The James-Younger Gang

Inspired by the cousin connection to the Hollingsworth brothers (see previous blog entry on 5 Jan 06), I thought I would post some pictures of a few of the members of the James-Younger gang along with their headstones.

Jesse James









Jesse Woodson James was born 5 Sep 1847 in Kearney, Clay County, Missouri and killed by Robert Ford on 3 Apr 1882 in St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri. Originally buried at the James Farm, he had been reinterred in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Kearney.

Jesse married Zerelda "Zee" Mimms on 24 Apr 1874 in Kearney. She has been interred beside him. Zee was born 21 Jul 1845 in Woodford County, Kentucky and died 13 Nov 1900 in Kansas City, Clay County, Missouri.

Frank James









Alexander Frank James was born 10 Jan 1843 in Kearney, Missouri and died of a heart attack on the James Farm on 15 Feb 1915. Frank was buried in Hill Park Cemetery in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri.

Frank's wife Anna Ralston was born 25 Jan 1853 in Jackson County, Missouri and died 6 Jul 1944 at the James Farm. She has been interred next to her husband.

Cole Younger










Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger was born 15 Jan 1844 on his father's farm south of Lee's Summit, Jackson County, Missouri. He died 21 Mar 1916 in Lee's Summit and is buried in the Lee's Summit Cemetery next to his younger brothers and mother.

Jim Younger






James "Jim" Hardin Younger was born 15 Jan 1848 in Lee's Summit and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on 19 Oct 1902 in the same town. He is buried next to his brothers in Lee's Summit Cemetery.

Bob Younger
Robert "Bob" Ewing Younger was born 29 Oct 1853 in Lee's Summit, Missouri and died 16 Sep 1899 at Stillwater Prison in New Mexico from bullet wounds received during a bank robbery.

More information about these historical outlaws can be found at The James-Younger Gang website.

Sedalia, Pettis County, Missouri

This Roadside Park on westbound Hwy 50 west of Sedalia, Missouri has a historical marker for those interested in knowing about her past. Because it contained a brief mention of the American Civil War, it was added to my "collection" of Civil War monuments.

Nicholas Cemetery, Excelsior Springs, Clay County, Missouri

While giving a fellow teacher a tour of the burial sites, possible battle grounds, and monument locations for both battles of Fredericksburg, Missouri, I saw a low-lying concrete wall near Corum Road in Excelsior Springs. It had to be a cemetery. We stopped to find out. My wife wasn't too thrilled (she never is). We definitely found a cemetery which I later learned to be called Nicholas Cemetery. My guess is that it is really Nichols Cemetery because of the names of some of the deceased.

The cemetery is in pretty bad shape, but the wall is intact. Headstones are strewn around, a tree had fallen in, and dead weeds (it is January) are everywhere. An enumeration of this graveyard can be found at www.orwells.com/nicholas_graveyard.htm.

The most unusual aspect of this cemetery is that most of it is surrounded by a wall without an opening to walk through. There aren't any stairs to allow you access into the burial ground either. A small portion of the cemetery is east of the walled section and is fenced off with cattle pen fence. At least it has a gate.

Pleasant Hill, Cass County, Missouri

Yesterday, I returned to Pleasant Hill to run some necessary errands. While waiting for a phone call (that never came), I drove around town to see what they had in the way of monuments and memorials. I found two at Depot Park in the old part of town. There is also a memorial in Pleasant Hill Cemetery at the northern end of town. Pictures of all three are below.

Hollingsworth Family and Cemetery

The day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday, 23 Nov 2005, I set out to "discover" some of the area cemeteries which have been enumerated in Cemetery Census of Clay County, Missouri, Volume I. One of the things I like to do is locate different burial grounds wherever I may be. The easiest places are nearest to home.

The last cemetery I searched for on that particularly nice, yet windy day was the Hollingsworth Cemetery in Lawson, Missouri. Having golfed on the course in the same area, I wondered if it was something I had overlooked. The first thing I did was drive all the way around the area where the cemetery is situated, including the short deadend streets heading inwards hoping to see some sign of the cemetery. It had to be small with only two known burials. Nothing was immediately noticable.

Not wanting to leave without knowing something, I stopped in at the country club. The course was open due to the pleasant weather. The proprietor informed me of a small cemetery in a grove of trees and pointed it out through the windows. He then tossed me keys to a golf cart and gave me permission to go look.

With all the low branches and tall brambles, it was difficult to find a way into the cemetery. Once inside, it was like being in a different room of a house. I was aware of my surroundings; however, it was very peaceful and still within the trees. The two headstones appeared to have been moved from their original locations. As a matter of fact, it looked as if animals had done some burrowing. The ground was very uneven.

The inscriptions on the headstones are as follows:

Gideon Hollingsworth
Born Jan. 23, 1840
Died Aug. 15, 1861

Jeptha Hollingsworth
Born Apr. 20, 1846
Died Apr. 15, 1862

The reason for my curiosity about this cemetery is mainly because of Gideon. In the "cemetery" book, he was listed as having been "Mortally wounded at Wilson's Creek." Knowing that Wilson's Creek was a Civil War battlefield near Springfield, Missouri, my researcher instincts drove me to the gravesite.

