Across the Fence: Flossie – love child of the 1880s

On Feb. 3, 1889, Mamie's grandmother was assassinated by a shotgun blast, in the back, from an unknown assailant. Some suspected that it was her daughter Rosie Lee, Mamie's birth mother, who yielded the shotgun that ended the short and turbulent life of Myra Maybelle Reed. However, no one was ever charged in the killing.

Rosie Lee was a suspect because of her rage against her mother who had forged Rosie's signature on a document that relinquished the infant Mamie to an orphanage in Siloam Springs, Ark.

Mamie had been conceived out of wedlock, a condition that Rosie's mother found disgraceful. It was thought by some that the father was a married man and that made the situation even worse, but Rosie claimed that the father as a young Cherokee man named Robert McClure and that the two had been secretly married. Eighteen-year-old Rosie had fallen in love, but her mother refused to acknowledge the marriage and demanded that she should see a doctor in Fort Smith for an abortion. Rosie was adamantly opposed to her mother's demands and was sent to live with her grandmother Reed until the baby was born.

After Mamie's birth, Rosie returned to her mother's home on Younger's Bend on the Canadian River in the Indian Territories of Oklahoma. During her absence, Myra had convinced the young Mr. McClure that Rosie had no intentions of ever returning to him and so, as was the native custom when a woman "walked away" from her husband, he married another. Myra would not allow the illegitimate child in her home so when Rosie later returned to visit she left Mamie with her grandmother in Siloam Springs, perhaps in hopes that her mother might soften and allow the child to follow. Unfortunately, that was not to be. Myra insisted that the child be sent to an orphanage and when Rosie refused to sign the necessary documents, she forged her daughter's signature and the deed was done.

At 16 months old, Mamie McClure was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. David Epple of Newton, Kan. The Epple's, an older, childless couple enlisted the help of their nieces in renaming the little girl. In 1933, at the age of 46, Mamie – now Flossie Pearl Epple – wrote the story of her life for the Dallas Morning News. The narrative included this account:

"...my mother began watching for a chance to slip away again, but this time, it was not easy. Belle wrote letter after letter to the Reeds, and finally wrote that she would have me stolen and given to the gypsies. And this was the threat that won, and Aunt Mamie took me to an orphans' home. At that time, the gypsies were roving about, dirty and cruel in their appearance and a real menace. And, one day, Belle Starr called Pearl to her and said, 'I want you to sign this paper. The baby is in a home.' My mother told me that she cried out, 'You can't make me sign it. You have done everything else to me, but you can't make me sign that paper!' Then, she ran screaming from the room. When she returned, the paper was gone. And, not until I took the paper out to her in Arizona, thirty-five years later, did she know what Belle had written, or the location of the orphan's home in which I was placed. It was a cold, dreary winter. The paper was signed on Nov. 19, 1888.

The records in the children's home show that I was given to my adopted mother and father on Feb. 10, 1889, one week after Belle Starr was killed. My little girlhood was lived far away from the tragedy of Younger's Bend. My adopted mother let one of her nieces name me. This girl had been reading the Chautauqua books and loved the girl named Flossie, so she decided she would call me Flossie. Another niece, whose name was Pearl, was incensed that she'd had no hand in naming the baby! And so, mother, in her generous manner, said, "Let us call her Flossie Pearl." And so, unwittingly, I bore my real mother's name of Pearl."

Mamie McClure was the daughter of Rosie Lee Reed. Rosie Lee was the daughter of James Reed and Myra Maybelle Shirley-Reed. Myra always referred to Rosie as her 'little pearl' and so it was that she was commonly known as Pearl. James Reed was shot and killed in 1874 when Rosie was only six years old. Her mother had most always been known as Belle, a nickname derived from her middle name Maybelle. After James' death, Belle married a half-breed Cherokee named Sam Starr, and Oklahoma's history of the Indian Territories now abounds with the stories and legends of Belle Starr, the 'Bandit Queen'.

Belle Starr has been depicted as both villain and victim and perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between. The stories of the 'Bandit Queen' were frequently sensationalized in the newspapers of those times when murder and mayhem sold papers and embellishment of the facts distorted reality and created legends. Yet the reality of Belle Starr's life and the environment in which her children were raised needed no embellishment of fact to account for their upbringing, and the violent and bizarre lives that they lived. In fact, It may well be said that Mamie McClure's separation from her family, her surrender to an orphanage and her rebirth as Flossie Pearl Epple was a most fortunate turn of events.

On Feb. 5, 1848, Myra Maybelle Shirley was born into the wealth of a successful Virginia family. When still a young girl, her parents moved to Carthage, Mo., where her father continued his success as a farmer and merchant. She attended the Carthage Female Academy where she obtained her general education as well as music and the classic languages. Besides her genteel manners she also became an accomplished horsewoman and deadly accurate marksman with pistol and rifle, skills that she learned from her beloved brother Bud.

But Maybelle's peaceful world turned violent when the Kansas-Missouri border wars erupted. The Shirley's sympathies rested with the south and Bud joined Quantrill's Raiders in the bloody Civil War. In June 1864, Bud was killed in a raid on Sarcoxie, Missouri and it is said that young Belle took up arms to avenge her brothers death.

After Bud's death the family moved to a farm near Scyene, Texas, a growing settlement to the southeast of Dallas. It was there, after the end of the Civil War, that the James-Younger Gang fled after their first bank robbery in Liberty, Missouri. The Younger and James families were acquainted with the Shirley's and found refuge there in Scyene. It is likely that the death of her brother, the families sympathies for the southern cause and their acceptance of the James Younger method of revenge, that Belle began down the path of becoming the Bandit Queen.

Belle and Jim Reed were married on the first day of November 1866 and lived for a time on the Reed homestead in Missouri. In early September 1868, Belle gave birth to her firstborn, Rosie Lee and with the pride and affection of a new mother called the little girl her "Pearl."

With hard times and an uncertain future Belle's husband Jim, fell in with a gang of thieves and was soon among the desperate men whose features adorned the wanted posters being displayed in local banks and sheriff's offices. In 1874, Jim was killed by one of his own gang. Belle fled to the Indian Territories of Oklahoma and settled at Younger's Bend on the Canadian River with Sam Starr. Horse stealing, cattle rustling and bootlegging was their occupation and young Pearl was immersed in the unsavory company of those who frequently "hid out" at Younger's Bend.

In 1886, Sam was killed in a gunfight and in order to hold on to the Cherokee allotment of land at Younger's Bend, Belle married Sam's adopted brother, Jim July. The marriage was tempestuous at best and Jim, some fifteen years younger than Belle, had been suspected of infidelity. Belle and Jim had had an ugly and hateful quarrel and Jim had offered a $100 bounty for someone to kill Belle. A few days later Belle was ambushed and killed on the road to Younger's Bend.

Pearl heard the shots and when Belle's horse reached the cabin, the empty and bloody saddle told the story. Pearl raced to her mother's side and Belle died in her arms.

Rosie Lee Reed changed her name to Pearl Starr to capitalize on he notoriety of the name. She established herself as a prostitute at Miss Laura's Social Club in Fort Smith, Arkansas and took over the business in 1920. During her tenure at the club she had three more children and three husbands, two of those by common law.

Arrested for prostitution in 1921, Pearl left Fort Smith and settled in Douglas, Arizona where she died in 1925. Her daughter Mamie, "Flossie" discovered her whereabouts and was able to visit with her, once, before her death.

Flossie's story was published in the Dallas Morning News on April 30, 1933. She died 10 years later in Topeka, Kan.

M. Timothy Nolting is an award-winning Nebraska columnist and freelance writer. Contact him via email at [email protected]