Cole Goes Back To Texas To Visit Belle

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

In my series on one of the last great Old West outlaws, Cole Younger, we left off yesterday with the heat increasing on the Boys in the form of Pinkerton detectives. But today I wanted to go back to Belle's story and catch up with her.

From all accounts of Cole's friends who rode with him he talked alot about going back to her and settling down on a farm and how he missed her and little Pearl, their daughter.

It was not an easy trip to make for him because there were probably hundreds of United States Marshalls, County Sheriffs and deputy sheriffs on the lookout for members of the James/Younger gang, not to mention the Pinkertons who seemed to be everywhere.

One of the clever ways that Cole used to travel longer distances was by covered wagon with him dressed like a homesteader. No one expected an outlaw to be traveling by covered wagon and in disguise he looked nothing like a bank robber. He may have used that method to get to Texas to see Belle and Pearl.

This was a great way to travel because it provided a place to sleep in bad weather:
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The shock of his life

When Cole arrived at the house of Belle's parents she came out to greet him but not in a very happy manor, she was quite hesitant and when he asked if she wasn't happy to see him she told him she was married.

This photo is close to what she looked like at that time although it was taken, I believe, a couple years earlier on one of the trips into Dallas with Cole.

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MARRIED!? What the??? It had never occurred to him that after being gone for over a year with no word from him that Belle had gotten tired of waiting. She didn't even know if he was alive or not and other kids were starting to call little Pearl names because she had no father.

When Cole asked who it was he didn't like what he heard. It was Jim Reed, another Missouri outlaw that Cole didn't really like. Jim had ridden up one day and wanted to court her and she was desperate and lonely so they got hitched on horseback, wasn't even a real wedding but that didn't matter, she was still married to someone else.

Here's photo of Jim Reed, I guess he was a real jerk. While Cole was kind and respectfull to her Jim was crude and mean. He looks like a real piece of work don't he? Besides, look at that little mustache!

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Belle brought out little Pearl for Cole to see but she wanted nothing to do with him and wouldn't let him near her, she was three years old by now. Well, at this point in the awkward visit there wasn't much more to be said so Cole wished her a good life, got on his horse and rode off, not knowing what to do.

Cole heads back to Missouri

He had spent the last 2 years dreaming of coming back to Belle and starting a new life together. He even thought of settling somewhere in Missouri and farming there.

Boy, I gotta tell ya...he was not thinking straight. The only chance he had to be with Belle at that time was to make an escape to South America like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had done. Or Europe.

The Boys had robbed so many banks by that time the Pinkertons, Feds and detectives would never have stopped looking for them.

The next post continues with Belle's life and the surprising turn it takes.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck

ps- ya know...you might just be a redneck if:

Your dad walks you to school because you're in the same grade!
lol.