Frank James: Found peace in Tennessee.
Alexander Franklin James, born January 10, 1843, in Clay County, Missouri, was the older brother of the infamous Jesse James. While Jesse’s name became synonymous with the romanticized outlaw of the American West, Frank’s story is different in that it is one of rebellion, crime, and his deliberate choices to leave that life behind, particularly during and after his time in Tennessee. An intelligent man with a love for Shakespeare's works, Frank’s journey from Confederate guerrilla to law-abiding citizen reveals a very complex figure weary of the life of crime that he once pursued.Frank’s outlaw career began after the Civil War, where he fought as a Confederate guerrilla alongside William Quantrill and “Bloody Bill” Anderson. Jesse and Frank James lives shaped by Missouri’s pro-Southern sentiments, turned to crime in 1866, robbing trains, banks and stagecoaches as part of the James-Younger Gang. Their exploits, including the audacious robbery in 1866 in Liberty, Missouri, that bank robbery, earned them both notoriety and a Robin Hood-like reputation which was fueled by public resentment toward banks and railroads. Though, Frank, unlike the fame-hungry Jesse, was a more reserved person, preferring books and family over the spotlight.
The turning point came after the disastrous robbery in 1876 at Northfield, Minnesota, during the bank robbery there, which wiped out the James-Younger Gang. Most of the members were killed or captured, but Frank and Jesse escaped, fleeing to Tennessee to evade the massive manhunt. Adopting the alias Ben J. Woodson, Frank settled near Nashville with his wife, Annie Ralston, a former schoolteacher he married in 1874. Tennessee offered a fresh start, and Frank embraced it. He worked as a teamster, raised Poland China hogs, and joined a Methodist church, befriending local notables like the sheriff and a state legislator. These years, Frank later recalled, were among his happiest, as “my old life grew more detestable the further I got from it.”
In Tennessee, Frank experienced the peace of civilian life. His son, Robert Franklin James, was born in 1878, grounding him further. While Jesse, restless under the alias John Davis Howard, chafed and eventually lured Frank back for more robberies, Frank’s heart was obviously not in it. Then in 1881 during the Winston train robbery, two innocent men were killed. This turned public sympathy and intensified Missouri’s resolve to stop the crime wave. After Jesse’s murder by Robert Ford in 1882, Frank faced a crossroads. In an article from the Kansas City Journal, on April 06th, 1882, it was reported that Frank was probably not 500 miles from where Jesse was laid in his coffin, and the paper expressed some fear of vengeance from Frank, but nothing could be further from the truth. Exhausted by decades of being hunted, he eventually surrendered to Missouri Governor Thomas Crittenden, declaring, “I have been hunted for twenty-one years, have literally lived in the saddle, have never known a day of perfect peace.”
Frank’s decision to go straight was pragmatic and heartfelt. Remarkably, he faced trials in both Missouri and Alabama but was acquitted, partly due to lingering public fascination with the Jesse James legend and his alibi of being in Texas during the Winston robbery. For the next three decades, Frank lived quietly, working as a shoe salesman, theater usher, and telegraph operator. In 1903, he partnered with former gang member Cole Younger in the James-Younger Wild West Show, capitalizing on his past without returning to crime.
Returning to the family farm in Missouri after his mother’s death in 1911, Frank died peacefully on February 18, 1915, at age 72. His Tennessee years and choice to abandon outlawry highlight a man who, unlike his brother, valued survival and serenity over legend, proving that even an outlaw could rewrite his story.
Reference: Frank and Jesse James In Nashville by Terry Coats, Jesse James The Best Writings on the Notorious Outlaw and His Gang. By Herold Dellinger, https://ozarks-history.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-cole-younger-frank-james-wild-west.html?m=1
Good by Jesse James, by the Jesse James Bank Museum 1967
