From _Boone County [Arkansas] and Its People_, 1955, by Ralph R. Rea, pp. 90-93: 'No doubt most all of the so called "bad men" of the day spent some time in the Arkansas Ozarks. It is known for certain that Jesse and Frank James, together with Jim and Cole Younger were in this area on several occasions. One of their visits here led to a spirited gun battle in which two men were killed and several wounded. The time of this gun battle is generally fixed as 1870. 'A mail route was established, shortly after the Civil War, from Forsythe, Missouri, to the Crooked Creek Post Office (about this time the name was changed to Harrison). This route pretty well followed the present course of U. S. Highway 65 from the White River to Harrison. The route was carried on horseback, and on more than one occasion it was robbed in some lonely spot along the road. One of the riders on this route was William T. Baker, who as a child had survived the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Another Boone County man who carried this route shortly after this time was Frank Russell. On the day the James and Younger boys decided to pull their holdup, William Baker was carrying the route. 'North of Harrison twelve miles is the present Burlington community, which in 1870 was known as Gaddy's Corner. It was here that the mail carrier met four armed men while on his northbound trip. One of the riders pointed his gun at Baker and demanded the mail pouch. When Baker later told of the experience he said, "I was scared, all right, when the red complected one they called Jesse pointed his pistol at me and demanded the mail pouch." Then Baker went on to explain that the haul was rather small. "They got one hundred and five dollars in money and some registered mail." 'After the robbery Baker went on to the first settlement near Omaha and gave the alarm. As a posse began to gather, one told of having seen some suspicious characters at the home of a fellow named Perry who lived near Gaddy's Corner.
