CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – It was one of those “I am just minding my own business,” letters that arrived at the Tobacco Leaf office in July of 1882 until one of the staffers read the signature…Frank James (Jesse’s brother). Frank began by complaining that he was trying to live a “quiet, uneventful life,” but the press just would not leave him alone. He said that the press had him in places all over the country: in Missouri, looking after the comfort of the vast passenger traffic on her railroads; in Texas, as the owner of an extensive cattle ranch; in Arkansas as the agent of the various stage routes; in New York, as a French count or German ambassador, and he objected.
Next, he went on a tangent about how much better southerners were than northerners and defended his decision to side with the south in the Civil War even though he was from Missouri.
Then came a surprise: he then stated that his child had been attending school in Clarksville for two years under an assumed name. Additionally, he bragged that he had done business on several occasions in Clarksville with noted businessmen Mr. W.J. Ely and Capt. Thomas Herndon. Frank, it seemed, like to speculate in tobacco and Herndon was heavily involved with all aspects of tobacco, and served for several years as the President of the Clarksville Tobacco Board of Trade. Ely was also immersed in the tobacco industry and ran the Elephant Tobacco Warehouse. Frank also claimed to have had a small business transaction with Mr. Higgins, the cashier of one of the banks in Clarksville.
Obviously irritated, Frank requested the Leaf editors to publish a correction on a statement made by Joseph Mulhattan in which he claimed that the James boys were cornered in a cave on Col. Alexander’s farm. Mulhattan had the dubious honor in the 1870s and 1880s of being labeled as America’s greatest hoaxer who wrote incredible and highly excitable stories just for the thrill of deceiving the press.
Frank James called Mulhattan a liar and wrote that, “I am watching for the gentleman and will teach him that he must confine himself to the facts when he talks about me.”
He ended his letter to the Tobacco Leaf newspaper by writing,” Mr. Editor, between the rivers is a good place. When you come over call at____ and I will subscribe. If any doubt, let them visit the swamp and they will find sufficient evidence of
Frank James (signed)
A local Clarksville citizen actually claimed to have remembered Frank James from when he was just a boy. Charles Cleveland Sawyer’s family lived on Whippoorwill Creek. On Saturday nights the family would travel by horse and buggy to a white two-story frame house on the Russellville Road to play music and dance. They would spend the night, get up and go to church before returning home. According to the story, Frank James used to bounce Sawyer on his knee at the horse race track in Russellville, Kentucky where Frank used to keep the time at the track. Sawyer also recalled harness races that once took place in Guthrie and that Frank was the one to fire the starting gun. He laughed as he recalled someone asking Frank, “Can we trust you?”
Carolyn Ferrell is a local historian and author. Ferrell is a frequent guest speaker at civic clubs and organizations and a re-enactor, volunteer, and tour guide for the Fort Defiance Interpretive Center. She has served as a tour guide for both the Riverview and Greenwood Cemeteries and the downtown historic district. She is an officer and active member of the Montgomery County Historical Society. Additionally, the author is a member of the Women of Fort Defiance, the Friends of Fort Defiance, the Friends of the Felix G. Woodward Library at Austin Peay State University, and the Clarksville/Montgomery County Arts & Heritage Council. In 2017, she was a co-recipient of the council’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Heritage.
Ferrell travels extensively to research material for her books and recently acted as an intermediary to return an important piece of Clarksville history to the Public Square. She has been a guest for multiple “History and Heritage” TV shows hosted by former Tennessee senator, Rosalind Kurita, and is currently working on several projects for the city.