That August, Frank took part in a raid spearheaded by guerilla leader William Quantrill on the abolitionist town of Lawrence, Kansas, during which some 200 men and boys were killed and numerous buildings were destroyed. In May 1863, while at his family’s farm, a teenage Jesse was ambushed and his stepfather hung from a tree (he survived) by Union militiamen seeking the whereabouts of Frank and his fellow insurgents. Frank James fought with the pro-secession Missouri State Guard at the start of the war then joined a band of Confederate guerillas, also known as bushwhackers, who carried out attacks against Union sympathizers in the region. After Frank and Jesse grew up to become outlaws, Zerelda, who was known as iron-willed, remained their staunch supporter.ĭuring the Civil War, Missouri, a border state, was home to guerilla fighting initiated by forces on both sides of the conflict. When she wed for a third time, in 1855, her husband, with whom she would have four more children, moved onto the farm. Zerelda soon left the marriage and returned to her first husband’s farm with her children. In 1852, Zerelda married a wealthy, older man and moved in with him, but he disliked the James children so they were made to live with another family.
Zerelda and her children-Jesse, his brother and future partner-in-crime, Frank, and younger sister, Susan-were plunged into perilous financial straits. In 1850, Robert James traveled to California to preach in the gold mining camps however, not long after arriving he became sick and died.
Frank and Jesse James’ mother, Zerelda (Credit: The Print Collector/Getty Images)īorn in Clay County, Missouri, on September 5, 1847, Jesse Woodson James was the son of Kentucky native Zerelda Cole James and her husband, Robert James, a Baptist minister and slave-owning hemp farmer who assisted in founding William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri.