Zerelda Mimms James: Lover of a Bandit

By Lindsey Melvin

Lindsey Melvin is a senior at William Jewell College. She is a member of Sigma Tau Delta, the literary honors society. As an Oxbridge English Language and Literature major, she plans to pursue a career in writing. In her free time she enjoys reading, watching movies, and hanging out with her family. Lindsey would like to thank her mom and dad.

She was wearing a neat-fitting calico dress and a piece of stolen jewelry on her petite frame the morning he was gunned down. While attending to her duties in the kitchen of their St. Joseph, Missouri, house, she heard the gun shot. Rushing into the living room, she saw her husband, the notorious Jesse James, lying in a pool of blood. Her two young children stood and sobbed at the sight of their dead father. Bob Ford, who had recently joined Jesse’s gang, seized the moment to shoot Jesse in the back of the head while Jesse was standing on a chair straightening a picture on the wall. Ford was hoping to receive a $10,000 reward. Jesse set his gun on the bed for a minute to straighten the picture, but the traitor took advantage of the opportunity. The day was April 3, 1882. For Zerelda, “Zee,” James, the days ahead were both dark and difficult.

When the authorities first arrived at the house, Zee denied that her dead husband was Jesse James. The couple had been living under the fake names Thomas and Mary Howard. Even the children did not know their own father’s real identity. However, the Fords had already surrendered, and despite Jesse’s dyed dark hair and beard, high cheekbones, and broad nose, it was still apparent that he was the real Jesse James. Zee said she would admit he was, in fact, Jesse, if they promised not to drag his body around the country for a show. They gave their word.

While the authorities were present, she mourned, “Oh he was so good to us and he loved us so and he has tried so hard to live an honorable and peaceful life, but wherever we went we were hunted by a lot of scoundrels not so good as he . . . And who will protect us now? Who will care for our little children? A kinder and truer-hearted man never lived” (MacDonald).

Jesse James and his gang were the most notorious band of outlaws in America: during their fifteen years robbing trains and banks they killed sixteen innocent men. Yet, Zee defended Jesse from the day she fell in love with him, despite knowing his wild side. Jesse was her first cousin, but it was not uncommon to marry one’s cousin at the time. For instance, Zee’s own mother (Mary James) and father (Reverend John W. Mimms) were double first cousins. Zee was born Zerelda Amanda Mimms on July 21, 1845 in Logan, Kentucky (she was one of twelve children), and she was named after Jesse’s mother, Zerelda Samuels. Her mother was the sister of Robert James, Jesse’s father. After the Civil War in which Jesse fought, Zee cared for Jesse’s wounds and nursed him back to health at his aunt’s home. As a devout Methodist, she encouraged him to draw on his faith to keep up his spirits during his illness, and she rarely left his bedside. During this time, Jesse fell in love with her and gave her the nickname “Zee.” They dated nine years before they were married. Often Jesse would risk his life to see Zee for a few hours, while authorities were doing their best to capture him.

Zee was almost twenty-nine, two years older than Jesse, on their wedding day, April 24, 1874. She persuaded their uncle, Reverend William James, to marry them, even though he was unsupportive of the match. She told him that “Jesse had been lied about and persecuted” and “was not half so bad as pictured” (Stiles 259). The wedding was held at the home of Zee’s sister Lucy Browder in Kearney, Missouri, with only a few family members in attendance. It was interrupted, however, when someone reported the approach of two detectives. At this time, Jesse was being sought after for Missouri’s first train robbery at Gad’s Hill and the murder of Pinkerton detective John W. Whicher a month earlier. As Jesse rode away, leading the detectives out of the area, Zee hid between a feather bed and mattress. But, as it turned out to be a false alarm, Jesse quickly returned to finish the wedding. The newlyweds left immediately for the Gulf of Mexico at Galveston, Texas for their honeymoon. Jesse used the money from the Gad’s Hill train robbery to pay for it.

While they were on their honeymoon, a reporter from the St. Louis Dispatch found Jesse, which even the Pinkerton Detective Agency had not yet managed to do. On June 9, 1874, the front page of the St. Louis Dispatch featured a story on the romance of Jesse and Zee James. The headline announced, “CAPTURED: The Celebrated Jesse W. James Taken at Last. His Captor a Woman, Young, Accomplished, and Beautiful.” The writer, John Edwards, called Zee “a true and consistent Christian, and a member of the M.E. Church, South,” and said of their love, “The whole courtship, engagement, and final marriage has been a most romantic series of events” (Stiles 259). He quoted Jesse as saying, “[Zee’s] devotion to me has never wavered for a moment,” despite the fact that he was Missouri’s most famous fugitive. “You can say that both of us married for love, and that there cannot be any sort of doubt about our marriage being a happy one” (Stiles 259).

