The James gang legend

After nearly 150 years, the James gang and their Northfield bank robbery still loom large in our collective imagination. Small-town celebrations have played a big part in keeping this legacy alive.

Frank and Jesse James rode into Northfield, Minnesota, on September 7, 1876, to conduct a bit of gun barrel banking. They opted to spread their risk by taking on partners that included three of the Younger brothers.     

The James gang’s business plan involved extracting capital from the First National Bank at gunpoint. Their plan fell apart when local townspeople responded with force. Two of the would-be financiers were terminated during the gunfight that took place in the streets of Northfield.     

I spoke with a young man named Jason who works at the First National Bank of Northfield.         

“We have on display a pair of pearl-handled pistols and a set of spurs that were retrieved from one of the robbers who was killed,” Jason said. “The town holds a Defeat of Jesse James Days Celebration every September. It’s a big deal.”       

After their attempt at extralegal capitalization failed, the entrepreneurs restructured their organization. The three Younger brothers, who were all wounded, took off in one direction while the James brothers went in another.     

Some days later, the Youngers were spotted in a slough near the town of Madelia, Minnesota. An action committee was hastily assembled, and the Younger brothers’ firm was dissolved after a brief but intense exchange of gunfire. Charlie Pitts, an associate of the Youngers, was terminated when he interfaced with a high-velocity lead product.     

“Two of my great-uncles were part of the posse,” said Adeline Yates, a lifelong Madelia resident. “My dad would often point to the plum thicket on the riverbank where the gunbattle happened and say ‘You remember that spot. That’s where history took place.’”     

I asked Adeline if the posse members were rewarded.

“They were offered $250 each, which was quite a sum back then. Many decided not to claim the reward because they feared retribution from the Younger clan. A couple of men who took the reward later moved away because of this.     

“The Younger brothers were treated quite well when they were taken back to Madelia. They were put up in a hotel and given medical attention. They later said they were surprised, that they assumed they would be summarily hung.     

“The local doctor supposedly collected Charlie Pitts’ skeleton as a souvenir. But a DNA test proved that the bones aren’t Charlie’s, so nobody knows what became of his remains. This did nothing to lessen the enthusiasm for Madelia’s annual Younger Brothers Capture festival.”     

The James brothers rode west toward Murray and Pipestone counties. Gregg Johnson, a Pipestone County resident, said, “My grandfather was drafted into the posse that chased the James brothers across Murray County. Grandpa said that their goal wasn’t to catch them; they just wanted to make sure the James brothers made it out of the county.”     

Myron Koets, Pipestone’s former mayor, said, “There’s an oral history that the James brothers spent the night at a farmhouse northeast of Pipestone. They burst into the house and demanded food, then slept by the front door with their pistols across their chests. It’s been speculated that they also stole the farmer’s horses. This would mean that a lowly plow horse made that dramatic jump across Devil’s Gulch.”     

Devil’s Gulch is a 60-foot-deep quartzite canyon that brackets Split Rock Creek at the small town of Garretson, South Dakota.

“It’s about 18 feet across at the spot where the jump took place,” said Don Schubert, a local historian. “We have photos from back then and you can see that the jumping-off point was plumb level. A horse could have made it easily.”     

Why didn’t the James brothers simply ride around the gulch?     

“That’s often pointed out,” Schubert said. “Go half a mile north or south and you can cross the creek with no trouble. But the story is that the posse was so close that Jesse took a potshot at them and was able to wound one of their horses.”     

“Garretson holds Jesse James Days every June,” Schubert said. “There’s still a lot of interest in the James legend. We’ve had visitors come here from every state in the union and 26 foreign countries. A lady from Doon, Iowa, once told me that she owns a photo of her great-grandfather with the James brothers that was taken shortly after they gave the posse the slip. There are all kinds of stories like that out there.”     

It’s fitting that small-town celebrations can cash in on the James gang’s ill-fated Northfield bank robbery, which netted the bandits a whopping $26. The myth and the legend continue to live on.  

Jerry Nelson is a recovering dairy farmer from Volga, South Dakota. He and his wife, Julie, have two sons and live on the farm where Jerry’s great-grandfather homesteaded over 110 years ago. Feel free to email him at [email protected].