Father and Son Murder Witness Against Them, Hanged by Mob, Boyle, 1866

Previously:

Click here for a list of my other Pulaski/Rockcastle/Laurel County KY articles

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[April 12, 1866] -

FOUL MURDER OF AN OLD LADY NEAR PERRYVILLE. -- We yesterday received the startling information that Mrs. Polly Bottoms, and old and highly respected lady, residing near Perryville, in Boyle county, was foully murdered on Tuesday night last, by a man named Bill Taylor. Our informant states that some time ago the murderer and two other men committed a robbery at the house of Mrs. Bottoms, for which two of the perpetrators, having been caught, were tried and convicted and are now undergoing sentence at the Frankfort penitentiary. Taylor, the guiltiest of the wretches, made his escape at the time of the robbery, and has been at large ever since. Recently he was recognized as one of the robbers by a little daughter of Mrs. Bottoms, whereupon he visited the house about 10 o'clock Tuesday night, and deliberately murdered the old lady. He could have had no other object in perpetrating this cold blooded deed than to silence an important witness against him. We fervently hope that speedy and terrible justice will overtake the unmitigated demon. [1]

Jonathan Damron Kills Hayes Mullins, Rockcastle, 1897

Previously:

Click here for a list of my other Pulaski/Rockcastle/Laurel County KY articles

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[December 14, 1877] -

At the last Term of our Common Pleas Court, Charles Damron sued out a writ for the body of his son Jonathan, an infant of two years, charging that said Jonathan was unlawfully detained by its great-grandfather, Liberty Langford. Upon the hearing of the case, Judge Breckenridge gave the child to Langford, deciding that "while it was hard to deprive a father of the custody of his child, yet in the discharge of his sworn duty, the Chancelor must consult the interests of the child, which in this case impelled him to take the child from its father." [1]

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[February 1, 1897] -

SAYS IT WAS ACCIDENTAL.

John Dameron Shoots and Kills Hayes Mullins Near Mt. Vernon.

Mt. Vernon, Ky., Jan 31. -- (Special.) -- Last night, three miles from this place, John Dameron shot and killed Hayes Mullins. The story, as Dameron tells it, is that they had removed the cartridges from the pistol and had been snapping the weapon at each other. Later Mullins replaced the cartridges and laid the weapon down on a table. Dameron picked the pistol up, pointed it at Mullins and snapped it. The cartridge fired and Mullins was killed almost instantly, the ball passing in just below the neck. Dameron came in this morning and surrendered. He declares  the killing was accidental.

At the Coroner's inquest to-day it appeared from evidence of witnesses that it was a case of murder. Dameron and Mullins were at the house of Liz. Merricks. A dispute arose, when Dameron seized a pistol from a table and fired at Mullins, killing him instantly. The pistol with which Mullins was killed was his own, which he had laid down on the table. Further developments go to show that Dameron had been a suitor to the hand of a sister of Mullins and had met with considerable objection from all the family and particularly from Hayes Mullins. Dameron for the last four months has carried a commission as notary public. [2]

W. Va. Bank Robber Killed in Pine Hill Mistaken As Jesse James, Rockcastle, 1875

Previously:

Click here for a list of my other Pulaski/Rockcastle/Laurel County KY articles

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Excerpt from Column 4. The Interior Journal, Stanford, KY. September 17, 1875. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-09-17/ed-1/seq-3/

[September 17, 1875] -

On Tuesday night last, W. R. Dillion, near the house of his brother, Doc Dillion, in Rockcastle county, shot and mortally wounded a Virginian, who turned out to be one of the gang which recently robbed the Bank at Huntington, Va. He was watching the road, it seems, when four men on foot passed, between 12 and 1 o'clock. On halting them, he was fired upon, he returned fire with the above result. The other men ran away; the wounded one, after being taken to the house, admitted that they were the robbers, but refused to tell his name. He had on his person $100 in 25 cents fractional currency. The whole county was up at last accounts, in search of the other three.

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Excerpt from "Home Jottings." The Courier Journal, Stanford, KY. September 24, 1875. Page 3. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038328/1875-09-24/ed-1/seq-3/

[September 24, 1875] - 

THE ROBBER. -- The man, supposed to be Jesse James, and who was shot at Pine Hill, last week, by W. R. Dillion, died there last Sunday evening, and was buried near Pine Hill. Mr. Dillion and his brother Doc, have done a noble deed, and rid the whole country of one dangerous and bloody outlaw. A few more such men as the Dillions, scattered around over the country, would make bank and railroad robbing, a very precarious business for these darling scoundrels, and they would eventually put a stop to it. We hope they will be able to secure the reward which is said to have been offered in Missouri, for one, or all, of this gang of highwaymen. 





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Jesse James was not shot and killed in Rockcastle County in 1875. The man killed in Pine Hill was identified as James by some papers, but soon after identified as another Missouri bandit, a man named Thompson McDaniels. 

Some secondary sources (with no traceable citations) I've read have claimed that James was involved in the Huntington heist along with McDaniels, but that they took different escape routes after the robbery.  Regardless of whether Jesse James was actually involved in the Huntington robbery, the man killed in Rockcastle Co. was not James, although it was widely reported at the time that this was the case.

