The Product of Little Dixie
The Maundy Monday Newsletter - This Week in History February 9 - 15.
The Missouri River is the longest in the United States, besting the Mississippi by one mile. It originates at the base of the Centennial Mountains in southwestern Montana and flows east and south before pouring into the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis.
As it carves through the land, it forms the eastern boundaries of Nebraska and Kansas and the upper northwest of the state that bears its name. The Missouri River then cuts east before it reaches its mouth. This area of Missouri is known as “Little Dixie” because white migrant settlers from Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky traveled there in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and brought along their enslaved people. It encompasses about 13 counties, give or take, and in 1860, the enslaved people made up about 10% of the population. I’m sure it’s just lovely.
“Little Dixie” is the place where Jesse Woodson James was born in 1847. Jesse’s father was a Baptist minister who would head west to California in search of gold and meet a tragic death. Jesse and his older brother, Frank, would live chaotic lives as the march toward the American Civil War intensified throughout their youth. When the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854, Missouri and its neighbors would begin engaging in violent actions against each other over the expansion of slavery.
The James Brothers would eventually fall into a group of Missourians called “Bushwackers” who were Pro-Confederacy. When the war broke out, the James boys were engaged in heavy guerrilla activities against Union troops. This includes the Centralia Massacre, where Jesse, under the leadership of some loser named “Bloody Bill” Anderson, summarily executed 24 Union soldiers that surrendered to them after traveling through “Little Dixie” on a train. No one ever paid the price for this war crime, and Frank and Jesse would survive the war but never feel defeated.
After the war, and clearly frustrated with their disappointed, hateful lives, Jesse and Frank would continue their act of violent crime by forming a gang with another guy named Cole Younger and his equally dysfunctional brothers. The “James-Younger Gang” began their decade-long terror campaign when they committed the first daylight robbery during peacetime on February 12, 1866, at the Clay County Savings Bank in Liberty, Missouri.
The heist netted nearly $60,000, which would be $1.2 million in today’s money.
Their confidence grew, and the gang branched out, robbing banks in Kentucky, Iowa, and Minnesota. It was in Minnesota that it all came to an end. The Younger brothers were captured, while the James brothers fled to Tennessee to live in peace until the urge to rob banks in Missouri returned a few years later in 1879. Three years after that, another criminal named Bob Ford shot and killed Jesse James. Ford was pardoned for the murder by the Missouri governor, who desperately wanted the state rid of the James Brothers at any cost. Frank surrendered to the authorities, would live another 30 years, and hold odd jobs, including work as a theater ticket-taker guy.
I bring this story up because the president of the university where I attended and was widely popular used to call my brother and me the “James Brothers,” and I wonder if that meant he thought we were bad guys. I don’t think so, but it makes you wonder.
Okay, let’s highlight what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events mark their anniversary, ending in 5 or 0. Here’s what I got:
1. A US nuclear sub struck a Japanese fishing boat on February 9, 2001. USS Greeneville was demonstrating its capabilities to various civilian VIPs, including a random sports columnist, when it sped to the surface from the Pacific Ocean and collided with a Japanese fishing boat carrying 35 passengers, mostly students and teachers. Nine people died when the ship sank, and the submarine’s captain refused to apologize for the incident. It caused serious harm to the US-Japan diplomatic relations. It would be another 20 years before the captain finally relented and penned an apology.
2. The second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump began on February 9, 2021. About a month after instigating an insurrection to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the Senate held the second and likely not final impeachment of Trump. The only impeachment after a president left office was used as an excuse for Republican senators not to convict him and provide him with yet another chance at political life, which he has used with vengeance. Remember that President Andrew Johnson survived removal from office by one vote.
3. Halley’s Comet last neared Earth on February 9, 1986. The first sighting of this ball of gas and other chemicals was back in 240 BC. The last approach, 40 years ago, was considered the least favorable for observing it because it would put most people and the comet on opposite sides of the sun. Does that sound right? I have no idea, I don’t remember much of Halley’s Comet when I was ten, but I’m sure it was fantastic. It will return in 2061, and I doubt I’ll be alive. Now I’m wondering why I bothered listing it, but I’ve come this far. I still can’t come to terms with the fact that 1986 was 40 years ago.
I hope you enjoyed the Super Bowl and, more importantly, the halftime show. I thought it was a great performance. I don’t know Bad Bunny very well, but it’s a 13-minute performance that didn’t ruin my life, forcing me to watch some other concert. In fact, it reminded me a lot of West Side Story, the groundbreaking musical from the 1960s that pitted American teenagers fighting Puerto Rican immigrant kids over turf and integration. It was just a lot of fun – we need more of that.
In more important news - next week is Presidents’ Day – which means Okay History celebrates an anniversary. This year marks five years since I launched the site – beginning with my trademark essays – ranking the presidents of the United States.
Which means, after the debacle of last year’s political scandals rankings, which I hope to return to someday, this year’s rankings will have less hype and be more in line with boring American history figures.
I bet you can’t wait to begin!
Okay, it’s Monday. I hope this week is a good one, and as always, I remain grateful for your continued support.
Okay,
Chris
