I read an entry into a book, that said Jesse James robbed the Rock Island Line 7-21-1873, which was the first stickup of a train. Surely, the author meant Jesse’s first train robbery, not the nation’s first? How big of a deal were train robberies? Most of us have old westerns as our only point of reference- like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. “Who are those guys?”
The same book has an interesting entry about the train robbery at Cheddington, England, in 1963.
Clearly they were a problem - maybe like bank robberies today ? I suspect they were likely enough to gossip about - and for the carriers take precautions against, such as hiring the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and Wells, Fargo & Co. being formed - but most people/ travelers would never experience one in their lifetime, though the train crews well might. (By the way, I believe that the “Who are those guys ?” quote refers to the posse or detectives that the railroad hired to pursue BC&SK, not the bandits.)
The standard reference works each have a chapter or so on them:
The Story of American Railroads, by Stewart H. Holbrook (c. 1947);
A Treasury of Railroad Folklore, ed. by Botkin & Harlow (c. 1950);
American Heritage History of Railroads in America, by Oliver Jensen (c. 1975).
One of them relates that an early transcontinental Central Pacific train was robbed twice on the same day !
Another has a more scholarly treatment that ends with the saga of John Sonntag’s [sp?] robbery of the SP. I believe that is Jensen’s, which probably has the most dispassionate and analytical treatment. Holbrook makes no secret of his contempt for train robbers, and relates how the James gang was nearly wiped out in their (non-railroad) raid on the bank in Northfield, Minnesota. Several of the stories in Treasury are just a fun read - “Hold the Fort Ross” comes to mind.
A good read - if only marginally railroad-related - is the late Michael Crichton’s The Great Train Robbery, also about one - if not the first - in England.
Don’t forget the 1973 semi-classic John Wayne western movie, The Train Robbers - also with Ann Margret, Ben Johnson, and Ricardo Montalban as the Pinkerton man.
Murphy -&nb
Train robberies held the public’s imagination enough to make “The Great Train Robbery” the first film to demonstrate the commercial viability of movies.
http://www.filmsite.org/grea.html
Normal caveats apply, but Wikipedia indicates at least one known train robbery before the Rock Island incident, and another even before that that is otherwise discounted as being a leftover of the Civil War (or whatever you choose to call it).
Iowa DOT maps, the kind you can pick up at rest areas along the interstates, mark the spot as “The first train robbery in the West.” At the spot, just south of I-80 and west of Adair, IA there is a marker and a wheel from a locomotive. (The wheel is from a scrapped 4-8-4, not from the locomotive involved in the robbery.)
Freeman Hubbard in his book Railroad Avenue says the first train robbery that can be definitely tied to Jesse James happened on Dec. 12, 1874 on the Kansas Pacific RR. He does mention that tradition ties Jesse James to the Adair robbery.
Jeff
Do you mean to tell me, that in 1873, when railroads had been around for-what? 40-50 years already , that no one had yet robbed a train ?
A fair observation. Not having been there, I have no way of disputing the historical record as cited. It’s entirely possible that the reported robberies were the first documented train robberies.
One must also take into account a timeline (which I don’t have) of shipments valuable enough to warrant a train robbery. Aside from that, we’re down to robbing the passengers, and again, it’s possible that they simply aren’t documented.
Heh heh maybe it took until the 1870s for there to be any train passengers who WEREN’T fully armed themselves!
Dave Nelson
Makes me think of the story I read, about a guy who tried to hold up a gunshop crowded with customers.[xx(]
The Reid-Moore Syndicate got away with more from the Rock Island than the James Gang. Better a brief case than a gun.
Here are a couple close versions of the Jesse James story.
From the Rock Island Lines News Digest 100th anniversary special, October, 1952
Rock Island Had its Troubles With the James Boys - But Good
Highlighted in the 100-year career of the Rock Island Lines, is an epic of the James Boys.
Jesse James, fabled outlaw of post-Civil War days, cut his teeth in the business of train robbery by wrecking, robbing, and looting a Rock Island Lines train on July 21, 1873, near Adair, Iowa.
The swarthy Robin Hood-like bandit robbed the express messenger of some $3000, then methodically relieved the 200 passengers of watches, cash and jewelry. It was one of the first recorded train robberies in history, and the first in the West.
Jesse James and his gang of Missouri outlaws had expanded their operations. Previously, they made a specialty of bank hold-ups.
-Train Holdup-
It was 8:30 at night. Darkness was beginning to gather on the lush, green and rolling countryside of Western Iowa. The train, made up of two Pullman sleeping cars, five coaches and an express-baggage car, was about four miles west of Adair, east-bound. It was moving slowly upgrade, approaching a sharp curve.
At this moment in the bushes near the far end of the curve lay the James gang, six-shooters cocked and ready. Further off the right-of-way were the horses of seven robbers, nervously sensing the drama of the chase about to begin.
Engineer John Rafferty, alert but unsuspecting, was at the throttle. The fireman, unknown, was throwing the fuel into the boiler to spur on the hard pressed engine.
As the engine came into the curve at the top of the grade, Engineer Rafferty spied a ropw tied to a rail. The rope was being pulled from the bushes; the rail, its spikes removed, was being jerked out of line.
Mr. Rafferty immediately reversed his engine in a desperate, vain effort to avert a wreck. He cou
On October 6, 1866, a car belonging to the Adams Express Co. was looted near Seymour, Indiana. The robbers, thought to be the Reno brothers, threw the safes from the train so that they could be opened at leisure. I am under the impression, but can not document, that several copycat robberies occured in the eastern Midwest shortly thereafter.
Of course, there are many incidents during the Civil War when one side or the other disrupted railroad operations. I think the line between a military operation and a robbery occasionally was pretty thin.
The Seymour, Indiana robbery by the Reno gang is generally considered the first 'true" train robbery in the USA. Small thefts of goods from freight trains existed before it occurred, but there is no documented passenger train robbery before the Reno brothers event. Since the Reno brothers never talked about how they got the idea for their robbery, no one knows how it came about. After heading further west (because of pressure from the Pinkertons who knew they had robbed the train) where they committed some robberies, the Reno gang returned to commit a 2nd successful train robbery at Marshfield, IN on 5/22/1868. Their 3rd robbery near Seymour on 7/10/68 was a disaster as a engineer they thought they had bribed tipped off the Pinkertons. That resulted in 3 of the gang being placed in the Seymour jail where thet were promptly lynched by a local mob. Four nights later another 3 captured members were returned to Seymour and they were promptly lynched. 3 Reno brothers and another gang member eventually ended up in the New Albany, IN jail and they were lynched in the jail on 12/11/1868 by about 80 men who had come by special passenger coach. They were called the Southern Indiana Vigilance Committee but not much is known about them. I don’t believe anyone was ever charged in any of the lynchings.
The Reno brothers were a gang in the true sense of the word, involved in many crimes and terrorized their neighborhood. They were well known in the criminal world of the midwest at the time. Frank Reno and gang member Charlie Anderson had actually escaped to Windsor, ON where they were captured. Their extradition to the US was very much a questionmark as there was no Canadian law at that time against train robberies. However, Frank Reno tried to bribe a Canadian judge and suddenly foun