Family:Robert James and Zerelda Cole (1)

While attending Georgetown College, at a church function, Robert met Zerelda Cole. Zerelda was attending St. Catherine’s Female School in Lexington. In May 1840, Robert in his studies at the seminary was encouraged to attend a meeting where a group of young people of different faiths was present. There he could see how he handled himself. He lectured at St. Catherine’s and tried to convert the girls. One girl in particular seemed to respond to his every word, and he soon found out she was Baptist. Soon after they met, they started seeing each other and attended other Baptist Church functions. It is said, Stamping Ground Baptist Church is where they most often met.

In August 1842, the young couple made a journey through the semi-wilderness to visit her mother, Sarah, and her stepfather, Robert Thomason, in Clay County, Missouri. Robert James returned to Georgetown College, leaving his pregnant wife with her mother, in order to finish his final year of theological training. He planned to return to Clay County by the following Christmas, but the Missouri River was frozen and the poor roads were treacherous, so it was spring after he had graduated before he arrived at Kearney, to reunite with his wife and a new son, Alexander Franklin James, born 10 Jan 1843.^[3]

1. ↑ Find A Grave.
2. ↑ Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.

   "Zerelda James"

3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Stray Leaves: A James Family in America since 1650.