Abandoning Mankato, the robbers now moved upon Northfield as directly as
roads and available stopping-places would permit. Monday night found them
in Janesville, eighteen miles east of Mankato; Tuesday night in Cordova,
about the same distance north of Janesville; Wednesday night in
Millersburg, northeast of Cordova. The rest of the band spent the same
Wednesday night in Cannon City. Millersburg is eleven miles west of
Northfield, Cannon City ten miles south.
Northfield is a quiet but enterprising little city, in the heart of a rich
and well cultivated agricultural region which is tributary to it. It has
good railroad facilities; and the Cannon River, flowing through the town,
affords power for its mills and adds a picturesque feature to its scenery.
A bridge crosses the river in the centre of the town, connecting its
eastern and its western divisions, and leading, on the eastern side, into
an open space known as Bridge Square, where many of the stores are to be
found. On the eastern side of the Square runs Division Street, the
principal business street of the city, along the foot of a bluff some
fifty feet in height, ascended by various streets, and crowned with
residences, churches and educational buildings. Prominent among the public
edifices are those of Carleton College, in the northeastern part of the
city; while St. Olaf surmounts a high eminence in the northwestern. An
observant stranger, entering the city for the first time, could hardly
fail to get the impression of intelligence, thrift and commercial
enterprise. This was precisely the impression made upon the robbers; and
it was this impression which led them to select Northfield as a field of
operations.
[BRIDGE SQUARE, NORTHFIELD. (Proposed Location Heywood Monument.)]
BRIDGE SQUARE, NORTHFIELD. (Proposed Location Heywood Monument.)
Ten or twelve days before the final attempt upon the bank, two members of
the band had visited the town for a preliminary survey. They conversed
with citizens, as their custom was, making inquiries about roads, etc.,
particularly about the route to Mankato, and awakened the suspicion of at
least one or two of the citizens as to the truth of their pretension. They
found a bank doing a large business, and presumably carrying a large
volume of cash; and they saw the people quiet and industrious, and
presumably neither prepared nor disposed to meet force with force. What
plans they then formed for the subsequent raid it is impossible to say;
but it is certain that they were no sooner foiled in Mankato than they
started for Northfield.
As we have already seen, the two divisions of the band spent the night of
Wednesday, September 6th, in neighboring villages, within easy reach of
their next day’s destination. Early on the morning of Thursday, the 7th,
they took up their march along the roads converging upon Northfield,
meeting in the woods west of the town. In the course of the forenoon, some
of them appeared upon the streets and in the stores, where two of them
were recognized as the same two that had made the previous visit of
inspection already referred to. They all wore linen dusters, a garment
much more common with the traveler in those days than in our own, and one
that seemed entirely suitable for the sultry weather then prevailing,
while it served to conceal the pistols and cartridge-belts, with which the
robbers were so liberally supplied. Five of the men dined together at a
restaurant on the west side of the river, waiting contentedly for their
dinner to be cooked, conversing with the proprietor on politics and other
indifferent subjects, and, after they had finished their meal, still
delaying unaccountably, probably to give time for the arrival of the rest
of their accomplices. Finally they remounted their horses and rode over
the bridge.
It is difficult, and, so far as the present writer is concerned,
impossible, after the most painstaking study of all available sources of
information, to determine the exact order of events at the opening of the
attack. No one observer followed all the preliminary movement of the
robbers. One person noticed one thing and another another; and each
depended more or less upon hearsay for items not within his personal
knowledge. The similarity of dress already referred to made it difficult
to distinguish the robbers from one another; while the wild excitement
which soon ensued gave little opportunity for careful observation. With no
attempt to reconcile conflicting statements, therefore, which happily
differ only in unimportant details, this narrative will confine itself to
those facts upon which all witnesses agree.
The scene of the robbery and the movements of the robbers may be easily
understood from the accompanying cut. The center of operations was the
Corner of Bridge Square and Division Street. On this corner stood a
two-story stone building known as the Scriver Block. Its upper story was
used for offices, and was reached by an outside stairway on Division
Street. The larger part of the lower story was occupied by two stores,
ranging north and south, and having their front entrances on the northern
Bridge Square side. At the extreme southern end of the building, and
having its entrance on the eastern or Division Street side, was the object
of attack, the First National Bank. On the western side of the block ran a
narrow alley, affording rear entrances to the stores and the bank. West of
the alley, and fronting on the square, were two hardware stores whose
respective proprietors were leading actors in the scene that followed,—J.
