and planning just to get here. We are still
a long way from anywhere else.
So I started looking into the possibil-
ity of Jesse James or his wife having ever
been to Texas. As it turns out, in 1874
Jesse James and his new bride honey-
mooned in Texas. While on his honey-
moon, which he and his bride had spent
in and around Galveston, Jesse James
had robbed a stage coach at San
Antonio, Texas. I guess Honeymoons
were costly even back then, and lacking
ATM machines Jesse knew where he
could withdraw some quick cash. As I
continued to research Jesse James in
Texas, that’s where history as we know
it starts to quickly unravel.
While on the dodge, Jesse and
Frank James stayed with a distant
cousin, Belle Starr, south of what is
now Dallas, Texas in 1866. We find
Jesse James in Texas again in 1869 at
Macey. Coincidently he was staying at
his uncle’s place, William Macey.
Getting a little closer to the Big Bend
Country in 1870, Jesse James and his
brother Frank had a place located on
Sterling Creek just south of where
Midland, Texas is located today. I had
read once that an ex-lawman had spot-
ted Jesse James getting off of a train in
Stanton, Texas. Longtime Marathon,
Texas resident Red Wagner told me he
understood the incident had taken
place in Sanderson, Texas. The
Sanderson train depot had been built in
1881 and was the only place train pas-
sengers could get a meal at the time.
Captain King, owner of the famous
King Ranch in Texas, purchased two
horses from Jesse James. One horse was
a red stud called “Red Fox.” The other
was a “fast break” mare (the old term
used before the designation Quarter
Horse came into common usage). Jesse
had purchased the mare from none
other than the famous outlaw Sam Bass,
who died in a shootout in Round Rock,
Texas in 1878.
In 1884 it is a well-known fact that
Jesse James gave Captain King of King
Ranch fame a fine-bred iron gray col-
ored stud horse, in exchange for Captain
King’s generous hospitality when Jesse
had stayed at the ranch. Note that this
took place two years after James was
supposedly killed by Bob Ford.
But with all this information that I
had gathered on the subject of Jesse
James in Texas, my question of why the
James clan would be coming to Alpine,
Texas to vacation, still hadn’t been
answered.
So I loaded up and headed to Alpine,
Texas. Thinking Jesse or Frank James
may have actually purchased the house
using an alias, I hit the newspaper, real
estate offices, the court house, tax office,
county clerk’s office, and numerous
other places looking for information and
history on the house in question. The
county clerk told me she needed a date
to search the deed records, I said give me
a minute and I will be right back. I then
than Allen H. Parmer, who owned the
Townsend house from 1915 till his
death in 1927 (sometimes misspelled as
Palmer). This cat was none other than
Jesse and Frank James brother-in-law!
He had been married to the James
brother’s little sister Susan James, who
had died in March 1889 during child-
birth in Wichita Falls, Texas.
The bond between Parmer and the
Photo courtesy of Jim W estermann
drove to the house where the James
wives were supposed to have vacationed.
It is on the national register for historic
homes. I figured there would be a date
on the bronze plaque attached to the
wall on the front porch that would help
us get started. To my surprise I was
greeted by a young lady who wanted to
know what I was doing on her front
porch. I then relayed my strange story to
her. To my surprise, she invited me in
and to my further surprise she showed
me all sorts of historical documentation
on the “James House,” which is actually
known as the “Townsend House.” I was
pretty overwhelmed and asked her if I
could take notes? She then told me I
could take all of it to the library and
make copies of everything. I left my
pickup parked out front as insurance of
my return and headed across the street
to make copies.
I had hit pay dirt for sure! I had the
history on the original owners who had
built the place: a very prominent Texas
lawman, William Wallace Townsend.
But it was the second owner on the
record of deeds who was the icing on the
cake, as they say. He was none other
James brothers was much stronger than
just being married into the James tribe.
Allen Parmer was also a Quantrill Raider
along with the James brothers during
the Civil War. Parmer and Frank had
fought side by side and were with
Quantrill when Quantrill’s Raiders lev-
eled Lawrence, Kansas on August 21,
1863. Parmer had also participated in at
least one train robbery with Jesse James
and had been taken in chains from Texas
back to Missouri and tried for his partic-
ipation in the robbery. Now I knew why
the James clan would be vacationing in
Alpine, Texas...they were visiting kin
folk.
You better be setting down for what’s
coming next, because it will blow the
spurs right off your boots.
There is an original typed letter from
Dr. William A. Tunstill (the Tunstills of
Lincoln County War/ Billy the Kid
fame) of the Western Research Center in
Roswell, New Mexico addressed to
Gerald V. Scott of Alpine, Texas. Tunstill
seems to be quoting Parmer’s second
wife Kitty: “Jesse, Frank, and Billy the
Kid visited Mr. Allen Parmer in Alpine
several times between 1915 and 1927.”
Steve Sederwall, founder and investi-
gator with Cold West, a group who
investigates unsolved cases of The Old
West, tells us that very few people know
Jesse James and Billy the Kid were ami-
gos and involved in an elaborate coun-
terfeit money scheme during the
Lincoln County War in New Mexico
between 1878 and 1881. The whole
scheme revolved around “Knights of the
Golden Circle’s” efforts at refinancing
and rearming the Confederacy.
Billy the Kid got caught passing some
of the counterfeit money. Jesse James
had personally introduced Billy the Kid
to John Hayes, one of the counterfeit
ringleaders. Jesse James and Billy the Kid
were very good friends and had met
many times throughout their lives. Dr.
Tunstill has personal correspondence
between the two, with Jesse James using
the alias “Frank Dalton” (Jesse James
used over 30 aliases in his lifetime) and
Billy the Kid going by the name of
“Brushy Bill Roberts,” dated between
1949 and 1950.
There ya go, approximately 45 years
after Jesse James was reportedly killed by
Bob Ford, Jesse James under the name
“Frank Dalton,” his brother Frank and
their wives (mentioned in the letter as
the Dalton Girls) and children were vis-
iting and staying with their brother-in-
law in Alpine, Texas!
If you’re not convinced yet, try this
on for size: Frank and Jesse James both
attended their sister’s funeral and burial
in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1889, seven
years after Jesse James had been reported
killed.
If you still don’t believe that Jesse
James wasn’t assassinated by Bob Ford in
1882, or that he was alive and well vaca-
tioning in Alpine, Texas 45 years after
his reported death, the infamous
Calamity Jane states in a letter to her
daughter that “I met up with Jesse James
not long ago. He is quite a character--
you know he was “killed” in ‘82.... he is
passing under the name of Dalton, but
he couldn’t fool me.” Susan Stevenson
found Jesse James and his wife Zerelda
listed under their real names in the
Kansas City, Missouri phone book four
years after Jesse James was supposed to
have been killed.
It appears that Jesse James had suc-
cessfully faked his and his wife’s deaths...
Jesse living to a ripe old age of 103.
Now I am wondering if Jesse and Frank
James happened to have stayed at The
Chambers Hotel or even the Gage Hotel
in Marathon, Texas when they passed
through on their way to Alpine, Texas?
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2018
13