JESSE JAMES Autograph

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JESSE W. JAMES - AUTOGRAPH LETTER DOUBLE SIGNED 06/05/1875 - DOCUMENT 30008

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JESSE W. JAMES - AUTOGRAPH LETTER DOUBLE SIGNED 06/05/1875

JESSE JAMES
This threatening letter, handwritten and signed by James in 1875 to man who accused him of stealing a horse, is one of only a very few letters written by James known to exist!
Autograph letter signed: "Jesse W James" in pencil and on verso, "JW James" in blue ink, 2¾p, 4¾x7¾. Lafayette Co., Missouri, 1875 June 5. The outlaw, in hiding, writes this life-threatening letter in response to being accused of being a horse thief. To Mr. Flood, with poor grammar and misspellings, in full: "Lafayette Co Mo./June 5th 1875/Mr. Flood/Sir from the tone of your conversation at the City Hotel in Lexington a few days ago I feel it my duty to write to you. I & Frank have been lied on & persecuted enough. We cannot stand every thing. What did you mean by telling in Lexington that we Stole Dr. Yates horse. my friends Zack Mitchal Tom Bulis & several others heard you Say it & you kneed not deny it & if you dont go to my Mother & explain why you sed what you did we will hold you responsible & you will be brought to grief...the best men all over Mo know how we have been persecuted & it is impossible for Such men as you to Slander us without us hearing of it...Do you suppose if we were thieves we would Steal a horse from one that has been so kind to Mother as Dr Yates has no far from it...and they are no men in Mo. who scurn horse thieves more than we do & if we were free men we would do all in our power to put it down Clint Allen of Liberty made Similar remarks about us to Sam Wardin a few days ago but he will probily regret it...if you value your life you had better retrace your Slander/Jesse W James" On blank verso of third page James writes in blue ink: "Dr. Yates Pleas read this/letter & hand it to Mr. Flood/& oblige JW James". The James brothers were under public scrutiny and accusation since they started their outlawing days, after the Civil War, in 1866. It was typical of the brothers, more so from Frank, than from Jesse, to respond to criticism of their actions, by writing defending letters to newspaper editors and at times, Missouri Governors. Their letters would often contain names of witnesses (usually people supportive of them) and would accuse others of the crimes of which they were accused. One of their biggest supporters, who perpetuated their Robin Hood-like image, was Missouri newspaper editor, John Newman Edwards. To him, they were social bandits, forced into their acts by the Civil War and the lingering hatreds that lasted in the Missouri border region after the war. This June 5, 1875 letter is characteristic of the defensive actions of the brothers. Flood obviously had accused them of stealing a horse but no less the horse of the very man, Dr. William J. Yates, who was a family friend and one of the doctors attending to the wounds incurred on January 25-26, 1875 of Jesse and Frank's mother, Zerelda Samuel. At that time, the family homestead was attacked and "fire-bombed" by Pinkerton agents. The agents attacked the house believing the brothers to be there, but they were unsuccessful in capturing them. Their half brother, Archie, was killed and their mother lost part of her arm. Other family members were also injured. Dr. Yates was still tending to Jesse's mother at the time of this letter. NOTE THAT YATES WAS SO SUPPORTIVE OF JESSE'S INNOCENCE THAT JESSE WROTE THE ADDITIONAL NOTE TO YATES TO BE THE ONE TO DELIVER THIS LETTER TO FLOOD! Kearney, Missouri was the location of the family homestead and where Dr. Yates practiced. Others besides Flood may have accused James of stealing Dr. Yates' horse, for just two weeks before this letter, on May 20, Jesse wrote a defending letter concerning this horse-stealing incident. He stated, "I have proof that Dr. Yates lost a fine horse that night (May 15) taken by Miller and McDaniel." James was further enraged of such an accusation, because horse thievery was considered the lowest form of stealing, he considered himself more "professional" than such. Although we could not identify "Mr. Flood", some of the others are known. "Samuel Wardin" is 31-year-old Samuel Wharton and "Tom Bulis" is Thomas Bullis. Both men were farmers. Wharton lived near Kearney and Bullis not far from Liberty, Missouri. D. Clint Allen was a 39-year-old lawyer who lived in Liberty. According to Milton F. Perry, Director and Curator of the Clay County (Missouri) Department of Parks Recreation & Historic Sites, in his 1990 letters to our research department, "It appears Jesse dashed this item off in a hurry. He was a poor speller and his sense of punctuation was atrocious. Frank, on the other hand, was much more meticulous and was an admirer of Shakespeare." Six years after this letter, in July 1881, a $10,000 reward for Jesse and Frank, and $5,000 for their gang members, were posted by Governor Thomas Crittenden of Missouri. The following April, Jesse was shot in the back of his head, in his own home in St. Joseph, Missouri, by fellow gang member, Bob Ford. CONTENT LETTERS OF JESSE JAMES ARE VIRTUALLY NONEXISTENT. Lightly soiled. Folds do not touch signatures. Lightly creased, one vertical crease touches the "m" in James in the ink note. The letter had been folded vertically in the blank middle and had separated there. There are light tape remnants which had once attached the first and fourth page, and just touch the ascenders of 2 letters of 2 words of text. Slightly shaded at folds. Overall, fine condition.

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