
Early August, 1863
Mary and Josephine Anderson, sisters of Bill and Jim, are arrested at a home south of Westport by a detail of 14 Union soldiers. Their younger sister Martha volunteers to go with them. Bill Anderson, who is camped nearby, makes a rescue attempt but cannot shoot for fear of hitting the girls who are riding on the soldiers’ horses. The three sisters will be confined in a building at 1409 Grand Avenue in Kansas City, along with other female relatives of Confederate bushwhackers.
Aug. 7, 1863
A story in the Liberty Tribune notes that three men, including Franklin James, take a pocketknife and $1.25 from a man six miles west of Liberty.
Aug. 10, 1863
William Clarke Quantrill gathers his guerrilla leaders together near Blue Springs and reveals his plans to attack Lawrence, Ks. Many think the plan is too dangerous but they eventually give unanimous approval. Lawrence is targeted because it is the home of the hated Jim Lane. It also is the center of Jayhawk and abolitionist activities as well as being the destination for Missouri plunder stolen by the Jayhawkers.
Aug. 13, 1863
The Grand Avenue building that serves as a jail to confine female relatives and sympathizers of Confederate guerrillas, collapses, killing five. Among the casualties are the Anderson sisters. Josephine, 15, is killed; Martha is seriously injured and Mary escapes with minor injuries.
The same day, the Kansas City Daily Journal reports that Union Gen. Thomas Ewing has received authority to banish Confederate guerrillas’ families from the district.
Aug. 18, 1863
Gen. Ewing issues Order No. 10 which provides for the arrest or banishment of anyone, including family members, giving aid to Southern guerrillas.
Aug. 21, 1863
After a two-day ride from Johnson County, Mo., William Clarke Quantrill and some 450 Rebel guerrillas attack Lawrence at daybreak. When the raid is over, 182 buildings are destroyed and some 200 men and boys are dead. However, the raiders’ main target, Kansas Sen. Jim Lane, who led the 1861 torching and looting of Osceola, Mo., escapes by running barefoot through a cornfield and hiding in a ravine.
Aug. 25,1863
Order No. 11, issued by Gen. Ewing, is published in newspapers. It essentially requires the depopulation of four and one-half counties south of the Missouri River. Residents who can not prove their loyalty to the Union will have to leave the district and their homes and crops will be destroyed.
Aug. 8, 1864
Fletch Taylor, a Confederate guerrilla leader under Bill Anderson, is shot in the arm during a brief skirmish near Independence. His men kidnap a physician who amputates the injured arm below the shoulder. It is said that during this time period Taylor had distanced himself from Anderson because of Bloody Bill’s increasing brutality. Both James brothers rode with Taylor and were photographed with him after the war.
Aug. 12, 1864
Bill Anderson’s growing group of guerrillas, including Frank and Jesse James, kill a Union captain and three soldiers in a skirmish at Fredericksburg in Ray County. (This was at the southeast corner of the present Excelsior Springs Golf Course.) Since early July, as Anderson’s reputation grew, Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, commander of the Union District of Northern Missouri, regularly telegraphed his officers with instructions to eliminate Anderson. After this episode, according to the official records, Fisk’s message ordered the formation of an “ extermination party” to follow Anderson “until he is dead.”
Aug. 13,14 or 15, 1864
Some 150 Union soldiers follow Anderson’s men from Ray County into Carroll County south of Knoxville. Their advance unit is surprised by the guerrillas at the Wakenda River and several Yanks are lost before retreating. The bushwhackers lose one man. More are injured, including Jesse James, Tucker Hill, Arch Clement and Anderson. Frank James takes his brother, Jesse, who has been shot through the right chest, to the Carroll County home of Dr. John H. Rudd. Jesse heals quickly and is able to hook up with George Todd in September.
Aug. 26, 1965
Jesse James, still seriously injured after suffering a second bullet wound to the chest in May, leaves his Samuel family in Rulo, Neb., and travels down river by steamboat to once again stay with his aunt and uncle, John and Mary Mimms, in Harlem, Mo. He will remain there several months – long enough to fall in love with his cousin Zee Mimms.
