Frank and Jesse

How would you like to have been neighbors of Frank and Jesse James? Little John’s great- grandparents were. They lived next to Robert and Zerelda (Cole) James for several years in Missouri.

His father, Robert S. James, was a commercial hemp farmer and Baptist minister in Kentucky, who migrated to Bradford, Missouri, after marriage and helped found William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. He was prosperous, acquiring six slaves and more than 100 acres (0.40 km2) of farmland. Robert James traveled to California during the Gold Rush to minister to those searching for gold and died there when Jesse was three years old. Robert and Zerelda were the parents of Frank, Jesse and Susan.

As the story was passed down to Little John from his grandparents and great –grandparents, the James were well known and well loved by people. Oh, true, the boys were a little rowdy when growing up and were mischievous, but were not mean. When Jesse was 10 years old, and Frank was 13, his mother married Dr. Reuben Samuel. Dr. Reuben Samuel (January 12, 1828 – March 1, 1908) He was 27 years old when he married Mrs. James. He gave up his medical profession and moved to the James’ farm where he raised tobacco. He took on Zerelda’s three children to raise and they had four more of their own. Then came the Civil War. Militiamen searching for Frank James (who had joined the South) raided the Samuel farm, and briefly (though not fatally) hanged Dr. Samuel, torturing him to reveal the location of the guerrillas. Shortly afterward, Frank joined Quantrill's band on August 21, 1863 Lawrence Massacre. It is believed that events such as this is what caused the James brothers to join the South.Frank and Jesse often returned home after their escapades, hiding out until they felt the coast was clear. According to Little John’s grandparent’s stories, the James home had a hidden door in the floor covered by a big rug. If the James brothers were there and the law rode up, Zerelda would hurriedly remove the rug; open the trap door; usher her boys in; put the rug back in place, leaving no trace. As a mother, of course, it’s unlikely she believed her boys to be robbers and murderers.

How well do you know your neighbors? How well do you know their needs? Was there a possibility that after the boy’s father passed when Jesse was three, and Frank was six, the neighbors could have helped Zerelda with the boys but perhaps didn’t? We know Frank, who was older, probably knew his father was a minister and was probably taught in the home before his father left for California, what was right and wrong. But, when his father died, I imagine Frank was bitter. He may have questioned if his father was such a good man, why did God allow him to die. Could this have been the beginning of his life of crime?
 

Perhaps all of us should look around for those neighbors who might have a need. You know, neighbors doesn’t necessarily mean someone who lives next door or the next farm but anyone we come in contact with whether friend or enemy. Who knows when you or I might prevent some young people from becoming the next Frank and Jesse James. God doesn’t suggest that we love our neighbor; He commands it.
 

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12: 30-31 ESV