This afternoon we did the Minnesota Heritage in Song Concert at the Owatonna Arts Center, which is housed in a beautiful historic building, built in 1887. For many years it was the State Orphanage, then a State School. It felt so appropriate, singing these folk songs from the 1800s and earlier in such a place. Truly, many of these songs were sung there before! There's a fantastic museum there with information and photos of the orphanage, and there's always events going on there too. Check out their website at wwww.oacarts.org
When we did our question and answer session at the end of the concert, someone told us that originally, Jesse James and his gang planned to rob a bank in Mankato. But someone on the street recognized Jesse, so they revised their plans and rode on to Northfield. I love learning these tidbits of history from the audience. Let us know if you can add to our Minnesota history knowledge!!
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Because most members of the James Gang were eventually killed, and the last survivors (Frank James and Cole Younger) didn't really talk much, we can't be sure just where the James/Younger gang was before the Northfield Robbery. But most accounts do place them in Mankato on September 2, not quite a week before the robbery.
The best recent book on the James Gang is probably Ted P. Yeatman's Frank and Jesse James (2000). It mentions the gang's visit to Mankato (although not the fact that they were spotted there, which may be an after-the-fact memory) on page 71. The other fairly reliable Jesse James book is William A. Settle Jr.'s Jesse James Was His Name (1966), a book which actually uses verses from a Jesse James song as its table of contents.
Most other Jesse James books, especially those published before Settle, are not worth the paper they are written on. Even some of the newer ones are pretty credulous. There is just too much Jesse James mythology (and too many abominably fictional movies) polluting the waters.
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