Zerelda James

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Zerelda James Samuel (January 29, 1825 – February 10, 1911) was the mother of Frank James and Jesse James.

Born as Zerelda Elizabeth Cole in Woodford County, Kentucky her parents were James and Sarah Lindsay Cole; she had one younger brother, Jesse Richard Cole. One year younger than she, her brother committed suicide in 1895 for undisclosed reasons.

When Zerelda was a small child, her father broke his neck in a riding accident leaving her mother with two small children; they were taken in by her paternal grandfather who owned a saloon. Later her mother re-married (to a farmer surnamed Thompson). Zerelda, by all accounts, did not get on with her new stepfather so she went to live with some of her mother's relatives in Kentucky where she attended a Catholic girls school.

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[edit] First marriage

At the age of 16 Zerelda Cole married Robert Sallee James on December 28, 1841, at the home of her uncle, James Madison Lindsay, in Stamping Ground, Kentucky. A college friend of Robert's officiated as the best man and tobacco was given in bond. The two moved to the vicinity of Centerville (later Kearney, Missouri).

Robert James was a commercial hemp farmer, a slave owner, and a popular evangelical minister in the Baptist Church. Zerelda bore him four children.

  • Alexander Franklin James (b. January 10, 1843 - d. February 18, 1915)
  • Robert B. James (b. July 19, 1845 – d. August 21, 1845)
  • Jesse Woodson James (b. September 5, 1847 - d. April 3, 1882)
  • Susan Lavenia James (b. November 25, 1849 - d. March 3, 1889)

Shortly after the birth of his daughter, Susan, Robert James moved to California to preach to the gold miners, where he contracted either pneumonia, cholera or typhoid, and died on (according to tradition) August 18, 1850. His grave has never been officially identified and no marker exists for him today. There is a much disputed story that in later years Jesse went looking for the grave of his father.

[edit] Second marriage

Benjamin Simms (born circa 1830 – d. January 2, 1854) was a wealthy farmer who married widow Zerelda James on September 30, 1852. The marriage proved to be an unhappy one, largely because of Simms' dislike of Frank James and Jesse James, to whom he was reportedly cruel.[citation needed] Zerelda left Simms, who died on January 2, 1854, when he was thrown by his horse.

[edit] Third marriage

Zerelda married a third time, to Dr. Reuben Samuel (b. January 1829 – d. March 1, 1908), on September 25, 1855. Samuel has been described as "a quiet, passive man, was widely described as standing in the shadow of his outspoken, forceful wife". Dr. Reuben Samuel and Zerelda Samuel had four children:

  • Sarah Louisa Samuel (b. April 7, 1858 - d. ????)
  • John Thomas Samuel (b. December 25, 1861 - d. ????)
  • Fanny Quantrill Samuel (b. October 18, 1863 - d. ????)
  • Archie Peyton Samuel (b. July 26, 1866 - d. January 26, 1875)

There has been some dispute as to the spelling of the surname "Samuel", as it appears to be spelt without the usual S at the end. However, the surname does appear to be spelt "Samuel" as attested to by birth records and family gravestones and neighbour Homer Croy.


[edit] Post Jesse: The James Farm Tour

With all the press circulating of the famous James brothers of Missouri, the hysteria of the Frank James trial and all the dime novels of which the family did not approve, it was inevitable that people would turn up at the farm wanting to see the place where the famous Jesse James had grown up.

Zerelda charged a dollar for the tour, and the visitors were taken on a tour of the farmhouse including a vivid account of the Pinkerton Raid in January which the fireplace still bears the burn marks from.

The tour culminated at the grave of Jesse, who was originally buried in the front yard under Zerelda’s watchful eye. Zerelda was tormented by the thought that someone would come and take him so she had him buried an extra few feet down than the standard six, for an extra few coins visitors were allowed to scoop up the “authentic” pebbles from the grave. Unbeknownst to them, Zerelda had replenished from the stream where the boys used to play and had probably only been sitting there since that morning.

[edit] Death

Zerelda died in 1911 in the Burlington carriage on a train traveling to San Francisco, California of a heart ailment (some 20 miles outside of Oklahoma City). She was 86 years old and was buried next to Dr. Reuben Samuel.

[edit] Timeline

[edit] References

  • Settle, William A., Jr.: Jesse James Was His Name, or, Fact and Fiction Concerning the Careers of the Notorious James Brothers of Missouri, University of Nebraska Press, 1977
  • Yeatman, Ted P.: Frank and Jesse James: The Story Behind the Legend, Cumberland House, 2001
  • Stiles, T.J.: Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, Alfred A. Knopf, 2002
  • Obituary from the Washington Post; February 11, 1911
  • Jesse and Frank James: The Family History by Phillip Steele

[edit] Popular culture

  • Mamaw by Susan M. Dodd, a fictional book about Zerelda.
  • Fran Ryan played Zerelda in the 1980 film The Long Riders, which was a more or less accurate film about the last years of the James-Younger gang after the Civil War
  • Jane Darwell played Zerelda in the 1939 movie starring Tyrone Power.

[edit] External links