Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Last week I had the opportunity to perform John M. James before the Kentucky Humanities Council. John M. James is my 4th great grandfather. See the video below.
Every year the Humanties Council contracts with five performers to add to its stable of historical performances. The Council then sends out the performers around the Commonwealth throughout the year to schools, organizations, and events, dramatizing Kentucky famed characters from the Commonwealth’s storied past.
John M. James is not as famous as some of the characters the Council usually books. Mary Todd Lincoln, Henry Clay, and Daniel Boone are the type of character stars the Council prefers. Even identifying John M. James as the grandfather of Frank & Jesse James, or the 2nd great grandfather of Walmart founder Sam Walton, or as the 5th great grandfather of J. Danforth Quayle, doesn’t carry the same historical weight the Council traditionally seeks. The Council wants characters that are instantly recognizable.
My one-act, one man play focuses on John among his community of rebel Baptist preachers. They made their exodus following the Revolutionary War from Virginia and away from its religious persecution in a Traveling Church into Kentucky. The same band of revolutionary citizens and rebel preachers then went to win the War of 1812, to secure the liberty first won in the Revolution.
After a period of prosperity following the war, Kentucky fell into economic chaos as banks proliferated and predator lenders fell upon the Commonwealth with a vengeance. Currency increasingly was devalued and near worthless. On top of that, the $7 million dollar debt America owed to Napoleon for the Louisiana Purchase was approaching, and it payment was due in specie, either gold or silver. As the full force of the economic Panic of 1819 struck, John found himself nearing death, as broke as Thomas Jefferson. However, John’s revolutionary spirit wouldn’t let him die. He prepared to take on the banks by electing Andy Jackson.
RELATED
Video: John M. James Speaks of Jeremiah Vardeman
This vidieo was made in 2002 at the Vardeman Family Reunion, held at the William Whitley Mansion in Lincoln County, Kentucky. John M. James appears in this video as a much younger man.
The opening of this video shows the re-dedication of the Vardeman Cemetery in Lincoln County, after the cemetery had been relocated and the historic Vardeman Cemetery was flooded by the creation of Cedar Creek Lake.
Stray Leaves Daily
Daily updates from the family of Frank & Jesse James with stories, photos, & two searchable genealog
VIDEO of the Clay County Board of Commissioners bestowing honor upon our James colleague & friend Charlies Broomfield. Recognition begins at 2:00 min. mark.
Congratulations Charlie!!
We have hints from the Clay County Archives in charge of James Farm in Kearney, Missouri, that a road leading to the farm will be renamed Charles Broomfield Rd. Charlie was a Clay County Commissioner who took an active role in arranging the sale and transfer of James Farm from the James family to Clay County.
Cant say that I understand the significance of this.
Do you have the address of Jesse & Frank James Cabin in Paseo Robles, California?
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
This content isn’t available right now
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.