True Crime Chronicles: Did Franklin County posse shoot it out with the James-Younger gang in 18874?

O

n Saturday, June 10, 1874 (), a gunfight occurred around 10:00 a.m. near the Narrows on Horsehead Creek in Franklin County where a group of outlaws had earlier stopped for breakfast at the Hamblen family home on Old Wire Road in the Marble Hill area;

A pre-Civil War stage stop purchased in 1867 by Pleasant Walker Hamblen, the stop along the east-west route of stage lines also drew the occasional group of riders, some with ill intentions.

After eating, the outlaws proceeded east toward Johnson County. A pursuing posse from Missouri arrived at the Hamblen home but was too fatigued to continue. Six local men then formed a posse to track the outlaws, who were suspected of horse theft: Thomas M. Hamblen (age 24), his brother William Franklin "Frank" Hamblen (age 21), Hulbert "Hub" Sadler (later a Franklin County sheriff), two brothers named Hill, and a man named Richards.

The local posse caught up with the outlaws at the Narrows. They demanded surrender, but the outlaws took cover behind trees and opened fire. An exchange of 50 to 60 shots followed.

Thomas Hamblen was shot through the hand, and Frank Hamblen was shot in the shoulder while his horse was killed beneath him. Another posse horse was killed, and one outlaw horse was also killed. No human fatalities occurred on either side.

The posse withdrew, and the outlaws escaped north toward the head of Mulberry Creek

.A larger group of about 20 men pursued the outlaws later that day into the evening but failed to catch them. Local tradition suggests they may have hidden in a cave near the farm of Alfred Younger, described in folklore as an uncle of the Younger brothers

.Contemporary newspaper coverage, such as a June 17, 1874, article in the Clarksville Enterprise (reprinted in the Arkansas Gazette), described the incident as involving horse thieves but did not identify the outlaws by name. The association with the Jesse James/Cole Younger Gang stems entirely from oral family histories passed down among the Hamblens, Powells, Kirbys, Whites, and related families in Franklin County.

A later family anecdote claims that, years after the event, Frank James (living openly in Texas following his 1882 surrender) met Frank Hamblen there and admitted the gang had held fire to avoid killing the posse, aiming only to deter pursuit.

No independent documentation confirms the outlaws' identities as gang members.

Speculation on Frank James in ArkansasPersistent local rumors in northwest Arkansas claim that Frank James (1843–1915) lived incognito in the region under aliases after the gang's dissolution.

One variant links him to a man named Joe Vaughn (or similar spellings) who settled in Wayton, Newton County, in the late 1800s, farmed quietly, and was buried under a gravestone reading "Frank James Alias Joe Vaughn."

Some accounts suggest he entered the Ozarks via Hackett in Sebastian County as a docile grocery merchant durimg the coal mining heyday of the then booming town.

.These stories propose he used a double for his public surrender and trial or otherwise evaded full scrutiny. However, historical records show Frank James surrendered in Missouri in 1882, was tried and acquitted, lived openly on the family farm near Kearney, Missouri, worked various jobs (including as a showman and race starter), and died there on February 18, 1915

. No credible evidence supports the Arkansas alias claims, which appear to be regional folklore similar to other outlaw "faked death" legends, but you'll never convince descendants of the Hamblens, Sandlers, Rogers, and Hill that the bullets that flew on that June morning didn;t come out of a smoking Colot pistol wieldied by a member f the James-Younger Gang.