I found reports of James' death in Pine Hill, KY (Rockcastle Co.) in the following papers:

• The Fort Wayne Sentinel of Fort Wayne, IN on Sept 17, 1875
• The Courier Journal of Louisville, KY on Sept 18, 1875
• The Tennessean of Nashville, TN on Sept 18, 1875
• The Boston Post of Boston, MA on Sept 18, 1875
• Pittsburg Weekly Gazette of Pittsburg, PA on Sept 18, 1875
• The Baltimore Sun of Baltimore, MD on Sept 18, 1875 and Sept 20, 1875
• Philadelphia Inquirer of Philadelphia, PA on Sept 18, 1875 and Sept 20, 1875
• Daily Nebraska Press of Nebraska City, NE on Sept 18, 1875
• Springfield Republican of Springfield, MA on Sept 18, 1875
• Evansville Courier and Press of Evansville, IN on Sept 18, 1875
• Quincy Whig of Quincy, IL on Sept 18, 1875 and Sept 20, 1875
• Times-Picayune of New Orleans, LA on Sept 19, 1875
• The Daily Journal of Wilmington, NC on Sept 19, 1875
• Augusta Chronicle of Augusta, GA on Sept 19, 1875 and Sept 21, 1875
• St. Louis Dispatch of St. Louis, MO on Sept 20, 1875
• Cincinnati Daily Star of Cincinnati, OH on Sept 20, 1875
• The Burlington Free Press of Burlington, VT on Sept 20, 1875
• Auburn Daily Bulletin of Auburn, NY on Sept 20, 1875
• Albany Evening Journal of Albany, NY on Sept 20, 1875
• Daily Albany Argus of Albany, NY on Sept 20, 1875
• National Republican of Washington, DC on Sept 20, 1875 and Sept 28, 1875
• Alexandria Gazette of Alexandria, VA on Sept 20, 1875 and Sept 28, 1875
• Wheeling Register of Wheeling, WV on Sept 20, 1875 and Sept 28, 1875
• Watertown Daily Times of Watertown, NY on Sept 20, 1875 *later retracted
• Daily Inter Ocean of Chicago, IL on Sept 20, 1875 and Sept 28, 1875
• Galveston Daily News of Galveston, TX on Sept 21, 1875
• Ste. Genevieve Fair Play of Ste.Genevieve, MO on Sept 23, 1875
• (full text below) The State Journal of Jefferson City, MO on Sept 24, 1875 *later retracted 
• Jamestown Journal of Jamestown, NY on Sept 24, 1875
• The Cambria Freeman of Ebensburg, PA on Sept 24, 1875
• Rockford Weekly Register-Gazette of Rockford, IL on Sept 24, 1875
• Andrew County Republican of Savannah, MO on Sept 24, 1875 *later retracted
• Clarksville Weekly Chronicle of Clarksville, TN on Sept 25, 1875 and Oct 2, 1875
• San Francisco Bulletin of San Francisco, CA on Sept 27, 1875
• Plain Dealer of Cleveland, OH on Sept 27, 1875 and Sept 28, 1875
• Boston Traveler of Boston, MA on Sept 28, 1875
• Evening Star of Washington, DC on Sept 28, 1875
• Providence Evening Press of Providence, RI on Sept 28, 1875
• Arkansas Gazette of Little Rock, AR on Sept 28, 1875
• Massachusetts Spy of Worcester, MA on Sept 28, 1875 and Oct 1, 1875
• New Hampshire Sentinel of Keene, NH on Sept 30, 1875
• The Highland Weekly News of Hillsborough, OH on Sept 30, 1875
• The Worthington Advance of Worthington, MN on Oct 1, 1875 *skeptical
• Northern Tribune of Cheboygan, MI on Oct 2, 1875
• Nebraska Advertiser of Brownville, NE on Oct 7, 1875

I found retractions and/or articles discrediting the story in the following papers:

• Watertown Daily Times of Watertown, NY on Sept 24, 1875
• (full text below) Indianapolis Sentinel of Indianapolis, IN on Sept 24, 1875 and Sept 27, 1875
• Sunday Times of Chicago, IL on Sept 26, 1875
• (full text below) Leavenworth Weekly Times of Leavenworth, KS on Sept 30, 1875
• The State Journal of Jefferson City, MO on Oct 1, 1875
• Andrew County Republican of Savannah, MO on Oct 1, 1875
• The Emporia News of Emporia, KS on Oct 1, 1875
• Hartford Herald of Hartford, KY on Oct 6, 1875
• Holt County Sentinel of Oregon, MO on Oct 15, 1875

(Please note that I do not intend the above lists to be complete.  I'm sure there are many more instances of the report and/or retractions that I did not find.)

As you can see, this report was published widely throughout the country.  I have transcribed three of the above listed news reports below.  The first is an example of one reporting the claim that the slain bandit is Jesse James.  The second reports the controversy over the identification and reprints an article from the Louisville Courier-Journal's which sticks by the initial report of James's death despite discrediting information.  The second report also includes a letter possibly written by James which says that the West Virginia bank robbery was not his work.  The third article reports that the man killed was actually Thompson McDaniels. 

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From page 4 of The State Journal of Jefferson City, MO on September 24, 1875:

JESSE JAMES WITH A HOLE IN HIS BREAST.
---
Bligh Identifies the Reckless Missouri Outlaw.
---
Winged at Last by a Kentucky Bullet.
---

LOUISVILLE, September 17.--Detective Bligh returned from Pine Hill, Ky., and is satisfied that the man captured and wounded there several evenings ago, is Jesse James, the notorious Missouri outlaw.

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[From the Courier-Journal of the 17th.] 

A Courier-Journal reporter had a talk, yesterday afternoon, with the conductor of the Richmond train, and learned that up to yesterday morning the three Huntington bank robbers were still free, but that they were still being closely pursued. The last seen of them, after they left their wounded companion in the hands of the Dillions, was by the watchman of Harris' coal-yards in Pin Hill, making their way across the coal-banks in the direction of Somerset, Ky.  This was between 12 and 1 o'clock Wednesday morning.  They were then on foot.  The capture of one of the robbers was telegraphed to the President of the Huntington Bank, who replied asking that he be held until the cashier of the bank arrived at Pine Hill.  The conductor also stated to our reporter that three men had been arrested at Mt. Vernon, Tuesday night, about 11 o'clock, supposed to be three of the robbers, but that they were subsequently released on ascertaining that they were not the parties, but were three men hunting through the country for work.  From Mr. G. W. Robertson, of Livingston, Ky., we have received further information concerning the pursuit of the robbers through the State, and the wounding and capture of one of the by Will. and Jim Dillion.

THEY BUY A MINER'S HAT.

Tuesday afternoon it was rumored in Livingston that two of the robbers had met one of the coal miners on the road, and one of them, being hatless, offered the miner fifty cents for his hat.  This man had lost his hat in the skirmish in Jackson county.  When the miner was found it was ascertained that he had met two men, one hatless and with a handkerchief tied around his head, and that he had received fifty cents for his hat.  About dusk four strange men were seen on the south side of Rockcastle river about a mile from Livingston.  They crossed the river together and then separated, two going together into the hills, and the two other coming toward Livingston.  The latter two stopped at a camp fire some distance from the town, and one was seen to read a letter.  They soon moved on in the direction of Mt. Vernon, and nothing was seen of them until the four were again seen near F. W. Dillion's home, on their way to Mt. Vernon.  W. R. Dillion and James Dillion, as was stated yesterday, were on the watch for them.

FOUND IN A CORN FIELD.

W. R. Dillon was sitting in front of the house when he saw the four men.  When about fifty yards from him, they halted again divided, two leaving the road and surrounding the house, the other two keeping the road.  About this time James Dillon joined his brother, and then followed what was related in yesterday's issue.  About two dozen shots were fired altogether.  It was the last shot fired by W. R. Dillon that took effect on one of the robbers.  He, however, ran about two hundred yards before he fell, calling for help.  The two Dillons collected some neighbors, and about daybreak found the wounded man in a cornfield near the road.  He was bleeding profusely.  He was taken to the house of Mr. Woodson, where he is lying in a critical condition.  Dr. S. W. Bruce, of Mount Vernon, and Dr. Pettus, of Crab Orchard, examined the wound Wednesday afternoon and pronounced it dangerous, though not necessarily fatal, there being chances for his recovery. 

He has steadily and stubbornly refused to answer any questions concerning himself or his three partners.  

FULL DESCRIPTION OF THE WOUNDED ROBBER.

The wounded man is described as about six feet high, fair complexion, light brown hair and brown eyes, weighs about 160 pounds, broad across the shoulders, thin through the chest and slim around the waist, reddish chin whiskers and moustache, the moustache being trimmed.  The side of his face has the appearance of a recent shave, the skin looking whiter than the other portions of the face.  He is about twenty-six years old, wears about No. 8 boots, high forehead, had on the little finger of his left hand a plain gold ring, also on the same finger a gold ring with a large pale blue set.  He had a double-case gold watch, manufactured by G. M. Wheeler, Elgin, Illinois, No. 1370275, and a large oroide[?] chain, with the representation of an Eagle's head.  The only money found on his person was $17 in fractional currency.  He had on a long, white linen duster, blue cottonade overalls, and dark, striped cloth pants under them, dark vest, and the miner's hat before spoken of; also, three diamond-shaped shirt-studs.

WHAT WAS FOUND ON HIM.

Three photographs were found in his pockets, one a portrait of a rather good looking young lady, and the other two pictures of two young men, one with a small mustache.  The young looked to be about eighteen or twenty years of age, the lady a little older.  Two letters were also found on his person, and addressed "dear brother," no date, and signed "Anna."  No name to the other.  Portions of each letter had been cut out, so that nothing could be learned about him.  He also had a small pocket compass and a map of Tennessee and Kentucky.--The bravery of the two Dillon brothers has received great praise around Livingston.  The description given above answers to the description of robber No. 2, given by the President of the Huntington Bank.

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From page 2 of the Leavenworth Weekly Times of Leavenworth, KS on Sept 30, 1875:

TOO LATE.

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A Louisville Detective's Attempt to Discredit the Death of McDaniels.

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Jesse James' Latest Expistolary Effort--A Poor Opinion of Bligh and Pinkerton.

The Lousville Courier-Journal still hugs Detective Bligh's delusion, that the dead bank robber was Jesse James.  The identity of the dead man as Thompson McDaniels was first made known in the St. Louis Times, and the Associated press dispatches of yesterday confirmed the statement, on the evidence which Detective Bligh forwarded to Kansas City.  The following, from the Courier-Journal, was written before the news was received from Kansas City, and had it been delayed another day would probably not have appeared.  With reference to the statement about the Times special, it need only be said that the Times correspondent did visit Pine Hill, saw McDaniels and fully identified him.  After endeavoring to detect some inaccuracies in the Times special, the Courier-Journal says:

"The correspondent does not think that either the James or Younger brothers were in the Huntington bank robbery, and prtends that he recognized the dead man as Thompson, alias "Charley" McDaniels a noted desperado.  The description of the men leaves no doubt that two of the Younger brothers were there, and possibly a third.  While although the fourth might have been Jesse James, yet it was not McDaniels, as the description of the latter is entirely different from that of the dead man.

Thompson McDaniels is described as six feet high, sparely made, light or sandy complexion, light moustache, and thirty two years of age.  The dead robber was not over thirty, but rather younger, was dark complexioned, and had no light moustache.

Now comes the Nashville American with another letter from St. Louis, of which Jesse James is purported to be the author.  The letter is sent as a special from Nashville, and is published below.  It will be perceived that it is devoted to a denunciation of Captain Bligh and Detective Pinkerton, the two best detectives in the country.  Captain Bligh is especially denounced in the severest terms in the letter.  Coming as it does, from St. Louis, the authorship looks rather suspicious.  The letter is entirely different in phraseology and spelling from any of Jesse James' former letters, the grammatical construction and spelling being generally good, although there is an attempt at a poor formation of sentences, while all of his former letters, the grammatical construction and spelling being generally good, although there is an attempt at a poor formation of sentences, while all of his former letters were illy constructed and very badly spelled.

