When I first arrived in town, I thought the site of the robbery was the bank. I spent quite a bit of time filming outside the bank. I am always surprised that no one called the police or came outside to see what I was doing. I could never get away with that in a big city.
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| No longer a bank, now City Hall |
On June 3rd, 1871, the James Gang came to town until to rob the Ocobock Brothers' Bank. They didn't expect the town to be empty. Most of the townsfolk were at a town rally at the Methodist Church across the street from the bank. The noted speaker Henry Clay Dean was discussing the merits of a proposed railroad.
The robbery was accomplished without any injuries or deaths. Not content with stealing the $7000 without fanfare, the gang furious at being upstaged by Dean stormed into the church and "shook the stolen money at the crowd", saying that the bank was robbed. As the townsfolk ran to the bank, the bandits made their getaway.
My favorite part of the recounting says that "the gang cooked up some stolen chickens over a hastily made fire, and ate, and rested."
Methodist church where renowned orator Henry Clay Dean
was speaking during the robbery
The most interesting story I read about the robbery came from Frank Eugene Barber's personal family history, which he dutifully recorded and made available to the Mercer Historical Society. Breakfast with
Jesse:
My great-grandmother, Mary Bright was boiling clothes in an old iron kettle when several men in dusters rode up out of the cornfield.
She asked the men what they wanted, the tall skinny one with a scraggly beard said, "We would like something to eat."
Mary put out some cold biscuits that had been wrapped in a tea towel and she added milk to the left over gravy from breakfast. She then fried up some fat-back for the men.
She had no coffee, but one of the seven men did. She boiled it up and they ate the food and drank the coffee. As they left, the tall man with the scraggly beard flipped her a twenty dollar gold-piece--the most money she and her husband had at once time since they had sold some shoats the fall before.
When her husband pulled up with his wagon-load of lumber that night, he told her that the Ocobock Brothers' Bank in Corydon was robbed by the Jesse James and his boys.
She laughingly told him she had breakfast with Jesse and his boys that morning.
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| Love the kitsch of Outlaw Pizza |
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| my DNA hair offering, left across street from Outlaw Pizza at the "other" bank |
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