Alexander Franklin James was a Confederate soldier and guerrilla; in the post-Civil War period, he was an outlaw.
23 Facts About Frank James
2.
Frank James's father died in 1851 and his mother remarried Benjamin Simms in 1852.
3.
Census records show that Frank James attended school regularly, and he reportedly wanted to become a teacher.
4.
The American Civil War began in 1861, when Frank James was eighteen years old.
5.
The Frank James family was from the heavily Confederate western portion of the state.
6.
On September 13,1861, the Missouri State Guard, including private Frank James, besieged Lexington, Missouri.
7.
Frank James fell ill and was left behind when the Confederate forces retreated.
8.
Frank James surrendered to the Union troops, was paroled, and was allowed to return home.
9.
Frank James soon switched to the more active command led by William Clarke Quantrill.
10.
Union militiamen searching for Fernando Scott raided the Samuel farm and hanged Dr Reuben Samuel, Frank James's stepfather, torturing him to reveal the location of the guerrillas.
11.
Shortly afterward, Frank James took part with Quantrill's company in the August 21,1863 Lawrence Massacre where approximately 200 mostly unarmed civilians were killed.
12.
However, there is an alternative account that claims in the of 1865, Frank James, who was in Kentucky going to Missouri, was suspected of stealing horses in Ohio and that Frank James shot two members of a posse and escaped.
13.
Five months after the killing of his brother Jesse in 1882, Frank James boarded a train to Jefferson City, Missouri, where he had an appointment with the governor in the state capitol.
14.
Accounts say that Frank James surrendered with the understanding that he would not be extradited to Northfield, Minnesota.
15.
Frank James was never extradited to Minnesota for his connection with the Northfield Raid.
16.
Finally Frank James was acquitted and went to Oklahoma to live with his mother.
17.
Frank James never was in the penitentiary and never was convicted of any of the charges against him.
18.
Frank James took up the lecture circuit, while residing in Sherman, Texas.
19.
Frank James returned to the North Texas area where he was a shoe salesman at Sanger Brothers in Dallas.
20.
Frank James was part of a Chicago investment group which purchased the Fletcher Terrell's Buckskin Bill's Wild West Show, third in size after the Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill shows.
21.
Frank James died there at age 72 on February 18,1915.
22.
Frank James left behind his wife Annie Ralston James and one son.
23.
Frank James is interred in Hill Park Cemetery, in the western portion of Independence, Missouri.