Museum program will feature Superior's Jesse James story

The late Howard Crilly, became publisher of The Superior Express in the 1930s and had the opportunity to talk with many of the early day residents of Superior. Though he was never able to prove their claim, he said those early residents had assured him the notorious Jesse James had a sister living in Superior and other family members in the Nelson community and he had frequently visited Superior before he was brought down by an assassin’s bullet in 1882.

That story is somewhat surprising as Superior was open prairie before the town’s establishment in 1875.

Lew Hunter retold a story he had gotten from his mother, Esther Hunter, about a gang of men who sought shelter from a snow storm with his mother’s family in the Bostwick community. Supposedly soldiers trailing the gang later told the family, the men who sought shelter were thought to have been members of the James Gang. But remember in those days there weren’t fingerprints, DNA testing and surveillance cameras to help identify criminals. Identities were often confused.

This year Lady Vestey Victorian Festival planners sought to honor the memory of Lew Hunter and his contributions to Superior, members of the Nuckolls County Historical Society decided it would be appropriate to host a Nebraska Humanities Council speaker who will talk about Jesse James in Nebraska. Jeff Bauner, the guest speaker, has described James was a bad man in a good place.

As we think about the bank robber and his possible association with Superior, we need to remember the time in which he lived. We didn’t have movies, television or the internet to entertain us. Dime novels were popular. The authors of which often took their inspiration from a contemporary event and then embellished the story. They didn’t have time to research the facts.

Jesse James was presented as a Robin Hood who stole from the rich and gave to the poor.

Just as promoters in our eastern states like to claim George Washington had slept in a house that sometimes was not even built until after his death, many promoters in the west embellished the stories.

Story tellers have claimed Jesse James was a frequent Superior visitor, had a hideout along a creek west of Esbon and owned a farm near Franklin. Some or none of that may be true.

In this week’s Editor’s Notebook, Bill Blauvelt retells the story of the James gang getting lost in a snow storm while headed to Superior and taking shelter at a Bostwick area farm.

At 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon an authority on the life of the infamous outlaw will speak at the Nuckolls County Museum. The room is air conditioned, the chairs are padded and the admission is free.

His visit to Superior has been underwritten by The Superior Express.