This may be the earliest version, printed by Norm Cohen in Long Steel Rail which is a wonderful book well worth purchasing.


JESSE JAMES

Jesse James was a lad that killed many a man,
He robbed the Danville train;
But that dirty little coward that shot at Mr. Howard
Has laid Jesse James in his grave.
It was Robert Ford, that dirty little coward;
I wonder how he does feel;
For he ate Jesse's bread and slept in Jesse's bed,
Then laid Jesse James in his grave.

Poor Jesse had a wife, to mourn for his life
Children they were brave;
But that dirty little coward, that shot at Mr. Howard
Has laid Jesse James in his grave.

It was with his brother Frank, he robbed the Gallatin bank,
And carried the money from the town;
It was at this very place they had a little chase,
For they shot Capt. Sheets to the ground.
They went to the crossing not very far from there,
And there they did the same,
With the agent on his knees he delivered up the keys
To the outlaws Frank and Jesse James.

It was on a Wednesday night, the moon was shining bright,
They robbed the Danville train;
The people they did say for many miles away,
It was robbed by Frank and Jesse James.
It was on Saturday night, the moon was shining bright,
Talking with his family brave,
Robert Ford came along like a thief in the night,
And he laid Jesse James in his grave.

The people held their breath when they heard of Jesse's death,
And wondered how he came to die.
It was one of the gang called little Robert Ford,
He shot Jesse James on the sly.
This song was written by Billy LaShade, as soon as the news did arrive;
He said there's no man with the law in his hand
Can take Jesse James alive.

"Until recently, the earliest known printing of 'Jesse James' was a broadside printed by New York publisher Henry J. Wehman (no. 1044). Though undated, it can be placed between 1888 and 1897 on the basis of Wehman's address given on the sheet. It has been reproduced by Finger (1927) and by Thede and Preece. In 1977, Guthrie T. Meade came across an 1887 pocket songster in the Library of Congress, Comic and Sentimental Songs; one of the texts, as sung by Robert Jones, is 'Jesse James'. Jones, born blind in east Tennessee, made his living after the age of fifteen by singing and playing the fiddle . . . . While this version the authorship is attributed to LaShade, rather than Gashade, I am uneasy about building any hypotheses on this slender foundation."

Norm Cohen, Long Steel Rail (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1981), 103-104.