Aug. 30, 1874
Two omnibusses are held up within a few hours and 25 miles of each other in Carroll and Ray counties. Three masked men stop the first vehicle between Carrollton and Waverly and demand money. The second robbery, across the Missouri River from Lexington, receives much more attention because of newspaper coverage which makes it sound like a humorous romp. There are many witnesses on the bluffs overlooking the river, and one woman identifies the three bandits as the James brothers and “Will” Younger. She apparently reconsiders after receiving a letter from Zerelda James Samuel.
Aug. 31, 1875
Jesse Edwards James is born in Nashville, the first child of Jesse and Zee James. It is thought the baby was delivered by Dr. W. M. Vertrees. The new father, who is using the name J. D. Howard, presents the doctor with a Colt .38 revolver as payment for his services. The timing of his son’s birth leads some researchers to doubt that Jesse was involved in the Huntington, West Virginia bank robbery five days later.
Aug. 11, 1876
The Jackson County farm home of Sam Ralston, Frank James’ father-in-law, is raided and searched by 12 detectives looking for evidence and participants in the July train robbery near Otterville. The group then heads for Pomeroy, Ks. to follow up on a tip that the James brothers are hiding there. Both efforts are unsuccessful.
Aug. 1, 1882
John Newman Edwards writes to Frank James and advises him: “Do not make a move until you hear from me again. I have been to the governor myself and things are working. Live quiet and make no stir.” And then he added this cryptic message: “The word you wanted was Cole.” These preparations were for Franks surrender which would actually take place within two months.
Aug. 21,1883
The trial of Frank James begins in Gallatin, Mo. He is charged with killing Frank McMillan during the July 1881 train robbery near Winston. McMillan was a passenger on the train whose conductor, William Westfall, also was killed during the holdup. Among those testifying at the nine-day trial are Frank’s mother, sister and brother-in-law; several relatives of the Ford brothers; and Missouri Gov. Thomas Crittenden.
Aug. 26, 1883
Gov. Crittenden, who just two years earlier announced a $10,000 reward each for the capture and conviction of the James brothers, testifies for the defense in Frank’s trial. In response to questioning, the governor acknowledges that former gang member Dick Liddil told him that Frank James had insisted there be no bloodshed at the Winston train robbery, and that Frank had reprimanded Jesse for shooting one of the two victims.
Aug. 15, 1890
An item in the Liberty Tribune, originally published in the Kansas City Star, describes Dr. Reuben Samuels (sic) as “one of the best housekeepers in Missouri. He can cook, bake, wash and iron and employs his time mostly in the performance of domestic duties. He always gets the breakfast and supper and Mrs. Samuel prepares dinner. There is not a cleaner house in Missouri than the Samuels’ residence. A person could eat off the floor.”
Aug. 29, 1895
Robert James, only child of Frank and Annie James, graduates from St. Louis Commercial College. His diploma mentions short hand, telegraphy and typing.
Aug. 14 & 15, 1920
Jesse Edwards James signs contracts agreeing to portray his father, as well as himself, in the silent film “Jesse James Under the Black Flag.” He is to be paid $50,000 plus $25 a day and expenses for appearances outside of Missouri. The movie is shot in Kansas City and a Chicago studio. Cast members include Jesse’s wife and one of his daughters. James was a successful attorney at the time and reportedly used his own money to reimburse the financial backers when the movie flopped. His wife, Stella, later wrote that this episode caused the family to lose its home.
Aug. 15, 1951
Frank Dalton, who made headlines claiming to be Jesse James, dies a week after moving to Granbury, Tx. He was living in Lawton, Ok. in 1948 when he announced to the world that he was the real Jesse James and that the man slain in 1882 in St. Joseph, Mo. was Charlie Bigelow. Dalton claimed to be 104 years old. Although crippled in a fall, he launched a coast-to-coast tour of the country and was interviewed on national radio programs out of New York. In 1950, Dalton’s suit to have his name legally changed to Jesse James was denied by a Union, Mo. judge. Dalton’s descendents continue to press their claim that he actually was the infamous bandit, despite the results of the 1995 DNA test.
Aug. 5, 1989
A wooden recorder, a gift from Jesse James to his half-brother Archie Samuel, is donated to the James Farm museum. After Archie was killed in the 1875 Pinkerton raid, Zerelda gave the recorder to her grandson, Arch Nicholson. His son, John Nicholson, made the presentation to the museum.
