PART 2: late 1920s to 1942
THE GREAT DEPRESSION TAKES ITS TOLL
Horse racing and chicken fighting didn’t pay all the bills in those years of the Great Depression, with a wife and three children, a “player” like Jess…did I tell you he had purchased a yellow sports car of some sort…at least that what one of his sisters-in-law told me. So you can start using your imagination on THAT one.
During those Depression years, no one was safe from losing everything-crops, home. My dad said the government men had come to their farm in 1933 to dig a big long trench then killed every third cow they had and buried them in the big pasture out back. Dad said he cried and cried, since he had bottle fed many of them as calves.
Now then, If government men were going to all farms creating a real “scarcity” in order to raise the price of cattle to cattle raisers, then it likely made sense to Jesse G. with wife Clara to “Raise Farm Prices” by cutting down other farm items, too.
The “aunties and uncles” – Jesse’s brother and sister-in-laws – also told me that Clara was just as good a pistol shot, if not better, than Jesse. One of the activities they engaged in was shooting the trees in their orchard. Fewer trees; higher prices, right?
Back to the James orchard: Jesse and Clara would get their pistols ready (Clara had a .32 and Jesse had his .45) then saddle up, and at a gallop start shooting at a tree as they rode by until the tree fell over. They “killed” most, if not all, of their trees over the next few months.
JESSE GET’S A REAL JOB IN SAN ANTONIO
CAN YOU BELIEVE? JESSE JAMES A BEXAR COUNTY DEPUTY SHERIFF?
Our Bexar County Sheriff’s Department hired Jesse to be a Deputy Sheriff, serving under three Bexar County Sheriff’s: John Tobin (1900 to about 1923, Jim Stevens (1923-about 1928, and Albert West, Jr. (1928-1936).
SOURCE: San Antonio Light, Thursday, November 8, 1934, page 1.
“Jesse James, 36, of Somerset, a Deputy Sheriff under Albert West, Jr, now serving as a guard at the Bexar County Jail, has seen service under two other sheriffs. James, who is married and the father of three children, at one time was employed by the late John Tobin and later by Jim Stevens when he was elected sheriff.” For several years James has served as a foreman at ranches in Campbellton and Dilley, Texas.”
(Note: one ranch, in 1935, was owned by the H. Ford Witherspoon family, located “on the Nueces River”)
LET’S ADD SOME MOONSHINE TO JESSE’S TALENTS
Several years ago a Somerset resident who worked in San Antonio at the Stock Yards was speaking with my brother, who was called in to do some electrical work at that site.
The lady upon learning that my brother was related to Jesse G. James, told him that Jesse was known for “making peach brandy down in the Blackjacks. He had a big Army truck that loaded with bottles of the brew and drove it to the Bexar County Courthouse. Backing up to the loading docks, Jess handed out bottles? jars? to those who had pre-paid and those who had ready cash.
SOOO, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?
DEPUTY JESSE G JAMES…SITTING IN HIS OWN JAIL CELL? BUT HE’S NOT ALONE.
Jesse G’s term of service under Sheriff West was for 2 years, from January 1, 1935 until December 31, 1936. However, on September 1, 1936, Jesse G. was sitting in his own Bexar County Jail with two co-conspirators: Johnny Maudlin and E. L. Maudlin.
Page 18 of the following San Antonio Express tells all:
On September 2 the three miscreants were resting in the Bexar County Jail,
THE FOLLOWING IS PEGGY’S BEST GUESS AS TO THE NAMES TYPED IN ABOVE
WITNESSES:
(arresting officers: State Patrol Capt. Frank Hickman, Patrol Sgt. H. R. Rohatch
Ira Smith, D.A.
Chester L. Workman Somerset, Texas
G. A. Durham Durham’s Garage Somerset, Texas
H. W. Caruthers Caruthers Filling Station, Somerset, Texas
Lawrence McCoy Somerset, Texas
G. W. Kurz Somerset, Texas
Jay Roland Somerset, Texas
Earl Collier Jones Motor Company
Phillip McGuire 1203 Kayton or c/o N.H. White Co.
Mrs. Phillip McGuire1203 Kayton or c/o N.H. White Co.
Howard Orth Caruthers’ Filling Station, Somerset, Texas
Dale Crowder Caruthers’ Filling Station, Somerset, Texas
H. A. Woods District Attorney’s Office
Volmer Roberts Jones Motor Company on 1346 Schley
Arthur Pheil 307 Furr Drive
Ben Legler 328 Denver Blvd.
JESSE G. JAMES AND THE STOLEN AUTO (There WAS more than one.)
EX-JAIL GUARD HELD IN THEFTS DESCRIBED STEALING
San Antonio Light, 18 May 1937page 2A
Newspapers provided readers an account of just what this dastardly deputy with the historic name had done with the stealing, erasing the motor numbers, and other… doin’s.
23 MAY 1937 CONVICTION
Jesse G. “changed his plea from ‘not guilty’ to ‘guilty’ just before arguments were to start” thus allowing a minimum sentence….”
This case was said to close on of the biggest cases State Patrol Sgt. Rohatsch worked in Caldwell County.
ON 31 MAY 1937, JESSE IS SENTENCED
Jesse was now on his way to East Texas for a 2 year stay at “The Big House.”