[Special dispatch to the Courier-Journal.]

NASHVILLE, TENN., Sept. 24.--The following letter has been received by the American:

St. Louis, Sept. 21, 1875.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN:--In a previous communication I spoke of how the Jameses and Youngers had been lied on by Bligh, the incompetent detective of Lousiville, Kentucky.  I will take the present opportunity to inform you that Blight's recent statement about the James and Younger boys, robbing the Huntington bank, is false.  Instead of my being shot and captured, I am in St. Louis with my friends, well, felling much better than I have for years.  I can't see what motive any one can have in reporting such malicious lies as detective Blight is certainly doing.  I know that Jarrett and the Youngers had no hand in the robbery, and if the wounded robber in ever recognized, it will undoubtedly be seen that he is not a James, a Younger, or Jarett.  Bligh is a perfect gas-pope, and is unworthy of the title of detective.  He has never captured but one man and he slipped on the blind side of him.  As for shooting, he doesn't know what that means.  I am thankful that at least one robber has been got who was published everywhere by Bligh as being first Cole Younger and afters Jesse James.  The world can now see that neither one of the Jameses and Youngers are the men shot and captured.  Every bold robbery in the country is laid on us, but after a few of the robbers have been caught, and when it is seen two or three times that other people are robbing banks, [m]ay be we will get fair play from the newspapers.

In a few days it will be seen how the Jameses  and Youngers have been lied on by such men as Pinkerton and Bligh.  I and Cole Younger are not friends but I know he is innocent of the Huntington robbery, and I feel it my duty to defend him and his innocent and persecuted brothers from the false and slanderous reports circulated against them.  I think that the public will justify me in denouncing Bligh, as I now do, as an unnecessary liar, a scoundrel and poltroon.

Very respectfully,

Jesse W. James.

Courier-Journal, St. Louis Times, Globe, and Kansas City Times please copy.

MR. EDITOR:--Please publish this letter for me.  I am innocent of the Huntington robbery, and this is the only way I have to defend myself.

J. W. J.

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From page 7 of the Indianapolis Sentinel of Indianapolis, IN on Sept 24, 1875:

NOT JESSE JAMES.

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THE PINE HILL ROBBER.

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HE IS RECOGNIZED AS THOMPSON M'DANIELS--A HISTORY OF THAT DESPERADO--THE CAUSE OF THE MISTAKE.

A special correspondent of the St. Louis Times has been down to Pine Hill, Ky., and has succeeded in identifying the deceased member of the gang who robbed the Huntington, W. Va., bank.  He writes:  I reached Pine Hill on Monday, having traveled night and day under your instructions to seek out and identify, if possible the wounded robber of the West Virginia bank.  The capture, and when I arrived, the death of the robber were the chief topics of conversation, and excitement ran high.  So far as their course has been traced it appears that after robbing the bank, the circumstances of which were almost identical with the robberies of the banks at Russellville, Kentucky, Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, and Corydon, Iowa, in recent years, the robbers rode away with their booty, about $18,000, into Kentucky, by the way of the mountainous country in Morgan county; thence they passed into Lee county and through Clay county into Jackson, shunning the settled portions and finally into Laurell county.  There they were a week ago yesterday, having distanced the West Virginia sheriff and his posse.  The only brush the robbers had with the Huntington pursuers, was on Friday, the tenth, when a party of thirteen surprised them.  The pursuers were armed with double-barreled shot-guns and Spencer rifles, and for a few minutes a lively fusilade was kept up until the robbers finally abandoned their horses and took to the brush.  That night, however, they stole fresh horses and came on to Jackson county, where, early Sunday morning, they met a party of ten men, exchanged shots, and one of the robbers, it is said, was winged.  They were forced again to leave their horses, and tried during the day to reach Livingston station.  Foiled in this, they again.

TOOK TO THE BRUSH.

Their presence in the vicinity was known and people were continually on the watch for them.  Among others who remained up late Tuesday night, just a week ago were the Dillion boys, two young men who deal in coal here, and live just outside of the town with their mother.  About midnight one of them happening to look out saw, in the moonlight, four men coming up the road.  As they neared the house two of the men left the road and went into the woods.  The other two came up toward the house.  The Dillion boys took their pistols and went down and opened the door, accosting their visitors.  The latter made no reply but suddenly fired.  The Dillions returned the fire and one of the men dropped with a cry.  The other left.  While the firing was going on in front a noise was heard in the rear, and one of the Dillions, going back, found that the other two men, having made a detour through the woods, were trying to force an entrance.  Shots were exchanged and the robbers drew off.  Since then, the whole country has been scoured, far and near, by mounted men, but without any success, and the trail has grown cold.  The wounded man was taken in by the Dillions, and cared for, but died Sunday evening at the house of a Mr. Woodson.  He was very guarded in his conversation, and gave several names a locations, evidently as a mere blind.  Without making known my mission, I picked up these facts and then started for Woodson's to see the corpse.  A hundred times I had been assured that

THE DEAD MAN

was no other than the famous Jesse James, of Missouri.  Bligh, the Louisville detective, was here, passed pretty much the whole night at the bedside of the dying man, and assured everybody that it was Jesse James beyond all question of doubt.  The people here had a kind of an idea that there was price of Jesse James's head in Missouri and that the corpse ought to be forwarded like a wolf's scalp to secure the bounty.  They had applied to Bligh, however, who is their oracle, and had been told to go on with the funeral.  When I went into the house the body had been laid out decently for the grave.  There were other visitors at the same time, and I confess my nerves had been wrought up so that there was a slight tremor.  The sheet was drawn down and as I expected the features bore no likeness to those of Jesse James, whose face years ago was as familiar to me as the face of a daily acquaintance.  There came an unexpected shock, however, for like a flash I recognized the face of Thompson McDaniels, a desperado known to thousands of people in western Missouri.  Thompson McDaniels has not been in the papers much, but he has a terribly desperate record of it in Western Missouri.  He was a bushwhacker of the worse type during the war, and the brother of Bud or Bill McDaniels, who was killed in Kansas not long ago.  Thompson has been virtually an outlaw for nearly ten years.  In 1867, he was arrested in Lafayette county, Missouri, for taking horses, but got off by turning state's evidence and betraying his partners.  Sometime after that he shot without provocation an old man named Seth Mason, and only escaped lynching by fleeing from Missouri.  He spent some time in Texas, where he will be well remembered as

