This is the rest of the story from April 15 regarding my doing the bus tour program for a bus tour company from Jefferson City, Missouri. The second program would be as follows:
Jessie and Frank James were true professionals in their occupation, namely bank robbers.
Jessie and Frank found out when the bank at Northfield, Minnesota was receiving the entire shipment of gold coins for all the area banks. Being professionals, this info was a potential bonanza to them.
They looked for a livery stable where the gang could stay a few days, rest their men, get the horses reshod, purchase new horses, check the gear, train the horses on long swims and get a short day’s ride to camp overnight close to Northfield, next day rob the bank and ride back to this livery stable, stay the night and leave just before noon the next day for their home in Missouri.
The gang found the ideal livery stable at Beaver Lake, Ellendale, Minnesota.
Training the horses wasn’t easy as the horses had to learn long-distance swimming with a rider in the saddle, plus weight in the saddlebags (gold coins later) and a four-foot tree branch with a horseshoe on one end.
The training was from the east end to the west end swimming across Beaver Lake. As shore was reached, the rider would push the horseshoe end of the branch into the sand or mud with the horseshoe going the other way to confuse any posse riders.
While training, Jessie met Widow Brown and her son Les as the farm was on the east end of Beaver Lake. She explained the banker in Ellendale was about to foreclose on the farm as her husband was killed in a farm accident and she couldn’t make the mortgage payments.
Jessie told her he knew a person that would give her the money to pay off the mortgage. He told her to contact the banker with the day to be at the farm and how much money she needed to pay off the mortgage. She was to tell the banker the money came from her selling the farm, thus, she needed papers showing no debt.
The gang finished their training and rode to their camp outside of Northfield. The next morning they rode into Northfield. Part of the gang went inside the bank and the rest guarded the outside.
About then all you could hear was gunshots as the locals were ready and waiting for the gang. Many of the gang were killed both inside and outside the bank. Jessie and Frank plus a few others managed to escape with some of the gold.
A posse was right behind them but lost track of the gang because of the gang swimming lakes and leaving confusing horseshoe tracks as they returned to Beaver Lake.
The next morning, just before the Ellendale banker rode out to Widow Brown’s farm in his Surrey with the fringe on top, Jessie gave the Widow Brown the money she gave to the banker and he gave her the papers showing no debt.
On his way to the bank, Jessie and the gang robbed the banker and continued on their way back to Missouri.
Widow Brown sold the farm and moved to Enid, Oklahoma where she built an opera house. As a talented musical writer, she wrote the opera Oklahoma with one of the songs containing the words “Surrey with the fringe on top.” Son Les founded the well-known band “Les Brown and His Band of Renown.”
Jessie, Frank, and the rest of the James Gang all died young in Missouri.
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Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent, currently working on his master’s degree in Volunteering. His wife, Genie, is a retired RN, currently working on her doctor’s degree in Volunteering. They have two children, Deb in North Carolina, and Dan in New York. Bob says if you enjoy his column, let him know. If you don’t enjoy it, keep on reading, it can get worse. Words of wisdom: There is always room for God.