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Nina Jo (Iman) Jennings
(contributed by Raymond
L. Iman, 806 N. Craig St., Mexico, MO
65265. Iman notes that he received the
account as handwritten correspondence with
the author. The Robyn referred to in the
article is Robyn Jennings, her daughter.
The events of the article took place in
1880..)
The Mystery Behind Robyn's
Great-Great-Great Grandpa Solomon
Iman
Recently Robyn went to a family reunion
(1993) and her fourth cousin, Cleve Iman,
told this story. Solomon was his
grandfather.
Solomon Iman was a strong, hard-working
man. He ran a river ferryboat at
Lexington, Missouri and a small farm to
feed his family. He ran into the James
gang (a.k.a. bank robbers; bad guys) many
times since his ferry was on the road they
took often to get to their hide-out in
Richmond, Missouri.
Frank and Jesse James would come to
Solomon's house demanding to be fed and to
exchange their tired horses for Solomon's
fresh horses. They knew he was very afraid
of them and took advantage of him often.
Solomon was afraid for his family and
always gave them whatever they wanted.
One time there were being chased and
they came to Solomon's ferry in a big
hurry. Solomon took the gang across while
Jesse stayed behind and hid in the bushes.
When he came back to take Jesse, Jesse
shot him, threw him in a hog lot and took
himself across. That way Solomon wouldn't
be able to tell the men chasing them which
way they went.
No one knew for a very long time what
happened to Solomon. Everyone though he
had too much to drink and had stumbled
into the hog lot. No one could figure out
how the ferryboat got to the other side.
Solomon had a black man who worked for
him farming. He saw Jessie James shoot
Solomon and was so scared he hid in the
woods for a long time for fear Jessie
would find out what he saw and come shoot
him too. When he finally came out he told
this story and now it can be passed on for
generations.
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