I have always heard that Jesse and Frank James hid out in the Indian Territory during their run from the law. Does anyone know when and where they hid out in the territory? I read an article once that they hid a stash of loot somewhere in southwest Oklahoma near Fort Sill that has never been found.
Posts: 230 | Location: Indian and Oklahoma Territories | Registered: Wed February 04 2004
Well in 1933 a story came out that they had buried loot in caves east of Newkirk. Me, I don't think so. But In a book by Glen Shirley on Pawnee Bill. He tells a story of them and Bill in the cherokee Strip area. So who knows.
Terry Whitehead
Posts: 12 | Location: Blackwell, Oklahoma, USA | Registered: Fri January 09 2004
The Indian and Pioneerstories at the Oklahoma Historical Society are replete with tales of Jesse and Frank hiding out in the territory during the mid to late 1870's. Most say they worked for a freight outfit hauling supplies to Fort Sill. The most common route was from the Caddo depot on the Katy railroad along the government road from there to Cherokee Town on the Washita and on to Fort Sill. One story repeats the "widow story" used by most writers on the James boys. The same old timer names Grant Kimberlin, a rancher near present Pauls Valley as a friend of the James.
Posts: 381 | Location: Elmore City, Ok, USA | Registered: Fri December 12 2003
Yes Jesse and frank were all over the state of Okla.. I have had the good fortune to work with Jesses grandsons. Frank did live between Fletcher and Cyril just west of Hwy.19 near the county line sign.. I have been to the farm he bought there in about 1907.. I have been to the hole where he dug up the six thousand dollars that he used to buy the farm..Their mother died in 1911.. she was on her way back to Missouri from a visit at Franks farm. She died on a train just outside of okla. City.. Frank sold his farm in about 1914 and moved back to his old home place in Missouri.. He died there in 1915 ..Bud Hardcastle
I will add a little to the post I made last night..Tower spoke of Jesse knowing the Kimberlins who ranched near White Bead.. That family still lives on the Kimberlin ranch there.. Susie told me that they have a pistol at the ranch that belonged to Jesse Jesse James. We know that Dr. frank James removed a bullet from Jesse on the banks of the washita River near Old Cherokee Town.. Adriene Grimmett from Pauls Valley recently brought me a copy of Michael Towers new book" 911 was not an Option" Tales of Lawlessness Along The Middle Washita River.. I have lived in this area all my life, and also being a relative of U.S. Marshall John Swain, the history of this area intrigues me.. I would like to say that Towers book is great, and I would recommend it to everyone..Bud Hardcastle
quote:Originally posted by Bud Hardcastle: I would like to say that Towers book is great, and I would recommend it to everyone..Bud Hardcastle
I strongly second your recommendation. Mike has a gift for telling interesting stories and reporting salient events of the times. Here's one of my favorites. Anybody who reads the literature of the Old (and not so old) West cannot help but notice the many accounts of the bonds these people developed with their animal companions. Think cowboys and their horses. Sheepherders and their collies. Prospectors and their mules. Mike has a great story about cats, which were imported into the Middle Washita and put under the personal protection of Smith Paul himself, leading to generations of lazy felines lolling about the area. Great stuff.
I live near Meers,Ok. While going through old photos with my mom we can across 4 pics of her sister(my aunt)and in the pics is an old man being loaded in an small high wing airplane...under the pics it says Jessie James being loaded in airplane...pics were taking near lawton in the 50s I think. The pics of the old man are not very clear...black and white photos...the old man with white beard and hair is on a stretcher..one photos says James with his bottle and you can see him through the window with what appairs to be a whiskie bottle. Does anyone know anything about someone saying to be Jesse James and being in Lawton around that time????
It seems that I remember that there was a man in the Lawton area in the '50's that claimed that he was Jesse James. It made the headlines for a little while, and then nothing more. I don't remember the outcome of the claim. I don't think he was "the" Jesse James. Carl
A good write up on the claim of J. Frank Dalton claiming to be the true Jesse James is found in Steve Wilson's "Oklahoma Treasure Tales." I don't know what to think of the man, but from what I've read, most are sceptical that he was the true Jesse. There is a photo of Dalton and "Brushy Bill" Roberts who claimed to be Billy the Kid at Dalton's supposed 100th[?] birthday party.
On the Trail Diron Ahlquist Secretary, Oklahombres Inc.
Posts: 333 | Location: Oklahoma City, OK | Registered: Wed December 10 2003
I just returned from a business trip to Lawton, Ok. I grew up there but moved to Austin, Tx in 1982. While visiting Medicine Park in the Wichita Wildlife Refuge, I stopped by the Old Plantation. While there I noticed a framed copy of a newspaper article from 1948 from the Lawton Constitution. The article told the story of how Jessie James faked his own death and then retired in Lawton, Ok where he lived out his life. It was reported as factual information. The man that Robert Ford killed was not Jessie James. Jessie and Frank convinced their mother to go down and identify the body as being Jessie's, which she did reluctantly. The story is that Jessie actually sang at his own funeral. I'm going to do more research on this. It was a very interesting article.