THE SLAYER OF COLONEL NICHOLAS

an ex-confederate officer, of Shelby's famous brigade.  Bill McDaniels will be readily remembered by your readers as one of the five who robbed the Kansas Pacific train at Muncie on the 8th of last December and plundered the express car of thirty thousand dollars in greenbacks and gold dust.  Within a few days after the robbery he ventured back to Kansas City where he had lived and being arrested on a trivial charge was found to have on him some of the plunder.  He was indicted for the robbery, and, it is said, in a partial confession implicated his brother Thompson in the robbery, with three other desperadoes, who had come up from their lurking places in the Indian nation especially to do this job.

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Profile and Interview of Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1949

The following is an article printed in the Kansas City Star, Kansas City, MO. April 10, 1949. Pages 4D and 7D. Retrieved from Genealogybank.com.

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[April 19, 1949] - 

The Famous Author of the "Laura and Mary" Children's
Books, Mrs. Laura Wilder of Mansfield, Mo., is Shown
In Her Farm Home in Front of a Scroll Given Her By Seattle
School Children. A Similar Scroll, Presented By
California Readers, Is on the Bookcase.

A MISSOURI WOMAN'S BOOKS ARE FAVORED BY CHILDREN

World Acclaim Has Come to Laura Ingalls Wilder of Mansfield, Mo., Whose Writings Cover Pioneer Life in the Middle West.

BY CHESTER A. BRADLEY. (A Member of The Star's Staff.)

MANSFIELD, MO., April 9. -- Stories of Middle Western American pioneer life which were written here on a school tablet with a pencil are being read around the world and by millions of Americans. Their author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, 82, is known and loved by countless school children. Their parents also like her "Laura and Mary" stories.

By all standards Mrs. Wilder is a famous American author. Nevertheless, she is unaffected and as unassuming as in her earlier days here when she helped "pull a crosscut saw" on Ozark timber.

This month the city of Detroit is paying high tribute to Mrs. Wilder. It is naming one of its new branch libraries for her. Other such libraries there bear some of the most famous names in American history. 

Mrs. Wilder is the author of eight books that tell a story of everyday life in early Western America, extending from Wisconsin to the Dakotas and including ventures into the Indian territory of Kansas. Seven of the volumes are "Laura and Mary" stories, these characters being representative of Mrs. Wilder and a sister named Mary. The other book in the series is the story of a year in the boyhood life of her husband, Almanzo Wilder, who is 92 and a native of New York. 

Most of the Materials for the 50-Year-Old Wilder Home
Came From Their Farm ... The Large, Old-Fashioned
Chimney Opens into a Large Living Room Fireplace,
Reminiscent of the Pioneer Period of Which Mrs. Wilder
Has Written So Often.

Live In Distinctive Home.

This Ozark town of a little more than1,000 population is 250 miles southwest of Kansas City. The Wilders live a half mile east of it. Their unpretentious, 2-story, white frame house sits on a hill overlooking U.S. highway No. 60. It has a vine-covered stone chimney, tall and wide. Inside the home it is connected with a large fireplace in the living room--a room at once distinctive to a visitor because of its beamed ceiling and liberal use of woodwork, all white oak cut on the farm and shaped into lumber by the Wilders years ago. Except for the siding, most all materials used in building the home came right off the farm.

The living room also has several wall cases and shelves for the many books of the family library and there are framed scrolls and other pieces of art, written or painted in tribute to Mrs.Wilder's stories.

Mr. and Mrs. Wilder have lived in this home on the land they call Rocky Ridge farm since they moved here in a covered wagon from De Smet, S.D. in 1894. A drought lasting nearly three years had ruined most everything and everybody in the Dakotas, so the Wilders set out for the Ozarks, then known as "the land of the big red apple," seeking a new start in life.

They lived here in town for awhile, then acquired forty acres nearby, including a tree lien on the place. That proviso of the deal required that they carry out the terms of the former owner--to plant apple trees. The Wilders did, some ten acres at first, and their orchards were tended well enough that production reached proportions of carload shipments to Memphis, Tenn. and other markets. Mrs. Wilder recalls that spraying was virtually unknown and unneeded in those days.

By the hardest work in their earlier years here--Mrs. Wilder remembering well having helped to pull a saw on timber--they expanded their farm to more than 200 acres, had many chickens and dairy cattle and kept farm work going until recent years.

"We worked hard, but it was interesting and didn't hurt us any," Mrs. Wilder says.

She Raised Chickens.

Their farm was made one of the most successful hereabouts. Mrs. Wilder raised the chickens and her husband handled the cows. Once they had a contest, she says, as to whether cows or chickens brought the biggest returns.

"We had to work against each other trying to prove our point," she adds with a brightening of the eyes, adding quickly that the contest "ended in a draw."

The Wilders take pride in their long years of work and in the success they made on their Ozark farmland. Mrs. Wilder is much less willing to talk of her success as a writer or of any claim to fame. She disdains having any display made over her writing, although it has attained a place that brings fan mail from Japan, Sweden, and other countries as well as points all around America.

Her first writings were for newspapers and magazines, usually on poultry, or farming and rural subjects. It was not until 1932 that her first book was published and this event was more or less unexpected as far as she was concerned.

