Jesse James' Boyhood Home Draws Tourists

K E A R N E Y, Mo., Jan. 5, 2003 -- Outlaws Jesse and Frank James made a livingrobbing banks and trains. Apparently, their mother also knew how torake in the money, although in a legal if crass way.

Not long after an assassin shot Jesse James in 1882, ZereldaJames Samuel began giving tours of the home where she raised herboys. She even sold souvenirs.

For 25 cents, visitors could buy a pebble from Jesse's grave inthe front yard. And when the rocks got low, she simply replenishedthem from a creek bed.

Zerelda Samuel may have been one of the first Missourians topromote the birthplace of a famous — or in this case, infamous —native son. But she certainly wasn't the last.

Now, the Clay County government promotes her family home as theJesse James Farm and Museum, charging $6.50 for adults to tour thehome and a nearby museum and still selling pebbles for 25 centsalongside shirts, books and toys.

In the city of Hamilton, the municipal library shares a buildingwith the J.C. Penney Museum, which offers tours of the home wherethe businessman was born. The federal and state governments alsorun parks promoting the birthplaces of such famous Missourians asPresident Harry Truman, author Samuel Clemens (better known as MarkTwain) and educator George Washington Carver.

From Truman to Disney

Other sites have been created to promote the childhood homes ofTruman and Twain, whose families moved not long after their births,as well as those of Walt Disney and World War I Gen. John Pershing,whose birthplace is disputed but whose elegant boyhood home stillstands in north-central Missouri.

Most of the houses passed from one owner to another over theyears, undergoing alterations and gaining more modern conveniences.Except for the James home, it was only later — after their formerresidents gained fame — that someone seized on the tourismpotential of the humble beginnings and repaired the deterioratingchildhood homes as public showplaces. For some visitors, a look at humble early environments canamplify the magnitude of an individual's achievements. For others,the homes provide insight into the circumstances that shaped thefamous figures.

Jesse James' boyhood home, for example, remains relativelysecluded in the countryside northeast of the small town of Kearney.It's not hard to imagine how the young Jesse became familiar withguns, especially when one learns how he joined the Confederate Armyduring the Civil War after Union soldiers beat him, attacked hismother and tried to hang his stepfather at their home.

Sympathy for Jesse James

Later, after Jesse James graduated to a career of armed robbery,private detectives who were hired to find him and Frank threw anincendiary bomb into the family home, killing a younger brother andmaiming their mother, who lost an arm. No one knows if Jesse andFrank James were even home at the time.

Yet the event helped shape public sympathy for James, who wasreported to have spared women, working-class men and formerConfederates from bullets during his holdups.

That's partly why Charles Rhodes, touring the James home withhis grandson, is among the many who feel a strange mix ofcuriosity, respect and pity for James, who might have been brandedas a mass murderer in another era.

"In my opinion, he got off to a rough start — that's what builthim into a local hero. The Civil War was a hell of a place to be inMissouri. They made him what he was, and he fell right into it,"said Rhodes, of Platte City, who recalls receiving a personal tourof the home from a James relative about 35 years ago. The family continued to give tours for decades after the deathsof Jesse James and his mother. For many years, Frank James even ledthe tours — perhaps telling of the gang's exploits after beingacquitted of criminal charges in two robbery trials. It was FrankJames who began charging 50 cents for tours around 1910, saidElizabeth Beckett, the Clay County historic sites director.

When Clay County began overseeing the James home in 1978, theroof had sunk to chest-level, the wooden floors had become buriedin dirt and the house was held upright by ropes and trees. Butafter two restorations, 75 percent of the original materialsremain. The two-room cabin, which family members expanded afterJames' death, still contains a parlor table from the outlaw'schildhood and other furnishings used by the family.

The grave site no longer contains Jesse James' body, which wasmoved to a traditional cemetery alongside his wife. But it is stillstocked with pebbles.

Cabin For Carver

The James home is perhaps one of the most authentic birthplacesites.

There is no home, for example, at the birthplace of GeorgeWashington Carver near Diamond in southwest Missouri. Instead, theNational Park Service has constructed a replica log cabinfoundation at the approximate site where Carver is believed to havebeen born as a slave.