S. Allen and A. R. Manning. On the eastern side of Division Street,
opposite the Scriver Block, were a hotel and a number of stores, in front
of one of which stood a young man who was also to have a prominent part in
the coming affray,—Mr. H. M. Wheeler, then at home on a vacation from his
medical studies in Michigan University.
As has been previously stated, the robber band comprised three
subdivisions,—the two James brothers, the three Younger brothers, and
three odd ones,—Miller, Pitts and Stiles. In their active operations
another threefold division was adopted, each of the squads containing one
of the Younger brothers and one of the odd ones, and two of them
containing one of the James brothers. That is there were two trios and one
couple. Of these, one trio was detailed to commit the robbery, while the
couple cooperated with them on Division Street, and the other trio acted
as a rear guard on Bridge Square, the direction in which the band intended
to retreat.
It was about 2 o’clock in the afternoon that the first trio, consisting of
Pitts, Bob Younger and, it is believed, one of the James brothers, came
over the bridge, and crossing the Square from northwest to southeast,
dismounted in front of the bank, throwing their bridle reins over some
hitching posts beside the street. They then sauntered to the Corner and
lounged upon some dry-goods boxes in front of the store (Lee and
Hitchcock’s) assuming an air of indifference, and whittling the boxes,
like the most commonplace loafers. Presently the two horsemen constituting
the second detail entered Division Street from the south, and rode toward
the bank. They were Cole Younger and Clel Miller. Upon their approach the
three men at the corner walked back to the door of the bank and went in.
Miller, dismounting in front of the door, left his horse unhitched, went
to the door and looked in, and then, closing it, walked back and forth
before it. Younger dismounted in the middle of the street, where he made a
pretense of tightening his saddle-girth.
By this time the attention of several citizens had been attracted to the
maneuvers of the robbers. Word had been brought that nine men on horseback
had been seen coming out of the woods southwest of the city; and the
presence of so many strange horsemen on the street began to awaken
uneasiness. Yet when some expressed these fears, they were laughed at by
others, and assured that the men were merely cattle-buyers on a legitimate
business tour.
Among those whose suspicions had been especially aroused were Dr. Wheeler
and Mr. J. S. Allen, already referred to. Dr. Wheeler was sitting under an
awning in front of his father’s store on the east side of Division Street
when the men entered the street; and as their actions seemed to him to
indicate some mischievous intent, he rose and moved along the sidewalk
till he was opposite them. Mr. Allen was on the other side of the street;
and when he saw the three men enter the bank, he attempted to follow them
in. He was instantly seized by Miller, who had been placed there for that
purpose, and who, drawing his revolver, and pouring forth a volley of
oaths, ordered Allen to stand back, and warned him on peril of his life
not to utter a word. Allen jerked away from the ruffian’s grasp, and ran
back to and around the corner toward his store, shouting in a voice that
resounded blocks away, “Get your guns, boys! They’re robbing the bank!”
At the same time Dr. Wheeler had stepped into the street, and was
shouting, “Robbery! Robbery!” his alarm being at once justified and
intensified by the round of pistol shots within the bank.
Upon this, Miller and Younger sprang into their saddles, ordering Wheeler
back, with oaths and threats, and firing one or two shots over his head,
to intimidate him and to give notice to their confederates that their game
was discovered. Then the two robbers began riding up and down Division
Street, at their utmost speed, shooting right and left, with horrible
oaths calling upon every one they saw to “get in”—an order that was obeyed
with pretty general promptness and unanimity. At the same time the three
men near the bridge took up the same tactics, and came dashing across the
Square, shooting and shouting like their comrades, whom they joined on
Division Street. Wherever they saw a head, out of doors or at a window,
they sent a shower of balls. The air was filled with the sounds of the
fray, the incessant bang bang of the heavy revolvers, the whistling of
bullets, the crashing of glass and the chorus of wild yells and
imprecations. The first intention of the robbers was not to kill anyone,
but to strike terror into the mind of the people, and, by driving
everybody from the streets, to give the men in the bank time to work, to
prevent any attempt at interference, and to secure themselves an
unobstructed line of retreat. Strange to say, during this part of the
affray, though the robbers kept up a constant fusilade from their
revolvers, but one person was shot,—a Scandinavian who could not
understand English, and who was fatally wounded while persistently
remaining on the street.
[Bank Floorplan]
Bank Floorplan