Post Jesse: The James Farm Tour
With all the press circulating of the famous James brothers of Missouri, the hysteria of the Frank James trial and all the dime novels of which the family did not approve, it was inevitable that people would turn up at the farm wanting to see the place where the infamous Jesse James had grown up.
Zerelda charged a dollar for the tour, and the visitors were taken on a tour of the farmhouse including a vivid account of the Pinkerton Raid in January from which the fireplace still bears the burn marks.
The tour culminated at the grave of Jesse, who was originally buried in the front yard under Zerelda’s watchful eye. Zerelda was tormented by the thought that someone would come and take him so she had him buried an extra few feet down than the standard six, for an extra few coins visitors were allowed to scoop up the “authentic” pebbles from the grave. Unbeknownst to them, Zerelda had replenished them from the stream where the boys used to play and had probably only been sitting there since that morning.
Read more about this topic: Zerelda James
Famous quotes containing the words post, farm and/or tour:
“I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage, with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post which any human power can give.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The shifting islands! who would not be willing that his house should be undermined by such a foe! The inhabitant of an island can tell what currents formed the land which he cultivates; and his earth is still being created or destroyed. There before his door, perchance, still empties the stream which brought down the material of his farm ages before, and is still bringing it down or washing it away,—the graceful, gentle robber!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Left Washington, September 6, on a tour through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia.... Absent nineteen days. Received every where heartily. The country is again one and united! I am very happy to be able to feel that the course taken has turned out so well.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)