After taking a few photographs and logging the coordinates with my GPS, I returned the golf cart, thanked the proprietor, and told him I may return in the near future.

Research indicates Gideon was indeed a participant in the Civil War. He was a Private in Co. A, Extra Battalion, 4th Division of the Missouri State Guard in the Confederate States of America. He was inflicted with a wound to one of his lungs on 10 Aug 1861 and died five days later. It is not known where he died, although he may not have been on the battlefield. Otherwise, he would have been "killed in action."

Gideon M. and Jeptha L. were from an extensive family. They were direct descendants of Valentine Hollingsworth, Sr. (1632-1711), a Quaker who emigrated to America on the Antelope in 1682, although it is widely thought he emigrated on the Welcome with his good friend, William Penn. Valentine signed Penn's charter entitled The Frame of the Government of the Province of Pennsylvania and, Territories thereunto annexed, in America as one of the members of the assembly. This document has been published by Yale Law School at www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/pa05.htm.

The brothers Hollingsworth also had three sisters, Mary Helen (1838-?), Martha Josephine (1842-after 1918), and Susan (1854-?). There was a brother, Leander G. (1848-?) and a half-brother, Frank James (1860-?), too. The oldest six children were born to Samuel Gordon and Susan Harris (Mimms) Hollingsworth. Frank's mother was Mary (Williams) Hollingsworth. All but Susan and Frank were born in Todd County, Kentucky. Susan and Frank were born in Clay County, Missouri.

The Mimms family is extensive too. Gideon and Jeptha and their four siblings are descendants of David and Agnes (Weldy) Mimms, Sr. through their son David Mimms, Jr. with his wife Martha (Diuguid) Mimms. David and Agnes Mimms also had a son by the name of Shadrack Mimms. Interestingly enough, Shadrack is the great-grandfather of Zerelda Amanda Mimms, the first cousin of her husband Jesse James. Shadrack is also the great-great-grandfather of Jesse James. The Hollingsworths buried at the cemetery in Lawson, Missouri are third cousins to Zerelda and third cousins once removed to the Frank and Jesse James. The James farm is no more than seven miles as the crow flies from Lawson.

My personal goal is to see that the cemetery gets the attention it deserves. Work is underway to determine the legality of restoring, preserving, and maintaining the Hollingsworth Cemetery. There has already been an outpouring of moral support from several organizations including the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Falls/3004/), Clay County Archives (www.claycountyarchives.org), the James Farm (www.jessejames.org), the Missouri State Society Daughters of American Colonists (www.geocities.com/mssdac/), and Eric James (www.ericjames.org). Readers are encouraged to support this endeavor by commenting on this blog posting.

Bye, Mom.

Christmas Break is over and school starts back up tomorrow. The break went by too fast. Of course, that may have been caused by the death of my mother the last day before the break. I'm not ready to start up again. I've been down in the dumps. Hopefully, the students will pull me out of my slump.

Rest in Peace, Mother (7/15/1940-12/20/2005).

Hello, World!

It's official. I'm a blogger newbie. It took me a while to come up with a blog name that didn't confine me to a specific topic, not that it matters, but I tried to be creative about my selection. After testing the eWaters to see what blog names already exist and what type of content they had, I finally settled on "Glitch in Time." It doesn't really mean anything, although it does have a nice ring to it. Besides, the "Stitch in Time" blog names appear to have been gobbled up by seamstresses.

In the future, if I can maintain my blog composure, you will learn more about what I do. Briefly, I'll tell you that, as I've aged, I've come to appreciate the finer things in life... such as death. I know it sounds weird. My wife says I'm a morbid person for traipsing around in cemeteries. I'm not digging up graves, rather reading headstones. After years of genealogy research and finding a great-great-grandfather who fought and was injured in the American Civil War, I've turned my passion to researching those who fought for either side - Union or Confederate.

In addition to researching family history and Civil War soldiers, I enjoy reading and writing. Most of the reading I do falls into a couple different categories - science fiction & fantasy and history. Occasionally, I have been known to throw in a fiction thriller. As far as writing, I'm currently working on a sci-fi novel. It's been slow-going because of interference from my job and other hobbies. I'm looking forward to some free time where I can spin a tale stuck in my head onto digital parchment using electronic ink and getting it published for others to read and criticize.

Finally, I'm a computer geek. I haven't always been, but it seems I've always been around computers, or at least, they've been around me. Following a 17-year career as an electronics technician, I jumped into programming to alleviate my burn-out. It worked. Finding a job in the KC area proved difficult, though. There were too many laid-off Sprint programmers to compete with. They had experience. I didn't. The one job I had as a programmer for three years provided me an unrealized opportunity to learn how to troubleshoot and repair computers. The best of both worlds? The PC skills I developed led to a job as a telephone technoid for a major computer company and my own biz on the side. Then, I became a high school teacher. Now I'm passing everything I know to youngsters who are willing to learn what I have to offer them.

So, there you have it. As time progresses and the days fly by, you will undoubtedly learn more than you ever wanted to about a guy experiencing a "glitch in time."