Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Imagine my surprise, to learn that I live just two blocks from Clell Miller’s grandparents. Gee, Clell Miller, Kentucky hardly knew ya.
Since Henry Logan and Mary Kenley Thurmond died together back in 1866, Clell’s grandparents haven’t gone missing at all. For almost 150 years, they’ve been right here in Danville, Kentucky, in plain sight. And like poor Clell, no one has cared.
Who’s Clell Miller? Hapless Clell was a member of the James Gang. During their robbery attempt of the Northfield Bank in Northfield, Minnesota in 1876, Clell Miller will killed.
Jesse James is reputed to have killed Clell’s brother, Ed Miller.
Moving here twelve years ago to write my histories of the Jesse James family, I made Danville my home base, because Danville’s the geographic center of the James family’s history in Kentucky, ever since 1782 when Jesse’s grandfather, John M. James, arrived with his Traveling Church. The Youngers, Pence, Scholls, Chinns, Hites, Vardemans, etc. – and now Clell Miller’s family – lived among one another first around Danville, before moving to Clay County in Missouri. These families left abundant history in plain sight, still waiting today for the arrival of serious historians.
Often I take a refreshing walk over to Bellevue Cemetery after long hours of writing. Bellevue is an historic, tree-filled place, where Victorians went for Sunday picnics, courting, and family recreational diversions. Since Danville is where Kentucky separated from Virginia in 1792, Bellevue is populated also by countless blue blood figures of the Commonwealth’s frontier. I commune with them, just as I do with those in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Kearney, Missouri.
Now that I know I have Clell Miller’s grandparents for neighbors, I think I’ll write a story about them for the James-Younger Gang Journal. I believe Jesse James fanatics know just about as much about Clell’s family as they know about Clell Miller himself.
Stray Leaves Daily
Daily updates from the family of Frank & Jesse James with stories, photos, & two searchable genealogy databases.
THE FIRST IMMIGRANT TO AMERICA OF OUR JAMES FAMILY . . .
Stray Leaves, our website below, now reaches back into the 17th century to bring you the story of our first immigrant, John James, in narrative form.
John’s story comes to us through original documents and seasoned source citations, which are also provided.
What John James Tells Us
• He arrived at Jamestown.
• He transported 10 indentured people.
• He was rewarded with a land patent.
• The location of his land can be visited today.
• He and his neighbors comprised the important founding families of Virginia.
• The location of origination of the James in the Old World, as Jesse James family historians say is Pembrokeshire, Wales is disputed and unproven.
• The name identity of John’s wife as formerly stated by traditional genealogists is disproved.
• John James arrived as an oligarch and royalist with no pretensions to democracy or self-rule.
• Early James family wealth was accrued in the tobacco culture and by land speculation.
• John and his family were followers of the Church of England.
• His children and grandchildren remained savvy and street-wise, relating well with common people.
• Generations beyond the grandchildren of John James produced significant diversity in America’s people and culture.
Read about John James, the Immigrant now.
John James – Immigrant Cavalier to the New World
ericjames.org
The first foothold of the James family in the New World was secured by John James, the Immigrant. John was born about 1623. Sometime before 1690, he died.
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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.Will the real DAVID JAMES, please, stand up and come forward? Are you still drinking this stuff?
Founder of Churchill Downs race track, Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. is a 4th cousin, twice removed of Frank & Jesse James.
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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.Delma E. Watkins Candido has passed. Del is a granddaughter of Mack Henry James & Dorinda Phelps. She also is a 2nd great-granddaughter of the "talented, but erratic" Rev. Joseph Martin James & Permellia Estepp.
Obituary for Del E. Candido at Pulaski Funeral Home
www.pulaskifuneralhome.com
Del E. Candido, daughter of the late Leonard A. and Ada James Watkins, was born at Dykes, KY on November 29th, 1937 and she departed this life on Thursday, May 5th, 2022 in Somerset, KY having attaine…