"Pa" Ingalls, her father, was a pioneer hunter, trapper and Indian fighter. He guarded property of the Chicago-Northwestern railroad in the days it was being built, had many adventures in the Middle West and became one of the founders of De Smet, S.D. 

Time after time she had heard him tell of his experiences and her own part in the family activities are worth reading, as proven by book sales today.

"These were family stories and I believed they should be preserved," Mrs. Wilder said, "so I wrote some of them down and sent them to my daughter Rose, so she could keep them. I also suggested she might want to use some of them in her writings." 

Rose Wilder Lane, her daughter, who lives in Danbury, Conn., already was nationally known as a reporter and author.

“Rose wrote back, some time later,” Mrs. Wilder continued, “that an editor had said the stories could be published if I would put some meat on the bones; so after that I started doing just that.”

“I wrote between washing dishes and getting dinner, or just any time I could,” she added. “But sometimes I got stumped on a phrase or a chapter. Maybe the way to do it would not come to me until after I had gone to bed and then I would think of something in the middle of th enight.”

Thus the many duties of an active farm wife took on new chores, but highly worthwhile ones.

She used an ordinary pencil and school tablet. Her manuscripts were sent to New York for typing, and all business connected with the work of publication was and is handled by her agent. He is George T. Bye, former Kansas Citian, who handles the writing of Mrs. Franklin D. (Eleanor) Roosevelt, and other celebrities.

Favorite Among Children.

Harper & Brothers of New York published the first book by Mrs. Wilder and all the others in the series. Chicago school children in 1947 selected Mrs. Wilder as their favorite author. She was honored in a special radio broadcast there. A plaque in the home here contains signatures of many Chicago children who took part in the events. Similar plaques have come from the Association of Children’s Librarians of Northern California; also one from Seattle, representing children and librarians of the Pacific Northwest.

Her books are very popular with Kansas City Public Library patrons. “Pa’s Fiddle,” well known in the books now is in the state museum at Pierre, S.D., but is played every year in a special annual concert there.

Mrs. Wilder was born at Pepin, Wis., on February 7, 1867, and a portrait of her father is drawn in "Little House in the Big Woods." Other titles in the series, all true stories, she says, are "Little House on the Prairie" (the family in the Indian Territory of Kansas); "Farmer Boy (Mr. Wilder's boyhood), "On the Banks of Plum Creek" (Early Minnesota); "By the Shores of Silver Lake" (Dakota territory); "The Long Winter" (one even worse than the recent one in Missouri); "Little Town on the Prairie" (in Dakota), and "These Happy Golden Years" (Laura, who was a school teacher at sixteen, meets Almanzo. Sleigh rides and buggy rides figure in the romance. Following marriage in South Dakota in 1885 they go to make their home in a little house on the claim they acquired.)

With fame and extra cash from book royalties in recent years, most persons would say the golden years are certainly continuing, but writing success has its drawbacks these days, Mrs. Wilder finds.

Hit By Income Tax.

She doesn't talk in figures of the money she has received for her books, but she says:

The more I wrote the bigger my income tax got, so I stopped. Why should I go on at my age? Why, we don't need it here anyway."

The latter statement was in regard to her complete satisfaction with the simple, comfortable life in the home she has known for more than half a century. The Wilders sold their farm with the provision they could occupy the home until “I just finished planting the potatoes,” said Mr. Wilder as he entered the home to greet visitors. Despite “not being strong” and his 92 years he is most alert to the current scene. Both the Wilders, however, complain of not being able to get help, "either inside or outside the house."

Detroit is planning appropriate ceremonies for the dedication of the library named for Mrs. Wilder. Officials there are eager for Mrs. Wilder to take part, but she says "definitely" she will not. It would be too much of a trip for Mr. Wilder, she adds; also, while she feels well, and certainly looks it, she says, "I'm too nervous" for anything like that. 

Her last public appearance as an author was in Detroit six years ago when she took part in book week events there.

Ralph A. Ulveling, library director of Detroit, said recently that "we believe her books will live and will be read with interest a hundred years from now just as they are today. If our prediction is correct we will naturally take particular pride in having been the institution that led the way in bringing her permanent recognition among the American men and women of letters."

Others honored similarly by Detroit libraries include such famous Americans as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas A. Edison, Ulveling noted. Seldom has the city so honored any living person.

"In choosing the name of Mrs. Wilder," Ulveling said, "we did so because we felt that she was a Midwestern writer who in her series of books has presented an invaluable social history of this great central portion of the country. While some historians, and they have an important place present the great sweep of history, bringing out the political and the military influences, Mrs. Wilder has directed attention to the commonplace things, the way of life of people. Thus she has preserved a portion of our history which is the part that is most likely to be lost in the course of time. She has done this beautifully, ably and understandingly, and like so few writers she has done it in a way which is interesting both to children and to adults.

The Challenge of Reporting on Bleeding Kansas, 1856

I like these articles about the conflict in the Kansas Territory from the Tuesday, Sept 16, 1856, issue of the New York Tribune for several reasons, hardly the least of which is that they are highly entertaining to read. That is, if you enjoy reading antiquated insults aimed at politicians.  Another reason I like them is because they illustrate that people at the time were often confused about what was happening in Kansas, something I believe has persisted in historical treatments of the topic.  Although the author complains about the border-ruffian bias of the news reports coming out of Kansas, I think the free-state bias expressed in this article is relatively moderate and fair given its chronological proximity to the events at hand.

