On June 7, 1874, the St. Louis Dispatch carried a story that Jesse James had gotten married back on April 24. He married Zerelda Amanda Mimms in a private ceremony in Kearney, Mo. The dispatch apparently got the information straight from the horse’s mouth, as the couple waited in Galveston, Texas, for a boat that would take them to Vera Cruz, Mexico.
So, many of us today would ask, “Why would a woman marry the world’s most notorious outlaw?” According to what Jesse told the Dispatch reporter that day in Galveston, “It was love.”
On their wedding day, Jesse stood tall and slim, his dark hair neatly combed. His hazel eyes peered from under dark eyebrows. Zerelda was a good-looking woman, with high cheek bones and pretty eyes. They made a handsome couple as about 50 of their mutual friends assembled for the occasion. The ceremony was performed by his uncle William, who was a Methodist minister.
Since Jesse’s mother was also named Zerelda, the new bride would be called “Zee” from that day forward. Zee would go on to become a strong woman, but a gentle, loving wife and mother, fiercely loyal, and always trustworthy, but apparently would never take any part in her husband’s chosen career.
The following year the young couple assumed the alias of Dave and Josie Howard and settled in Edgefield, Tenn., on the north bank of the Cumberland River across from Nashville. It was there that Jesse Edwards James was born on Aug. 31, 1875. In February 1878, Zee gave birth to twin boys named Gould and Montgomery, in honor of the two doctors who delivered them, however neither son would live very long. At the time of the twins’ birth, they were living with Jesse’s brother Frank and his wife Annie Ralston, at a rented farm on the Clarksville, Tennessee Pike.
Annie had also given birth to a son that February, named Robert Franklin. Because Zee had lost her babies and because Annie could not produce milk, Zee nursed her new nephew. Little Mary Susan was the next child that Zee brought into the world on July 17, 1879. The outlaws seemed to be taking on the appearance of ordinary family life. Frank and Jesse farmed some and dealt in horses, lying low as not to arouse suspicion of their identity among the community.
Still, there was always the fear that some old gang member might appear on the horizon and spoil their cover. Sure enough, in March 1881, Bill Ryan came around and was arrested north of Nashville. That sent the James family scurrying out of harm’s way, because they couldn’t take a chance that Ryan, under questioning, might reveal Jesse’s whereabouts. It was not an easy life, living on the run.