Mark Twain's and J.C. Penney's birthplace homes both have beenmoved from their original foundations.

Penney's home was transported from the country to downtownHamilton and contains no original items other than a few familyphotographs. Twain's 423-square-foot birthplace home was moved fromthe tiny town of Florida to the shelter of a museum constructed inthe nearby Mark Twain State Park. It, too, lacks any verifiablyoriginal furnishings, although it does include a cradle owned bythe town that might have been used to hold Twain. Truman's birthplace home sits on its original site in Lamar butlacks original indoor items, largely because the future president'sfamily moved when he was just 11 months old. As it is, Truman'shometown is most commonly considered Independence, where a home helived in as an adult is open for tours.

While the original site and furnishings of a house may beimportant to historians, many tourists are simply looking for an

impression of what life was like in a famous person's formativeyears.

Childhood historic sites are trying to convey that vague, warmquality of "home," said Denzil Heaney, administrator of the Gen.John J. Pershing Boyhood Home in Laclede.

For Pershing, home was always the nine-room Gothic house wherehe lived from age 6 until he entered the U.S. Military Academy inhis early 20s. Although his family had long since moved, Pershingstill would stay in the home when he returned to Laclede as ageneral.

For Walt Disney, "home" was the nearby northern Missouri townof Marceline, even though he only lived there from ages 5 to 11 andwent on to gain fame in California. That's because Disney'schildhood doodlings gained form in Marceline, which he used as aprototype for some of his later film and amusement park scenes.

Leave a Message

Disney's boyhood house is not open for tours, but its currentoccupants encourages visitors to walk on the property to a largecottonwood tree under which Disney would lie down to draw. A mowedtrail with interpretative signs also leads to a barn — modeledafter Disney's — where tourists are encouraged to scrawl messageson the walls.

Heaney hopes people will take a similar step back in time whenthey tour Pershing's boyhood home. He did, which is why he appliedto become the director of the state historic site after visiting iton vacation two years ago. "When I first came here to tour the site, I could really seethat sense of home," Heaney said. "I could see where his room wasand how the home was all situated… and I think that reallybrought it to life for me."

If You Go…

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER BIRTHPLACE: Located near Diamond; fromMissouri 59, go west on Route V 2 miles then south on Newton CountyRoad 16Q. Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. No admission. Contact (417)325-4151 or www.nps.gov/gwca.

HARRY TRUMAN BIRTHPLACE: Located just off U.S. 160 in Lamar.Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.Sunday. No admission. Contact (417) 682-2279 orwww.mostateparks.com. J.C. PENNEY BIRTHPLACE: Located downtown Hamilton on U.S. 13.Open 9:30 a.m.-noon and 12:30 p.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Friday.No admission. Call (816) 583-2168. JESSE JAMES BIRTHPLACE: Located a few miles northeast of Kearneyon Missouri 92. Open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. Admission: adults, $6.50;age 55 and older, $5.50; children 8-15, $3.50. Call (816) 628-6065. JOHN J. PERSHING BOYHOOD HOME: Located in Laclede; from U.S. 36,go north on Missouri 5 into town and follow the signs. Open 10a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission:adults, $2.50; children 6-12, $1.50; younger children, free.Contact (660) 963-2525 or visit www.mostateparks.com. MARK TWAIN BIRTHPLACE: Located in Mark Twain State Park nearFlorida, Mo.; from Missouri 107, go east on Route U. Open 10a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily. Admission: adults, $2.50; children 6-12,$1.50; younger children, free. Contact (573) 565-3449 orwww.mostateparks.com. MARK TWAIN BOYHOOD HOME: Located in downtown Hannibal. Open 10a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon-4 p.m. Sunday.Admission: adults, $6; children 6-12, $3; younger children, free.Contact (573) 221-9010 or www.marktwainmuseum.org. WALT DISNEY BOYHOOD HOME: Located near the northern city limitsign of Marceline on Missouri 5, just a few miles south of U.S. 36.The home is privately owned and not open for tours, but visitorsare welcome to walk down a path to a cottonwood tree under whichDisney used to draw and are encouraged to scrawl messages in abarn. No admission. Call (660) 376-2332.