This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: DALTON, DARBY, ANDERSON Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Vm.2ADI/147 Message Board Post: I am seeking any information on a James Frank Darby who came to Belleville, in Republic County, Kansas sometime before 1900 and apparently lived there until he died on August 3, 1947. Any information on his life there would really be appreciated. James was enumerated in census in Belleville in the 1900, 1910 and 1920 census. His occupation was first recorded as a merchant, but later he owned and operated a Billard Hall in Belleville. Sometime between 1900 and 1910 he met and married to Andrea M. Anderson. Of Danish parents, Andrea was born in either Denmark or Germany on Juky 30, 1877. I have not been able to find them in the 1930 census. As stated in the subject line, James Frank Darby's real name was Jeremiah Franklin Dalton. Born on August 14, 1864 in Lansing, Leavenworth County, Kansas, he was the son of William Clark Meredith and Josevine (Morris) Dalton. James grew up during the time of Jesse James and the later mystery that maybe Jesse really wasn't murdered like everyone thought. Chapter Ten of Nancy B. Samuelson's book, The Dalton Gang Story, is entitled "Dubious, Doubtful, and Deceptive Daltons." In it she talks about "faction, myth, and legend" surrounding the Dalton Gang. One of those involved a J. Frank Dalton and his possible identity as Frank Dalton of the Dalton Gang family, killed in 1887 while serving as a U.S. Deputy Marshall. Another story was that J. Frank Dalton was really Jesse James, who had faked his own death. In her research, Nancy investigated many leads while trying to identify exactly who this J. Frank Dalton really was. The following excerpt from her book ties this mystery to our Dalton line: Page 165, "The Dalton Gang Story:" "Several people have thought for a long while he (Jesse James) was really Jeremiah Franklin Dalton born near Lansing, Kansas in 1864 and the son of William Clark Meredith Dalton and Josephine Morris. This man was known to have married a woman named Andrea Anderson. A tip from a descendant of this William Dalton family enabled this author to track down Jeremiah Franklin Dalton. Jeremiah changed his name to Darby and he died in Belleville, Kansas on 3 August 1947, about a year before J. Frank made his Jesse claim. The death certificate and the estate records of J. Frank Darby leave no doubt that he and Jeremiah Franklin Dalton were the same man. So the search for the true identity of J. Frank Dalton goes on." Jeremiah's alias is also supported by Probate Court Records filed by Andrea M. Darby, widow of J. F. Darby, to determine descent after his death on August 3, 1947, in Belleville, Republic County, Kansas. In a letter written to Nancy B. Samuelson on January 27, 1989, Douglas G. Simms, Attorney-At-Law, wrote: "J.F. Darby, a/k/a J. Frank Darby died in Belleville, Kansas, on August 3, 1947. His body was cremated and the urn was buried in his wife's grave in Riverside Cemetery, Marshalltown, Iowa. He was survived by his wife, Andrea Anderson Darby. She died October 12, 1958."