Zee was certainly aware of Jesse’s reputation, but she was in love and therefore willing to do whatever it took to be with him. Once, when they were courting, as they sat in his yard on the James farm, five men led by a Pinkerton agent came to the house. Jesse hid under a rose bush and Zee hid in a fence corner. Being with Jesse meant having to find hiding places in an instant. And during their marriage, they were constantly house- hopping. She was willing to make sacrifices, and perhaps, for awhile at least, she even enjoyed the thrill of their lifestyle. She loved having nice furniture for entertaining, but when they moved, she was happy to leave these possessions behind for the safety of her husband. Besides, she could easily acquire new ones. They were always broke, yet they lived well, because Jesse knew how to get more money instantaneously. They needed the money to support their growing family. Zee gave birth to Jesse Edward James on August 31, 1875. She had twins, Gould and Montgomery James, but they were born and died February 28, 1878. Then she had a little girl, Mary Susan James, on June 17, 1879.

Before his death, Jesse was planning on robbing a bank in Platte City. It was to be his last robbery, and he was going to use the money to buy a farm and attempt to live a “normal life” as a farmer. When Jesse was killed, most people assumed he left behind a wealthy widow, but the only valuables they owned were a few weapons, a bit of stolen jewelry, and assorted memorabilia.

Several thousand relic hunters passed through the James home after Jesse died; Zee took advantage of their curiosity as a means to support her children and charged ten cents a person. She even sold pictures of Jesse. However, this was not enough to make ends meet, and she soon had to put most everything up for auction in order to pay the creditors. The coffee mill sold for $2; Mary Susan’s highchair went for 5 cents, and Jesse’s pocket knife sold for $3. The dog brought in the most money of anything in the sale--$15. Zee also sold the chair on which Jesse was standing when he was shot for $5. During the auction, people slipped into the room where Jesse had been shot and cut splinters of blood-soaked wood from the floor to keep as souvenirs. The sale totaled a measly $117.65, and Zee was forced to find other ways to support her family. She decided to relate the story of her husband to a St. Louis publisher named Chambers, which would undoubtedly bring in more money, but when he got it all down on printed pages, he would allow her to see only 92 pages out of 220, and she refused to let it go into print.

Zee and her children were forced to move in with her brothers in Kansas City. She suffered from a terrible depression after Jesse’s death, never re-married, never changed out of her black widow’s attire, and became a recluse. Jesse James, Jr. had to go to work at the age of eleven to help support his mother and sister financially. He went to work for Thomas T. Crittenden Jr., son of the governor who offered the reward for his father’s hunt. Crittenden said that if Zee allowed, Jesse, Jr. could have the job. Zee was so desperate for money, she said that she held no grudge against Crittenden for his father’s actions, so Jesse, Jr. took the job. Although Jesse, Jr. became a successful lawyer, he was accused of robbing a train, but later was found innocent. The accusation broke Zee’s heart, and she continued to suffer emotionally and financially for the rest of her life.

After being afflicted with pneumonia and then being taken with grip, Zee died on November 13, 1900 in her home in Kansas City, Missouri. Many said she died from grief. She was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Kearney, Missouri. Eighteen months later, Jesse was moved from his resting place on the James Family Farm and placed next to her. They could never stand to be apart. Like most widows of her time, Zee was faced with the difficult responsibility of caring for her children and taking care of her family financially in the midst of her mourning. It was hard for women to find work besides house-cleaning; Zee was fortunate that Jesse James, Jr. could “work” for them.

Though Zee claimed it was because she was desperate for the money, she exploited Jesse’s infamy after his death by selling his picture. This was hypocritical of her, since though she was aware of his crimes, she always claimed the media portrayed him as worse than he “really was”— a man of good Christian virtue and a caring father. Not wanting her children to follow in their father’s footsteps, she never brought up the criminal aspect of Jesse’s life to them. She continued to focus on his good, moral side, even after his death, perhaps as a way of protecting him. After all, she was captivated by her love of the notorious Jesse James.

Works Cited

MacDonald, A.B. “Descendants of the James Outlaws Have Lived Down the Past.”

(Found as clipping at Jesse James Farm in “Zerelda Mimms James” file).

Stiles, T.J. Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War. New York: Knopf, 2002.

Works Consulted

Breihan, Carl W. The Complete and Authentic Life of Jesse James, New York: Frederick

Fell.

Croy, Homer. Jesse James Was My Neighbor. New York: Duell, 1949.

James, Stella Frances. In the Shadow of Jesse James. Washington DC: Revolver, 1989.

“Jesse and His Family.” Los Angeles Times 25 April 1882: ProQuest Historical

Newspapers Los Angeles Times (1881-1985).

Newman, Kathleen Bishop. “The Courtship of Jesse James.” The Kearney Courier. 13

September 2007.

Triplett, Frank. The Life, Times and Treacherous Death of Jesse James. Chicago: Sage,

1970.