Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA headstone in the Granbury State Historical Cemetery reads 'Supposedly killed in 1882,' marking the alleged grave of J. Frank Dalton, who claimed in 1948 to be Jesse James; a 2000 DNA test exhumed the wrong man entirely.
200 E Moore Street, Granbury, TX 76048
Research updated June 2026
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All Ages
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Open to the public at no charge.
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Flat cemetery grounds; paved paths accessible
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Est. 1860 · Granbury State Historical Cemetery · General Hiram Bronson Granbury Burial Site · J. Frank Dalton / Jesse James Legend · Failed 2000 DNA Exhumation
Granbury State Historical Cemetery was established in the 1860s and serves as the burial ground for Hood County's earliest Anglo settlers, Confederate veterans, and generations of local families. General Hiram Bronson Granbury, the Confederate officer for whom the city is named, is buried here, as is Ashley Crockett, a grandson of frontiersman Davy Crockett.
The cemetery's most frequently photographed grave is a replacement headstone erected in 1983 that reads: 'CSA — Jesse Woodson James. Sept. 5, 1847–Aug. 15, 1951. Supposedly killed in 1882.' A small Confederate flag is etched above the inscription. The grave marks the burial site of a man who died in Granbury at the age of 103 and whose identity has never been definitively established.
That man had been known locally as J. Frank Dalton, who arrived in Lawton, Oklahoma in April 1948 and began publicly claiming to be Jesse James — the outlaw widely understood to have been killed by Robert Ford in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1882. Dalton attracted considerable local support, including from Hood County Sheriff Oran Baker, who believed physical markings on Dalton's body — including a missing fingertip — matched descriptions of Jesse James. Dalton moved to Granbury and died there on August 15, 1951.
In 2000, researchers attempted to resolve the question by exhuming the Granbury grave. They did not find Dalton's remains. A shifted headstone had misidentified the plot, and the exhumation produced the remains of William Henry Holland, a one-armed Granbury resident who had died in 1927. The underlying confusion was never resolved; Dalton's actual remains have not been located.
Scientific analysis of the Missouri grave — where the historical Jesse James was buried in 1882 — is definitive on the other side of the ledger: mitochondrial DNA from remains exhumed at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Kearney, Missouri in 1995 matched two living matrilineal relatives of the James family, leaving, as the 1998 study concluded, 'no scientific basis for doubting' that the Missouri burial is authentic.
Sources
The Jesse James grave in Granbury functions as a rare example of a legend that has been partially tested by science — and survived the test on a technicality.
J. Frank Dalton's 1948 claims attracted significant popular attention. He described in detail episodes from James's career that were difficult to verify or disprove, and he had the physical detail of a missing fingertip, which Jesse James was known to have lost in a gun-cleaning accident. Sheriff Baker's endorsement gave the claim local legitimacy. After Dalton's death, the original grave marker identified him under the Dalton name; it was replaced in 1983 with the Jesse Woodson James stone that stands today, erected by people who believed his story.
The 2000 attempt to settle the question by DNA analysis became its own story. Researchers and documentary filmmakers arrived to exhume the Granbury grave, expecting to find Dalton's remains for comparison against known Jesse James descendants. Instead they found William Henry Holland, a one-armed man who had died in 1927 and been buried nearby. The headstones had shifted over decades, and no one had noticed. The resulting news coverage gave the Granbury legend a fresh round of national attention while leaving its central question unanswered: Dalton's remains, wherever they are, have never been tested.
Historians and genealogists consider Dalton an impostor; the Missouri DNA evidence from 1995 is regarded as conclusive. But the 'Supposedly killed in 1882' inscription on the Granbury headstone is a rare example of a grave marker that formally hedges its own claim.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Visit the Granbury State Historical Cemetery and find the grave marker inscribed 'Jesse Woodson James — Supposedly killed in 1882.' The marker is located on the cemetery circle toward the back of the grounds. Additional notable burials include General Hiram Bronson Granbury, the Confederate general for whom the town is named, and Ashley Crockett, a grandson of Davy Crockett.
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