Zerelda Cole Samuel's Civil War

String star quilt that looks to be early 20th century,

 attributed to Zerelda Cole Samuel.

Curators at the National Portrait Gallery believe this to be a

 photograph of Zerelda Cole James and her two youngest children,

taken about 1850, the time when her first husband died.

Jesse James Farm Museum Collection

Zerelda, born in Kentucky, boarded at St. Catherine's Academy

in Lexington, Kentucky in the late 1830s before her her 1841 marriage at 16.

Zerelda Cole James Simms Samuel (1825-1911), perhaps about the time of the Civil War

She was a large woman at 6-feet tall and described as "leonine in nature"

in this husband's obituary.

Zerelda is pictured above with third husband Reuben Samuel (1828-1908). Her first Robert Sallee James (1818-1850) died of cholera during the California Gold Rush after about 9 years of marriage, leaving her with 2 boys and a girl, ages 7 to 1. She soon remarried Benjamin Simms in Clay County in 1852 who died after being thrown from a horse about 2 years later. 

Marriage record for Zerelda and Reuben Samuel, Clay County, Missouri

September 26, 1855,  Family Search 

1860 Census

When the Civil War began Zerelda and Reuben were in their mid-30s, farming in Washington Township, Clay County, Missouri and doing fairly well with $5,000 worth of real estate. At home were her three children by Robert James and their young daughter Sarah Louise Samuel. Her eldest Alexander Franklin James was 17 when war commenced, of an age to seek adventure, perhaps a worry for Zerelda, pregnant with John Thomas Samuel born the month after the war began.

The farm near Centreville, Clay County.

By the time the war was over Zerelda had given birth to another daughter Fanny. Youngest Archie was born in July, 1866 when Zerelda was 41. Archie was considered mentally handicapped and perhaps had Down Syndrome, associated with late maternal age.

Missouri during the Civil War was a miserable partisan patchwork with the Union Army in the cities overseeing a Union state. Rural people, many like Zerelda & Reuben from Kentucky, professed allegiance to the Confederacy. Their sons formed guerilla units dedicated to terrorizing the enemy. Zerelda's eldest Frank James joined these bushwhacker gangs during the war, while younger son Jesse remained at home. Zerelda's loyalties may be interpreted by looking at the names she gave her younger children. Fanny's middle name was Quantrill, named for the famous guerilla who burned Lawrence, Kansas in 1863. 

Archie Clements (1846-1866)

Archie Samuel was said to have been named for Archie Clements who'd headed a bank robbery in Liberty, Missouri six months before the boy was born. 

Photo said to depict Frank and Jesse James when 

Frank was about 28 and Jesse about 24 in 1872.

Dozens of dubious photos of the family circulate.

Zerelda's two eldest sons Frank & Jesse James may have joined Clements for that first daylight bank robbery or were inspired by his modus operandi to begin a fifteen year life of crime. Their mother's support for their enterprise was shown in her naming her baby for bank robber Clements who was killed in Liberty ten months after the initial robbery.

Dime Novels sang the James gang's praises for decades.

It seems obvious that Jesse was a psychopath, completely indifferent to the many people he murdered.

Revenge killings attributed to Jesse James

He enjoyed the notoriety in robbing banks and trains (an outlaw genre he pioneered in Iowa in 1873). He formed justifications for his behavior in Southern loyalties---claiming in a letter to the editor that  Missouri was "the land we fought for four years to save from northern tyranny." Victims included bank clerks and revenge against people who had caused him or his family harm. 

One outrageous robbery targeted the box office at Kansas City's Industrial Exposition in 1872.

Some who knew both Jesse and his mother declared he inherited his belligerent attitude from her. The family certainly seemed to be afflicted with many mentally unstable members. Bank robberies were one thing but robbing trains and their passengers (and business expositions) was a threat to community stability. Missouri's governors offered rewards of $1,000 or $5,000 for the gang's captures---to no avail. 

Hired to insure railroad security the Pinkerton Agency went too far.

Believing incorrectly that Frank and Jesse were at home on the family farm, Pinkerton agents attacked  during the night of January 26, 1875. They attempted to burn the house and then threw two incendiary devices through the windows. These crude grenades rolled along the floor and it looks like Zerelda with Archie at her side attempted to pick one up and throw it in the fire. The explosion shattered her right hand and Archie's abdomen. 

Eight-year-old Archie died a few hours later.

Zerelda's hand was amputated.

Zerelda after 1875

Things were obviously completely out of control in Missouri---on both sides.

Jesse James kills bank teller John Sheets in Gallatin, Missouri, 1869

Kentucky-born Thomas T. Crittenden (1832 –1909)

Brady Studios Portrait

In 1880 Missouri elected former Union soldier Thomas T. Crittenden as governor. He determined to be rid of the James gang and raised $10,000 from local business men on the theory that if offered enough reward money a gang member would betray them.

He was right. 

Photo said to be of gang member Bob Ford (1862-1892) and Jesse James. Ford shot

James in on April 3, 1882 and claimed the reward.

Jesse in his coffin, 1882

Rather than rejoicing Missourians were up in arms. What a cowardly thing for the Governor to do. Crittenden was vilified.

Oscar Wilde who happened to be lecturing in St. Joseph when Jesse was killed noted the local news and observed in a letter:

"Americans are certainly great hero worshippers and always take [their] heroes from the criminal classes."

John Newman Edwards (1839-1889)

Every legendary hero needs a troubadour; Jesse found his in two Missourians, newspaperman John Newman Edwards and his mother Zerelda. Edwards, who'd refused to surrender after Confederate defeat, went to Mexico to begin a new Confederate state but returned in a few years to publish the Kansas City Times, a platform for his view of the late War. By the time of Jesse's death he was working in St. Louis stirring up indignation, writing about "The Chivalry of Crime." 

'Those who conspired to murder (Jesse James)... have succeeded, but such a cry of horror and indignation at the infernal deed is even now thundering over the land… Others again among the murderers are sanctimonious devils who plead the honor of the State, the value of law and order, the splendid courage required to shoot an unarmed man in the back of the head...." John Newman Edwards's obituary of James.

Zerelda sold various postcards of the gravesite and herself

After Jesse's death his family switched from defending him to glorifying him, turning a legend they  created into a tourist attraction and source of income. The curious were encouraged to visit the James family farm and Jesse's grave; each view costing a few cents. Pebbles from the grave were also available for a small fee. 

Brother Frank at the tourist attraction about 1910

Note that Kodaks---cameras---were barred (sic). If you wanted 

a photo you could buy a postcard.

At one point Zerelda sold the house to an entrepreneur planning to dismantle it and set it up again at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. That transaction was never completed.

Zerelda's husband Reuben Samuel suffered from a cognitive disorder in his latter years, probably a form of dementia, although legend claimed the cause was brain damage caused by Unionists hanging him (3 times in a row) during the War or perhaps lingering injury from the Pinkerton attack on the house. He died in 1908 at a mental hospital in St. Joseph after six years of residence. 

Now, you have to give it to Zerelda who without a competent husband to support her invented an occupation that she mentioned gave her a "good income" until her death in 1911 on a train trip to visit family in Oklahoma.

1983 postcard from the Jesse James Wax Museum

One could do an extended tour of Jesse James museums

and roadside attractions.

Shown at the Jesse James Farm Museum:

https://jessejamesmuseum.org/

We can return to the pink quilt at the top of the page: Did Zerelda, who'd lost her right hand, piece and quilt that string-star in her '80s? She seems formidable enough to accomplish such a task---any task she set her mind to.