Built in the late 1820s, the three-room log cabin where American outlaw Jesse James was born was owned by the family from 1845 until the late 1970s, when it was sold to Clay County, MO. (photo courtesy of Elizabeth Gilliam Beckett)

The young Jesse James, shown here in a colorized photo at age 14, adopted his family’s staunch pro-Confederate and pro-slavery views. (image courtesy of PBS.org)

Forged by hate and bloodshed

The real Jesse James was much more complicated and much less worthy of adoration. Born Jesse Woodson James on Sept. 5, 1847, near Kearney, he grew up in the “Little Dixie” area of Missouri, a wide swath of 13 counties heavily populated by Southerners who emigrated there, bringing their cultural and political practices – including slavery. Little Dixie includes the region between the Mississippi River north of St. Louis to Missouri counties in the central part of the state.

As the Civil War brewed, the teenaged James grew up in a household with decidedly pro-Confederate views. He and his brother, Frank, even joined pro-Confederate guerillas, pledging their allegiance to William Quantrill and “Bloody Bill” Anderson, two guerilla leaders who traversed Missouri and Kansas in a violent hunt for escaped slaves. The James brothers, especially Jesse, terrorized the guerillas’ enemies.

After the nation’s bloodiest war had come to an end, having already acquired a taste for looting during the 1864 Centralia Massacre, in which Confederate forces captured and executed two dozen Union soldiers in Centralia, MO, Jesse and Frank James joined the ranks of other former Confederate guerillas in living the lives of outlaws. The men robbed trains, banks, and stagecoaches throughout the Midwest, becoming household names nearly overnight, amassing other disillusioned men to join their gang for the decade following the war.

Zerelda James, Jesse’s mother, stands at his gravesite in 1882. During an 1875 raid on her house by the Pinkertons, who were looking for Jesse, authorities tossed an explosive device into the house that detonated and mangled Zerelda’s arm so badly that it had to be amputated below the elbow. After Jesse’s death, Zerelda gave tours of the cabin in which Jesse was born, and for just 25 cents, visitors could take home a souvenir pebble from Jesse’s headstone. (Image courtesy of PBS.org)

Passing on into infamy

Jesse James, of course, lived on in the decades afterward, not only in word-of-mouth stories of his robberies and other infamous deeds, but in numerous media forms, including music, literature, and Western films.

“In the end, (James) emerges as neither epic hero nor petty bully, but something far more complex,” historian T.J. Stiles writes. “In the life of Jesse James, we see a place where politics meets the gun.”

Obviously, Clay County’s Beckett notes, the festival helps offer a boost in the number of visitors each year.

“The Jesse James Festival is hosted by the city of Kearney, and the museum benefits from many visitors during that weekend,” she says.

The 2021 Jesse James Festival will take place Sept. 10-11 and Sept. 16-19 at Jesse James Park in Kearney.

The government of Clay County, MO, has owned and operated the James farm since 1978. Photo courtesy of TheWalkingTourists.com

“No place on God’s green earth has closer ties to Jesse James than does the James Farm and the house that is still its centerpiece,” Stewart wrote in an historical article about the farm. “He was born here, and it remained a safe haven and place of comfort throughout his life. His body would be brought here after his death in 1882, and it was here that he was laid to rest in the corner of the yard where he had played as a boy.”

Ownership of the farm changed hands between descendants of Jesse James for the next century, until 1978, when the Clay County government bought it from the James grandchildren and immediately began restoration work. The farm opened to the public the following year, when its board of directors founded the “Friends of the James Farm,” an organization of supporters designed to fund the continued maintenance and upkeep of the site through regular donations.

“The old place looks pretty much as it did more than 100 years ago,” historian Phil Stewart says of the property. “…The visitor can easily lose themselves in the history of the time and place.”

For her part, Beckett says the historic site doesn’t exist to glorify Jesse James, but to educate visitors about his life and the era that shaped his world view.

“The museum tells the story of a time period in history,” she says, “and the visitor can decide how they see him.”