The
Daily Oklahoman
Feb. 11, 1911
MOTHER OF JAMES
BOYS PASSES AWAY
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Mrs. Zerelda Samuel
Dies on
Frisco Train Near
Oklahoma City
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A PROMINENT FIGURE
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Through All Notoriety She Remained Steadfast True to
Sons------------------------------------------------------------------
Mrs. Zerelda Samuel, 86 years old, mother of Jesse and Frank James, died Friday afternoon on a
Frisco train while enroute to
Oklahoma City after a visit with her son Frank, at his home near
Fletcher,
Oklahoma. Mrs. Frank James was with Mrs. Samuel at the time of her death. Mrs. Samuel died at three o'clock, about twenty miles west of
Oklahoma City. The body was brought here and immediately prepared for burial, and shipped on the seven o'clock train for
Kansas City.
Mrs. Samuel and her daughter in law were going to
Kansas City to visit Jesse James Jr., a grandson. They were in the sleeping car when Mrs. Samuel became suddenly ill, and died before medical aid could be summoned.
She was born in
Kentucky, and for several years has been living with her son John Samuel, a half-brother of Jesse and Frank James, in Excelsior
Springs,
Missouri. She survived by Frank James, a son, of
Fletcher, Oklahoma; Jesse James Jr., a grandson, of
Kansas City; John Samuel, a son of Excelsior
Springs, Missouri; Mrs. Sallie
Nicholson, a daughter of
Kearney,
Missouri, and Mrs. Fannie
Hall, a daughter of
Kearney,
Missouri.
Mrs. Samuel had been visiting her son Frank at his home near
Fletcher,
Oklahoma, for the last two months.
Mrs. Zerelda Samuel was one of the prominent figures of this section of the country during the latter part of the Civil war. As mother of the James boys, she later acquired notoriety, but through it all she remained true to her sons.
Mrs. Samuel was born in
Kentucky in 1824 and was educated at a convent in Lexington,
Kentucky. Her father was a soldier in the revolutionary war and her mother was the daughter of a prominent
Kentucky family.
In 1841 Zerelda
Cole was married to the Rev. Robert James, a
Baptist minister, and a short time later they moved to
Clay county,
Missouri.
The Rev. Mr. James went to
California during the gold rush, and soon after arriving there died. In 1855 his widow was married to Dr. Reuben Samuel and until the opening of the Civil war they continued to live on the James farm. During the war, what was known as the "home guard" visited the home and their treatment of Dr. Samuel later caused him to become insane. A visit from detectives of a private agency caused the loss of one of Mrs. Samuel's arms when the men in their anxiety to capture Jesse James threw a bomb into the house.
Later on the late Mrs. Samuel took advantage of the fame of the old homestead and charged each visitor 25 cents to visit the home. From this she received a comfortable income.
Three years ago her second husband died in a state hospital for the insane in St. Joseph,
Missouri and since that time his widow has divided her time between the homestead and the farm of her son Frank in
Oklahoma.
During the Civil war Mrs. Samuel won admiration by her bravery. She was nearly six feet tall and of powerful build.