In 1877, a 23-year old merchant from the Indian Territory moved to then-Hackett City in Sebastian County, looking to open and operate a mercantile store to meet the growing needs of the community.
John C. Bell spent only a short time in the area, selling his store after just six years and moving to Brooken in the Choctaw Nation to re-establish himself in the merchandise business.
But it was a man he employed briefly as a store clerk that may have been hiding a past that echoes in the annals of the history of the “old west”.
While scores of men came forward in the early 1900’s claiming to be various outlaws and characters from the Old West period from 1865 through 1890, one, in particular, has had a seemingly legitimate claim put forth by family members for a number of years.
He is the store clerk who worked for John C. Bell and he may have been one half of the most famous duo of outlaw brothers in the history of the Old West.
Granted, some of the details are sketchy and it takes some leaps of faith and logic to make the connection, but it’s a fascinating and compelling story with a number of historical twists.
Shortly after Bell opened his mercantile in booming Hackett City, he hired a tall, brooding store clerk from Missouri who was either 32 or 33 years old. At just over 6’ tall and weighing about 180 pounds, the bachelor store clerk was “a man who kept to himself and didn’t talk much about his past”.
Joe Vaughn spent three uneventful years working in and around the Hackett City area before moving to Newton County and a small community called Wayton. Once there, he married and fathered several children before his death in February of 1926.
The children of Joe Vaughn, and several people who knew him in his later years believed that Vaughn was old west outlaw Frank James, the older brother of the infamous Jesse James.
According to a supposedly autographical book by Vaughn, he was clerking in the Hackett City store when he received news of Jesse’s death at the hands of Bob Ford.
The real Frank James supposedly served with Quantrill’s Raiders during the Civil War and may have been involved in several skirmishes along the state’s western corridor, including Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove, and Massard Prairie.
If indeed Vaughn and James were one in the same, chances are he may have become familiar with the Sebastian County area during his Civil War.
The legend (or story told by Vaughn-as-Frank James supporters) is that the man that eventually surrendered himself to Missouri governor Thomas Crittenden was actually an imposter who was paid to pose as James.
Where the story starts stretching credibility is that James’ known wife Anne was supposed to have gone along with the charade and lived as the wife of the imposter “Frank” after he had served his time and was later pardoned for his crimes.
Sam Collins was reported to have taken up the mantle of James life in trade for cash, property and, inexplicably, the opportunity to cohabitate with Anne James as her husband.
Vaughn claimed he moved to Arkansas, living in Hackett City before moving to the small community south of Harrison, and later married Nancy Richardson, with whom he fathered nine children.
On his deathbed in 1926, he confessed that he was Frank James, a fact that was seemingly well known to several of his family members and close friends in the area.
Buried in the Snow Cemetery in Wayton, Vaughn’s tombstone carries “Alias Frank James” etched in stone under his name and date of death.
Vaughn wrote a book on his life story that was released after his death, and two of his children also later penned a tome after spending several years trying to verify his claim.
Some of the evidence bears him out. Census rolls from 1880 in Newton County shows Vaughn being born in Missouri, with parents that were born in Indiana and Kentucky, which coincides with the facts known about the James family.
After moving to Newton County. Vaughn, who worked as a surveyor for a number of years, was still pretty reclusive. He built his home at the end of an isolated road and there was a tunnel built from beneath the house that would have afforded him easy escape in case of trouble.
Vaughn was also said to have possessed superior shooting skills, being able to pick off green walnuts tossed into the air by his children by pulling a revolver from a hip holster.
On his deathbed, he asked that his “real name” be included on his tombstone.
The same book also claims that Jesse James also cheated justice by staging his own death, substituting an outlaw by the name of Charles Bigelow in the cabin where Robert Ford supposedly shot Jesse James in the back.
In the Snow Cemetery, in that little community called Wayton in rural Newton County, a tombstone reads "Frank James alias Joe Vaughn - 1844-1926".
Old West historians are researchers say that Vaughn's tale was just a fanciful yarn --nothing more than a delusional old man telling his family stories to make his life seem more exciting.
To their credit, many of the ancestors of Vaughn --a number of whom still live in the ragged crooks and hollows of Newton County -- are convinced he was who he said he was and still defend the story as the truth.
Much of the story may be conjecture, but it’s still interesting to think that one of the most legendary outlaws in Old West lore might have actually lived and work in Hackett for a brief time in the late 1880’s.
