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jorj - Moderator
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posted 2/18/10 10:31 PM
An update to the “Jesse James’s Mother a Morley Schoolmarm?” story.Associated Press story in "The Argus-Press", Owosso, Michigan, Sat. June 1st, 1974, page 10. This version is basically the same as the one in the Morley Centennial published in 1969. It references Darius Blair, making the Centennial the probable source. There are a number of exceptions.The main ones are Jesse James’s mother’s name is quoted as “Gerelda James Samuels Conrad Brandow” and her son “Archie James” was killed in the explosion that took her arm.Her name was Zerelda, not Gerelda. Her maiden name was Cole, so her last name would have been Cole-James-Simms-Samuel, not James-Samuels-Conrad-Brandow. Her son’s last name was Samuel, not James. The additional information in the Argus story leads me to a theory on how it may have started. This story claims Mrs. Brandow was a teacher at Bell School, not Mrs. Samuels as stated by other sources. She “lost her right arm before her arrival in Michigan. She told her pupils it was lost while she was a spy for the Union during the civil war." “. . . her old pupils recalled Mrs. Brandow fondly." These quotes show it was a story first told to students by a beloved teacher that was missing an arm.“ ‘She was a good teacher and could wield a heavy ruler even if she did only have one hand.' Drius Blair remarked years later." This indicates that Darius Blair, the source for the Centennial story, was either a student of Mrs. Brandow or knew someone who was.Quote, "When the James boys rode in for a visit, neighbors reported, the badmen would hide beneath their mother's home whenever anyone approached." Sounds like a rumor to explain why no one actually saw the “James boys” at her home.These aspects lead me to believe there was a teacher at Bell School that was an amputee. This teacher used the “Zerelda Samuel” story to endear herself to her students. She may have taken a vacation at the time of Jesse James’s funeral that supported this story. I checked for the name Brandow interned at the Higbee Cemetery and found Mrs. Edna Brandow, but she was only 4 years old when Zerelda died.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1988&dat=19740601&id=joo1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=d6wFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1902,3227130
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