Frank James was married to Miss Annie Ralston, of Jackson county, in September, 1875. The marriage was one of those romantic episodes which brought great sorrow to Mr. Ralston, an industrious farmer living eight miles from Kansas City. Miss Annie was but a school girl whose reading of dime novels had so far impaired her judgment as to make her long for the association of a hero. Her meeting with Frank James was accidental, but she had read of his exploits and he was her ideal. Annie left her home clandestinely and met Frank James many miles from the old homestead; a Baptist minister performed the ceremony and the outlaw and his now ostracised wife went into the shadows of cave and forest, severing the bonds which bound them to society and civilization.
When Mr. Ralston learned of the desperate step taken by his daughter he was almost crazed with grief. He went direct to Kansas City and, with eyes suffused with tears, begged Judge Mumford, of the Times, to prepare for him and publish an article which would relieve him of the stigma which might attach to him by the error of his daughter. Mr. Ralston was anxious the public should know that he never had any association with the outlaw and that, though Annie had been a child who had filled his heart with love, yet her alliance with a highwayman had banished the very memory of her from the fond heart which would know her no more. Such an article did appear in the Times, and if Mr. Ralston ever became reconciled to his bandit son-in-law his neighbors never learned the fact.
Jesse James was married to his cousin, Miss Zerelda Mimms, in the Autumn of 1874, at the home of his mother in Clay county. Miss Mimms was an orphan, who had lived with a married sister in Kansas City. Being of age there was no one to criticise her act, and she stepped across the threshold of prescribed citizenship to share the perils of an outlaw's life.
The peculiar profession followed by Jesse and Frank James has prevented them from having any permanent residence, and their wives have been compelled, in a measure, to lead a life of seclusion, traveling from place to place, concealing their identity and experiencing few pleasures because of the constant anxiety to which they are subjected. It is understood that Frank is the father of two children, and Jesse finds consolation in two little boys and a baby girl. The outlaw brothers make affectionate husbands and loving and indulgent fathers.
THE UNION PACIFIC EXPRESS ROBBERY.
The following account of the Union Pacific train robbery is not published in chronological order with other robberies, because it is not certainly known that the James Boys had any connection with it, and in this history of these noted desperadoes we have endeavored to give only such facts as are, sustained by indisputable evidence. It is generally believed, however, that the two noted brothers led the party, and, with their usual shrewdness, succeeded in escaping southward with a large amount of booty. The following letter, written by Jesse James to a former comrade, in March previous to the robbery, is strong presumptive evidence that he and Frank were the planners and executors of the scheme, and that they had it in contemplation even before the raid into Minnesota: