Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
This is BANNED BOOKS WEEK. Here’s a book, written by Jesse & Frank James’ first cousin Dan James. Like Jesse James, the book was banned in its day. But today, Dan’s book is famous, widely read, and seriously studied in college courses, together with his films. So, too, is Dan James.
Daniel Lewis James was blacklisted, first as a Hollywood screenwriter after co-writing the screen classic The Great Dictator with Charlie Chaplin. Then later, Dan James was banned as a novelist.
The House on Un-American Activities Committee, convened by the U. S. Congress, branded Dan James as a Communist on evidence of hearsay. Dan was driven underground to write B-movies instead, one of them the screen classic Gorgo.
When Daniel Lewis James published his novel Famous All Over Town under the Hispanic pen name of Danny Santiago, the Hispanic literati exposed him. Attempting to ban his book, they brown listed Dan James and Danny Santiago, the fictional author who did not exist.
Today, Dan’s novel is celebrated and taught in college in Hispanic studies classes. The chapter in my book, Jesse James Soul Liberty, about Dan James, titled “All For the Underdog,” has been made into a play, commissioned by the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago. The play was written by the award-winning Hispanic playwright, Carlos Murillo.
There have been various efforts to ban my book, Jesse James Soul Liberty. The Northfield Historical Society will not carry the book in its bookstore. Do they fear the return of the James family to Northfield in book form will steal the fortune they gather each year celebrating Jesse James defeat?
The Kansas City Star has refused to review the book, because, they say, the book’s publisher is not on the newspaper’s list of approved publishers. Do they fear a publisher who isn’t a gatekeeper will slip something new into the book market? Will that new information threaten what they’ve already approved?
A Missouri state representative, when asked about making the book available at James Farm & Museum in Kentucky, has stated, “I couldn’t give a s _ _ t about Jesse James!” Many of Missouri’s politicians today would simply like to be rid of the name and its association. They think that banning a book about the Jesse James family will erase the outlaw’s sad history. They believe that restricting what people read, and banning what they think people should not read, will guarantee proper social behavior.
I wish them all every success for banning my book, as well as others. Banishment certainly will ensure my book will be around for generations to come. History has proved, authors of banned books tend to become very successful, and their books become widely read. As my book shows, among the James family being banned or persecuted is evidence of significant accomplishment.
As much as books are banned by those of lesser intelligence, banned books are celebrated by those of higher intelligence. After all, isn’t that how one gains higher intelligence? By reading books? By reading all kinds of books? You will know a person’s level of intelligence by the number of banned books they read.
Stray Leaves Daily
Daily updates from the family of Frank & Jesse James with stories, photos, & two searchable genealog
SLAVE TRADERS AMONG OUR JAMES FAMILY . . . For a decade Stray Leaves has been researching this most distressing discovery. Finally, it’s time to bring this story to light. There’s much to report. The entire story will take time to tell. As we begin, we are also compelled to reconcile what this history means for us. More specifically for those who are now known to descend from these slave traders, whom it can be assumed never knew of this element of their ancestry, but also for the James family as a whole. The resolution will not come easy.
Forks of the Road Slave Market – Violence In Silence
ericjames.org
“Just at the Forks, where the Washington and Kingston, or Palatine roads converge, stood a low squatty frame building used during the winter monthsI ran a DNA test on all the James names I could find in these stories and didn't get 1 DNA match. My DNA is closer to Jesse than that James line is. I am looking into it being through Robert Thomason (step grandfather of Jesse Woodson James) and Julia Ann Singleton (Aunt to Jesse Woodson James).
I am a descendant of Betty G Woodson.
Waterproof, La in Tensas Parish to be more exact.
Tensas Parish. J. G. James and M. Kerrigan.
The King family. Descendants of Viking slayers. archive.org/stream/Kingswood/Kingswood%20reduced_djvu.txt
"In the middle of 1864, Captain Jason W. James was on scouting duty in the southern part of Madison Parish. About eight o'clock one morning he and his company arrived at the Plantation home of Hr. Joshua James on Roundaway Bayou, who also owned the Ione Plantation in Tensas Parish." You will have to read the rest. I am not posting it here. 😲 😲 😲 sites.rootsweb.com/~lamadiso/articles/ward/chap05.htm
And I do believe this James line is connected to Lucille Ball.
And speaking of slave traders. Nicholas Trammell is mixed in with the Carrigans somehow. www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/trammell-nicholas
And I am a descendant of Elizabeth Woodson Thomas. Wife of Captain Edmund King.
I am also showing DNA matches to the James grandparents of Jesse Woodson James and all 8 of his great grandparents. This is what I need help figuring out. All of my James DNA matches will be in the replies to this comment. In this screenshot they are all the white ones
The sons of Colonial Edmund King.
I am a descendant of Mary Joicy who was widow Woodson, mother of Elizabeth Woodson Thomas.
By the way I am not a Kerrigan by DNA. I am a Carrigan. Civil War name change. Descendant of William Michael Carrigan and Nancy Holt. Nancy Holt was the daughter of Michael Holt III and Rachel Rainey. youtu.be/IsK2eSTVW8A
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This content isn't available right now
When this happens, it’s usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it’s been deleted.Where does Lucille Ball fit?
FIND-A-GRAVE BLUNDERS LEAVE JAMES FAMILY HOWLING . . . Can you spot the errata in this Find a Grave post for the grandfather of Frank & Jesse James? The most glaring deception is the photograph!
History tells us the photograph was invented about the time John M. James was dying. Neither history, nor the administrator of this posting, Charlotte Raley McConaha, can tell us is how photographic technology made its way from France to the distant American frontier to take a photo of John M. James, months before his demise.
Another imprecise miscalculation in this post is the attribution of the middle name “Martin” to John M. James. The name never has been proved by evidence. To guess the name is unreliable and wrong.
A CANOPY NOW PROTECTS HISTORIC CHOCTAW ACADEMY . . . Preservation efforts continue outside Georgetown in Scott County, Kentucky, where four members of our James family attended this school for Indians between 1826 and 1836.
The four boys who were schooled here were the Choctaw and Chickasaw sons of Benjamin James “of the Choctaw” and his sister Susannah James. Benjamin and Susannah were children of the lawyer and Indian trader Benjamin James Sr. and his Choctaw spouse.
Robert McDonald “R.M.” Jones was the first to enroll in Choctaw Academy in 1826. He was followed in 1828 by Daugherty Winchester Colbert. The brothers Johnny and George James attended the Academy from 1831 to 1836.
Evidence has yet to establish if more of the James family’s Choctaw and Chickasaw descendants also were schooled at Choctaw Academy. It is likely that more were.
www.weku.org/off-the-beaten-path-with-sam-dick/2022-11-23/saving-choctaw-academy?
www.weku.org
Sam Dick visits a Scott County farm which is the historical site of a Native American school that educated Choctaw and Cherokee Indians in the 1850sYou can click on the names of some of the people in the cemetery and it will take you to a story about that person. Chiefs.
My grandmother was Katherine Elizabeth Meredith. The black outlaws that rode with the gang… I do believe they were black Choctaws. youtu.be/c9BASx3ZKKs
Kerrigan Rd.
My great grandfather was Michael William Kerrigan. His 2nd wife was Susan Trahern. She was Choctaw. While researching her, I came across this. Notice the names in the cemetery. A James family is buried there. sites.rootsweb.com/~okleflor/cemetery/trahern_station.htm
My Kerrigan ancestors lived on this land. rootsfromthebayou.blogspot.com/2014/08/lovelace-plantation-where-french.html?m=1
JAMES-YOUNGER GANG TO CLOSE . . . Sad news as Danny Urban, former President of the J-Y Gang, posted to Facebook that the organization is about to disband. Here’s the statement: "It is a sad year for us in the Gang. Since I originally posted this, we have lost members due to death. We are down to around 30, but the Board has decided to shut the Gang down at the end of the year. Donate all of our monies to Non-Profits around the country that are history related in the areas that the real Gang had robbed, etc. Two of our members will be taking over the website and they plan on keeping it going." The photo below is of yours truly in 2002 at the family reunion with some great-grandchildren of Jesse James. The 2017 logo is from the last meeting of the Gang that I helped to organize.