By Bruce Thein

In October of 1933, The Guttenberg Press printed a story that seemed almost too remarkable to be true. Local resident John Wolter, then 75 years old, claimed that nearly 70 years earlier in May of 1865, Jesse James and his gang had ridden into his father’s farm west of Guttenberg.

Wolter said it was morning when several riders arrived, among them Jesse and Frank James, along with Cole and Bob Younger. The men were traveling with a wagon and a team of horses. They put their horses in the barn, fed them and asked if they might have dinner. At the time, Wolter’s father operated the farm and also ran a tavern and barroom. The men went into the saloon, drank and waited while Mrs. Wolter prepared the meal. Young John Wolter watched.

He later told The Press that the men appeared calm and confident. There was nothing outwardly dramatic about the visit. They were travelers needing food and rest. After dinner, the gang ordered another round of drinks. Then, as Wolter recalled it, Jesse James and the Younger boys went out to hitch up the horses. One member of the group, described in the article as a crippled man, had remained seated on a chair in the tavern. Before leaving, Jesse allegedly instructed Mr. Wolter to destroy the chair because the man who had used it was badly diseased. Then without settling their bill, the gang backed out, climbed into their wagon and rode off. They were headed west. 

Wolter remembered that, when the men reached another stop near the Fred Olefish place, they again drank liquor and, according to the account, refused to pay there as well. 

Frank Wolter, John’s father, later told others he recognized the men from printed descriptions of the James gang. In November of the same year, Wolter claimed to have seen them again passing south while children were playing in the yard.

Whether every detail unfolded exactly as remembered is difficult to verify. The 1933 article was written nearly 70 years after the alleged visit. It was not a contemporary 1865 crime report but a preserved recollection from a boy who believed he had seen history ride into his family’s yard. 

In May 1865, Jesse James was just 17 years old. The Civil War had ended only weeks earlier. The famous robberies that would cement the James-Younger Gang’s place in American legend were still years away. Historians do not widely document a confirmed stop in Clayton County during that time. No robbery here is attributed to the gang. Yet the Mississippi River corridor was a well traveled route, and farms west of Guttenberg sat along natural paths connecting states.

Could the James brothers have passed through quietly during that unsettled postwar period? It is possible. What is certain is this: In 1933, a respected local resident told the story publicly, and The Guttenberg Press printed it for the community to read. That clipping now stands as part of Clayton County’s historical record, not as proven fact, but as a remembered experience. 

Perhaps the James gang did pause briefly in the hills between Guttenberg and Garber, or perhaps they were simply rough travelers mistaken for men whose names would soon become infamous. Either way, for one young boy in 1865, they were unforgettable. Nearly seven decades later, he was certain of what he had seen.