08/05/2023
The James Younger Gang in Searcy County
"The James boys were in Searcy County frequently, accompanied by the Younger brothers, Cole, Bob and Jim. On one occasion after a typical James boys raid in Southern Missouri and the usual temporary split-up of the gang, Frank, Jesse James and Cole Younger drifted into the town of Marshall, Arkansas.
A few days later, a young lady was riding home from a neighbor's when Cole Younger accosted her. She ordered him away, as she knew who he was, but he began to curse the lady trying to push her off her horse, and finally drawing his pistol and threatening to kill her.
Finally, he rode on, and the lady reported the incident to her Uncle who gathered a posse and started after the James Gang. They finally, after a running fight, forced them to hole up in a settler's cabin.
After a siege of about thirty hours, Cole Younger sent for this young lady who was in a crowd of women, the wives of the possemen. The young lady went to the side of the cabin, and Younger wanted her to beg the possemen to let the James Gang get away, and contrary to their usual code, Cole Younger apologized to the lady.
The lady finally consented to ask the possemen to allow the James boys to go their way, but the possemen refused. However, a short while later, at dusk the James Gang dug beneath the walls of the cabin and escaped despite a rain of lead from the old squirrel rifles." Written by Mary Elizabeth Shaw Hays (1846-1944)
Added by Tina Lewis Johnson
(Source: WPA Historical Records Survey: Early Settler Questionnaires, Marshall, Arkansas. May 16, 1939)
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