From the New-York Daily Tribune on Tuesday, September 16, 1856:

It would be absurd to look to the drunkard Atchison, to the drunkard Shannon, or to the drunken rabble of Missouri, or even to the miserable President Pierce, who, perhaps, can scarcely be held more accountable than they—it would be absurd to look to any of these as the really responsible parties for the atrocious crimes against both public and private rights, the rights of citizens as well as the ordinary rights of humanity, of which Kansas is now the scene.  Neither the ruffians of Missouri, nor President Pierce, heartless and soulless demagogue and doughface as he is, would have dared to venture, would have ever thought even of venturing upon such unheard-of atrocities, had they not been instigated to it, and encouraged and supported in it, by persons of vastly more social and political consequence and influence than themselves.  That which has been done is now doing in Kansas, is briefly this: A Missouri mob takes violent possession of the polls, elects a pretended Legislature, and through the medium of that pretended Legislature enacts a bloody and atrocious code; and that same mob are now in Kansas with arms and torches in their hands, murdering the Free-State men, burning down their towns and houses, and driving them, stripped of all their property, from the Territory, under pretense of enforcing order, sustaining the authority of the United States, and putting in execution the laws of the Territory! 

Now, admitting that the first violation of the rights of the people of Kansas, by driving them from the polls and returning as elected a body of the bogus legislators, was solely the idea and act of the Border Ruffians themselves, without any encouragement or instigation from Washington or elsewhere—which is more, we fear, than the truth of the facts will warrant—yet other persons, by upholding and sustaining as a legal body the bogus Legislature thus infamously imposed upon Kansas, and their infamous laws as a binding code, have made themselves the responsible parties for all the subsequent outrages.  And who are the parties who have thus taken upon themselves this terrible responsibility—a responsibility to which the people of these United States will most strictly hold them?  These responsible parties, these indorsers of the Missouri invaders and their bogus Legislature, are the Cabinet of President Pierce, the Border-Ruffian majority in the Senate of the United States, and, to a still greater degree than either of these, the Cincinnati Convention and the politicians who support the nominee and the platform of that Convention.  It is only the confidence of being sustained by, and the hope of giving pleasure and satisfaction to, these influential parties, that have emboldened the Border Ruffians of Missouri to enter upon the ferocious, bloody work in which they are now engaged.  They are but re-acting the part of the servants of Henry II., who, in the hope of pleasing their King and master, waylaid and murdered Thomas a Becket; and the politicians, to please and gratify whom murders and other outrages are now being perpetrated in Kansas, may rest assured that before they ever again can be recognized as Christians or political leaders, the same humble, barefooted penance which the proud and powerful Henry II. was obliged to pay at the shrine and grave of St. Thomas a Becket to purge his conscience of that murder, the people of the United States will force them to pay at the graves of the martyrs of Kansas. 

The Cabinet at Washington, the Senate of the United States, the Cincinnati Convention, and the politicians that support the Platform and the candidate of that Convention, will each and all, and every individual of them, be held responsible for the horrible deeds lately done and now being done in Kansas; but there are four individuals, all northern men and all doughfaces, upon whom the force of the public indignation may be expected to fall with a weight peculiarly crushing.  These four persons are, Marcy and Cushing of the Cabinet, Douglas of the Senate, and Buchanan, the nominee of the Cincinnati Convention—no longer (as he himself declares) the man James Buchanan, but a walking, writing, speaking automaton, to which the Cincinnati Platform serves as intellect and conscience, and which has neither wish, hope, intention, or sentiment beyond those embodied in that document. 

Pierce may be let off on the score of imbecility, natural or superinduced; but these four able men cannot set up the excuse of folly.  They have gone into this Kansas business with their eyes open; and, let them be assured, they will be held to a responsibility at which bolder men than they might well tremble. 

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Our readers have already been reminded that Missouri and the Border Ruffians lie directly between us and Kansas, so that the first tidings of all conflicts or outrages in that devoted Territory emanate from Pro-Slavery sources, and reach us through Pro-Slavery channels.  Even The Missouri Democrat forms no exception to this remark, since, though its correspondents mean to be fair and its editors just, yet their telegraphic news is mainly made up of the stories set afloat by the Ruffians in Kansas or hovering on her border.  Under such circumstances, we have no alternative but to publish the accounts as they reach us, fully believing that our dispatches and Missouri bulletins which are calculated to discredit the Free-State men, will in due time be corrected by more authentic advises, including the letters of our own correspondents.  It is hard to be obliged to give the falsehoods of the Ruffians ten or twelve days’ start of the truth, but we see no practicable alternative. 

The journals and politicians in vogue with the Ruffians pursue a different course.  They print the first Pro-Slavery bulletins, and carefully suppress those of the Free-State men; and when the former are proved false in any respect, they use this circumstance to discredit the true advices from Kansas and induce a belief that there is little or no trouble there—thus making the falsehoods or mistakes of their Missouri confederates do double duty.  Thus The New-London Star says: 

“Old Brown and young Brown, who were so badly ‘killed’ in Kansas lately, per telegraph, by the ‘Pro Slavery’ party have both turned up ‘alive.’ They were not in the ‘battle’ at all.  The people are beginning to appreciate these Kansas lies, and, as Dr. Olds said the Ohio Republican editor told him, he wouldn’t give a d---n a yard for them.” 

Now “Old Brown” and one or more of his sons were engaged in the defense of Osawattamie against a ten-fold force of Border Ruffians, who routed the Free-State men, killed several, wounded more, and sacked and burnt the town.  The victors reported that they had killed “Old Brown” and one of his sons; but it seems that they were mistaken—at least with regard to the former.  He probably lost his hat in fleeing across he Osage, which gave the Ruffians the impression that he had been shot and had sunk, leaving his hat floating on the stream.  His son, the last reports say, was killed, but the father appears to have been unaware of the fact when he wrote to his wife from Lawrence on the 2d inst.  No Free-State dispatch or letter has reported his death; yet The Star would fain improve this Border Ruffian mistake to the discredit even of the fact that there was a conflict at Osawattamie at all! 

