How a Table Rock Farmer Came to Own the Remington Navy Revolver of Outlaw Frank James

It’s the Story
  • How a Table Rock
    How a Table Rock
  • Above: Jan & Marie Skalak Petrasek. She was in the barn when Frank James arrived and pulled a gun on her husband. James backed down after Jan told him she was an expert shot and could and would shoot him in the head.
    Above: Jan & Marie Skalak Petrasek. She was in the barn when Frank James arrived and pulled a gun on her husband. James backed down after Jan told him she was an expert shot and could and would shoot him in the head.

    In the faraway Kingdom of Bohemia, years before Nebraska Territory was opened for settlement, two babies were born. The year was 1832. One was Jan (pronounced “yon”) Petrasek and the other Marie Skalak. When they grew up, they married and began a family. They came to America with three young children, another was born in New York, and the last was born in Table Rock.

    By 1868, when the Petraseks arr…