"The Kansas City Daily Times" (Missouri) Friday, April 7, 1882 SCENES AT THE GRAVE. Kearney, April 5. During the services, the women were all visibly affected. The mother moaned and groaned aloud. From the church the procession, composed of fifty or sixty persons in buggies, wagons and horseback, moved out over the country to the SAMUELS farm, which lies about four miles nearly northeast of Kearney. It is a rough road, through vales, over hills and across streams, and, in the neighborhood of the family residence, the country is heavily timbered and covered with a thick growth of "brush." Adjoining the SAMUELS farm is the farm owned by ASKEW, with whose untimely taking off the dead Jesse was charged. The "bush," as it is called, which consisted mostly of large growth trees, on the Kearney side of the farm, has within the past two years been mostly cut down. Arrived at the house, the coffin was taken into the room where the wounded son, John SAMUELS, lay in bed. It was turned on edge and he was raised up so that he could see the features of his dead brother. He wept bitterly and cried: "Oh, oh, God! Oh, Jesse, that ever I should see you brought home this way." The mother approached the bedside and assuming a dramatic position, raised her only hand aloft and said in a loud tone of voice: "Johnny, my boy, look upon your sainted brother Jesse, your murdered brother Jesse! Look upon him and then look upon your poor, broken hearted, shattered mother. He is dead --- they have killed him --- your poor brother Jesse. He is in heaven. He has gone to God, and God will judge him. He is taken from me and I have no one now to lean upon. Johnny, live for your mother, your poor, heart broken mother." Johnny made no response except to groan. The coffin was placed upon chairs in the yard and the lid opened. Mrs. SAMUELS came out sobbing: My heart is broke, my heart is broke; broke! broke! broke! Oh, my heart is broke. They have killed my sainted son. She was followed by Mrs. JAMES, who amid her sobs and with tears streaming down her checks, called on God to avenge the death of her good, kind husband, who was slain by a cowardly murderer for money. She clung to the coffin, bowing her head upon the glass, declaring that she would not let him go. Like Mrs. SAMUELS, she repeated over and over the expressions: "He has gone to God. He is in heaven. God will condemn and punish all who had a hand in murdering him for money." Raising her voice and standing erect she exclaimed: "The governor offered $50,000 to have them killed. He was killed for money, and may God punish them for it." She asked: "Why did they kill him? Why did they take him from me and my children? He would not harm them." The climax was reached when Mrs. SAMUELS, standing at one end of the coffin, looked Sheriff TIMBERLAKE in the face, and pointing her finger at him, said: "Yes, they killed him for money --- for gold and greenbacks; for money! for money! But let them take their money, their gold and their greenbacks. It will do them no good. The officers of the law have done this. They have hired murderers to do it. God will judge them for it. I have no money, I want no money. I shall not judge them. I will leave that to God. If he can forgive them, I can." Sheriff TIMBERLAKE, although surrounded by men who were known to have been intimate friends of Jesse JAMES, never flinched. "Last week," she continued, "he was at my house. He said to me when he was going away: 'Mother, you may never see me again, but I am not as bad as they would make me out to be'." This was said sobbingly. By this time several women were weeping over the coffin, and not a few male eyes were moist. Becoming calm, both Mrs. SAMUELS and Mrs. JAMES wanted the glass lid removed. At first Mrs. JAMES pretended that she wanted a lock of Jesse's hair, but it was finally developed that she had come to the conclusion that his arms and legs had been taken off and wax ones substituted for them. Sheriff TIMBERLAKE, having no screw driver large enough to turn the screws, offered to go to a farm house and borrow one, but the women were finally satisfied, and the body was committed to the grave in the yard while they stood and watched the fresh earth thrown upon the board box, seemingly inconsolable. ====================================================== (I have no connection with this family.) johnobrien@kc.rr.com ======================================================