by Darryl Wilkinson
It’s been 150 years since Frank & Jesse James embarked on a 14-year crime spree, officially starting with the 1869 robbery of the Daviess County Savings Association. So, of course, this is a significant anniversary. But should we celebrate by re-enacting a crime during Gallatin’s Chautauqua?
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Some say it is inappropriate to focus on the notorious in any positive way. Let’s be clear: Frank & Jesse James were murderous thugs who exploited public sympathies tied to the Lost Cause to whitewash outrageous thievery. They proclaimed innocence despite all evidence of guilt and despite Jesse’s assassination, the law never made them pay for a life of crime.
And yet, the interest in myth and legend keeps Frank & Jesse James alive despite changing times. Dime novels are no longer all the rage in our society’s entertainment venue. Saturday matinees featuring good cowboys in white hats winning over the bad guys are but faint memories to the older generations. So, why are the names of Frank & Jesse James so widely recognized around the globe?
I believe it’s the overwhelming allure of the underdog that drives continuing interest, and perhaps our unending quest to find heroes. And that’s where we go astray.
Re-enacting the 1869 bank robbery which occurred here does not elevate Frank & Jesse James into heroes. What occurred here is significant history. What we’re overlooking is the opportunity to elevate and celebrate a Gallatin hero truly worth memorializing: Samuel P. Cox.
While Frank & Jesse get all the fame, Major Cox deserves a hero’s acclaim.
Confederate guerrilla Jesse James vowed to kill the man who killed fellow bushwhacker Bloody Bill Anderson. By all accounts at that time, Major Cox was recognized as the man who pulled that trigger. Only recently have local historians pointed to bugler Adolph Vogel as the more likely target for Jesse James.
Major Cox led the ambush of Bloody Bill and others near Richmond, MO, and nobody can accurately confirm exactly who fired the fatal shot ending the life of Bloody Bill. As unit leader, Major Cox got the credit and the City of St. Joseph even presented him with a saber in public ceremony. In reality, Major Cox probably accepted the role to shield a young family man from Jesse’s threats – facts held as a Vogel family secret for many decades after the Civil War.
But there are many other heroics in the adventurous life of Major Cox worthy of acclaim. His life’s story reads like a history of our nation:
- enlisted in the U.S. Army’s “Oregon Battalion” in 1847 at age 19, followed orders to develop the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, and protect the Santa Fe Trail from warring Sioux Indians
- helped complete Fort Kearney, NE
- participated in the California Gold Rush in 1849
- moved to Gallatin, MO, married and entered in the mercantile business in 1950
- worked as a teamster in 1854, eventually selling out and taking his family to San Francisco; was shipwrecked near Key West, FL, upon a return journey en route to Baltimore by way of Nicaraugua
- became wagon master for Russell, Majors & Waddell in 1856, delivering goods to Fort Leavenworth
- carried important dispatch to Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston near Salt Lake City