Miscellaneous:Jesse James Wasn't Assassinated Submitter: Carolyn P. Avery Nov 2000 Source: West Carroll Gazette March 8, 1951 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** OLDEST PARISH NATIVE CONTENDS JESSE JAMES WASN'T ASSASSINATED Was Jesse James actually shot by Bob Ford? Maybe history will never reveal the answere conclusively but, J.A. Lester, West Carroll's oldest living native, who celebrated his 89th birthday Sunday, won't hesitate to tell you that "Bob Ford never shot Jesse" Mr. Lester, who has been living on the same farm in what is now Briggs Community for the past 86 years, is doubtless the last living person in West Carroll who saw Jesse James, Frank James and their cousins, Cole and Bob Younger, alive. "I don't remember just what time of year it was, but my father and I were going along the old lane (east of the present road) one afternoon when four horsemen rounded the bend headed north. They rode two abreast and wore slickers and rain caps and were carring rifles and had six-guns strapped to their saddles." "I was only eight (it was in 1872) and they scared me. After they passed, my father asked if I was scared and when I said yes, he told me 'why, that was only Jesse and Frank James and Cole and Bob Younger'." the bright eyed, alert old-timer declared. Mr. Lester then explaned that the four were returning north after a visit with Tom Jarrett and his wife, a cousin of the James brothers,"right down the road there on the old Johnson place." The farm is now owned by Louis Fowler. Mr. Lester, a former police juror, deputy sheriff, magistrate and levee board member, bases his contention that Jesse James was not shot by Bob Ford on the fact that " about 15 years ago, I talked to a man who came to Oak Grove with a show claiming to be Jesse James. He must have been for he answered questions that only Jesse could have known the answeres." Among these were accurate descriptions of places where Tom Jarrett and Bill Dickerson had lived. Both were well known residents of West Carroll and were friends of the James boys from the days of the home guards. Mr. Lester's strongest point of contention is that the land- marks and spots described had at the time of the questioning been obliterated "for years". "That man was Jesse James, for how else could he have known the answers to those questions," Mr. Lestr declared. The active elderly man was in fine soirits except for complain- ing of a little arthritis in his neck. He took pride in dislaying his muzzle-loading shotgun and telling of its great accuracy with two types of shot-buckshot and b.b.'s. Contrasting with the age represented in the muzzle-loading gun (80 years) was a modern radio located in another corner of the room. A tintype of Mr. Lester's parents hangs in the hall of the rambling old farm home. Albert Jackson Lester and his bride, Elizabeth Cummins Lester, moved to northeast Louisiana,(around Floyd community) in 1857. They saw Yankees wilfully destroy dwellings and other property at Oak Grove and Floyd. Amoung the many Civil War experiences related to Mr. Lester by his father was one concerning the attempt of the yankees to burn out Floyd, then the parish seat. "The Yankees burned the jail at Floyd but were chased away by the home gaurds before they could set fire to the courthouse," the aged native stated. He knew nothing of a report that a band of Quantrelle's guerrillas, under the leadership of Jesse James aided in driving the Yankees from Floyd. The Lester home was purchased by Mr. Lester's father from "the Widow Parmer" in 1867 and has remained in the Lester family the past 86 years. Mr. Lester has five living children, Ed, Mansfield and J.A., all living on the home place, Mrs. Lindy Webb and Mrs. Nina McVey, both of Shreveport, nine grandchildren and seven great-grand children. Whether or not Jesse James was killed by Bob Ford will probably never be conclusively decieded, but there is one man who will always contend "It was a plot to collect the $50,000 reward by Bob and Jesse.--J.A. Lester, who lived when the laughing, dancing, gun-toting James and Younger Clan paid regular visits to West Carroll Parish for rest.