The above reference Allen, Missouri, train robbery story intrigued me because I was thinking the "First Train Robbery in American History" was by Confederate Capt. George Bryson of Perkins command on Sept. 7, 1864 a mile east of Centralia. This was followed by the robbery of the train at Centralia on Sept. 27, 1864 by Bill Anderson, and allied elements of Perkins command (but not Bryson this time).

Then came the reference in the above thread to the robbery of a train at Allen on August 28, 1861, probably by Confederates under Poindexter. Whoever was behind this robbery, in tracking the references down this one wasn't actually a train robbery. It was a robbery of Fayette bank funds at the Allen Depot as they were being transported en route to the train.

Other sources say these robberies don't count because these train robberies were during war, and that only peacetime train robberies count as being train robberies. That's similar to the logic that breaking Babe Ruth's home run records don't count. I say a train robbery is a train robbery. And right now it looks like the first one took place outside Centralia, Missouri, on Sept. 7, 1864. I'm not wed to this particular 9/7/64 robbery as being the first--if anybody knows of any earlier ones where things of value were actually taken off a train at gunpoint I'd like to hear about them.

But not about Babe Ruth 61*....