--So The Albany Argus seizes on the fact that lawyer Phillips of Leavenworth, recently murdered in his own house for the crime of being a Free-State man, was in one dispatch termed a correspondent of The Tribune—a very natural mistake, since hundreds in Kansas and Western Missouri know that one of our Kansas correspondents is named Phillips, is a warm Free-State man, and has, in this discharge of his duties, spent considerable time in Leavenworth—to discredit all accounts of outrage and murder in Kansas—as if it made any difference, as to this, whether the Mr. Phillips killed by the Ruffians at Leavenworth were or were not our correspondent.  We exposed the error of the telegraphic dispatch on this point simultaneously with its appearance in the journals of the Atlantic States. 

--So Mr. Ely Moore (Indian Agent) took advantage of the fact that another Eli Moore had been reported guilty of an outrageous assault on a Free-State man in Kansas (see Investigating Committee's Report, page 963,) to deny most pompously that he had committed any such outrage, to assert that The Tribune had no correspondent stationed at Lecompton (where no known correspondent of this paper could live a week), and to assert that the Kansas correspondence of this and other Eastern papers was manufactured in their own offices! Comment would seem superfluous. 

--The Buchaneers are sweeping the votes of Missouri and all the South on the strength of what they are doing and confidently expected to do to make Kansas a Slave State.  We concede them the vote of every State south of Chesapeake Bay, knowing why they get them.  Now if they can make the North believe that there is no such region as Kansas, no effort to subjugate it to Slavery, and no violence, outrage or murder committed on its Free-State settlers, they may secure votes enough from the Free States to elect their men.  Let us see how they do it. 

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The Charleston Standard has a letter from Atchison, Kansas, which shows the purpose with which the invaders of that Territory from Carolina, Georgia and Missouri have entered upon the last foray against the Free-State settlers.  We quote: 

“We are ordered to march to-morrow, and I think will be stationed on the Nebraska line.  Reports have reached us to-day of a fight in that direction, in which fifty Abolitionists were killed and the rest driven back.  This is almost too good to be true.  

“Gov. Shannon has resigned (his successor not having arrived yet), and Hon. Woodson is now Governor pro tem.  By reliable information we hear that he has said hat, as soon as a sufficient force can be collected to warrant the move, he, as Governor, will issue a proclamation declaring the Territory in a state of insurrection, and take the field.  The United States troops are stationed at Lecompton to protect the Government property, but will not interfere in the fight.  Col.  Titus has not been killed, but was badly wounded, and a prisoner.  His ransom was obtained by the restoration of a piece of cannon, taken by the Palmetta Rifles at Lawrence.  Reinforcements are daily arriving, and I do not think 'twould be advisable for us to take the field with less than two thousand men.  We are very badly supplied with cannon, having only a few six-pounders, and the enemy have a greater number and larger pieces.  Our only chance will be to take their's from them.  

"We are regularly in for it now, and in a few days will actually be engaged in a civil war--which will, I presume, result in a dissolution of the Union." 

The writer clearly shows that the invaders of Kansas anticipate the dissolution of the Union as the result of the civil war which they delight to find themselves "regularly in for," and that Woodson, the acting Governor of the Territory, is an accomplice with the in the conspiracy.  In other words, the power of the Federal Government in Kansas is used with a view to destroy the Union.  That, however, is but a small part of the crimes of which the Pierce Administration and the "Democratic" party are guilty.

1882 Article About the Life of Jesse James

The Bourbon News 

Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky: Tuesday, April 18, 1882.  

[Picture] Jesse James, The Bandit.  From the last photograph he had taken.  

The cut of Jesse James in this issue, was kindly loaned us by James J. Burns, editor of the Flemingsburg Democrat, who is not only a sprightly editor, but an accomplished wood engraver.  He copied it from a cut in the life of Jesse James published some two years ago.  The original photo was taken while the bandit was a guest at one of the principal Long Branch hotels, about the year 1870. 

The Dead Bandit. 

Jesse James was the son of a Baptist preacher of prominence and eloquence in his day.  The father was a native of Logan county, this state, and the mother, whose maiden name Zerelda Cole, was born in Woodford county, about half way between Versailles and Lexington, where her father kept a hostelry known as “Cole’s Tavern.”  On the death of her father the widow removed to the neighborhood of Stamping Ground, in Scott county, among her relatives, and there the future mother of the greatest bandit of modern times grew from childhood into girlhood, and from girlhood into womanhood, and there was married, in 1840, to Rev. Robert J. James.  In the subsequent year their first child, Frank, was born in Scott county.  In 1843 the Jameses removed to Missouri, setting in Clay county, where Jesse was born in 1845.  Mrs. James was a handsome, vivacious, devil-may-care girl, careless of good or evil report.  Tall, large-framed, and full of animal life, she was a universal favorite among those of the opposite sex, and her marriage to a clergyman was one of those surprises she was fond of indulging in.  Her hair was black as the raven’s wing, her eyes black and piercing.  Her temper was quick and fiery, her tongue sharp and cutting, and her enimity deadly and enduring.  She was constant and faithful in her friendships, and her hatreds were hot and undying.  She is now an exceedingly large woman, her hair sprinkled with gray, her eyes still keen and piercing, her temper as ungovernable as ever, and in all her ways, walks and talks, a fitting dam for such ferocious cubs as her two sons.  Her husband was a meek and humble-minded man and she made his life a hell, from which he finally fled to California, where he found the peace of death in 1851.  A few years afterwards the widow was married to Robert Mimms, whom she speedily harassed into the grave, and was succeeded in the connubial harness by Dr. Samuels, a prominent physician of Clay county.  To her is attributed the evil life led by her sons.  She upheld them in their career of crime, applauded their dare-devil deeds, and at all times extended them succor and protection.  All the affection in her nature is centered in them, and, while hard, and cruel, and vindictive toward others, she was ever the soft, loving, indulgent mother toward her children.  They inherited her own fearless spirit, and she gloried in them.  Deeds that filled the world with horror and heaped upon their names denunciation and detestation, she hailed as heroic and worthy of songs of praise and the hero’s wreath.