No extended biographical notices are compatible with either the purpose or
the limits of this book; nor is a large amount of such matter desirable.
The deeds that have been recounted speak for themselves and the men who
performed them. Yet many readers will doubtless desire to know something
more of the personality of those men, of their antecedents and their
subsequent career. The brief sketches which follow relate solely to those
who were actively connected with the three most important scenes in the
narrative,—the struggle in the bank, the fight on the street, and the
capture of the four robbers near Madelia.
JOSEPH LEE HEYWOOD was born at Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, August 12,
1837. His parents upon both sides were of the sturdiest New England stock.
His father was an energetic and progressive farmer, taking much interest
in public affairs, state and national, in politics a Whig, and later a
Republican, and an opponent of slavery. His mother was a devout and
conscientious woman, unwavering in her moral convictions, and unselfishly
devoted to her children. She sought to inspire in them the highest ideas
of honor, truth and duty; and they were accustomed to ascribe to her, more
than to any other influence, whatever virtues of character they developed.
Our hero’s early life was spent on the farm. The rudiments of education
acquired at the district school, were supplemented by reading and study at
home, until he became well fitted for the practical affairs of life. When
about twenty years of age he left home, to make his own way in the world.
He spent about a year in Concord, Mass., another in Fitchburg, another in
New Baltimore, Michigan, where he was clerk in a drug-store, and then a
part of a year in Moline, Illinois, whence he went to Chicago in 1862, the
second year of the Civil War.
Reared as he had been, and trained from childhood to the love of truth,
country and freedom, his enlistment in the Union army was almost a matter
of course. He became a member of the 127th Illinois Regiment in August,
1862, went with his regiment to the front, and at once engaged in active
service. Among other movements in which he participated were the siege of
Vicksburg and the capture of Arkansas Post. The hardships of army life
proved too severe for his constitution, and his health gave way under
them, necessitating his removal first to the hospital and then to the home
of his brother in Illinois. Recovering sufficiently after a time to permit
of his performing light army service, he was detailed as druggist in the
Dispensary at Nashville, Tennessee, where he remained until his final
discharge from the service at the close of the War, in 1865.
After a year spent mainly with his brother in Illinois, he came to
Minnesota, residing first in Faribault, then in Minneapolis, and finally,
in the autumn of 1867, removing to Northfield. Here he was for five years
employed as a book-keeper in the lumber-yard of Mr. S. P. Stewart. In 1872
he accepted the position of book-keeper in the First National Bank, a
position which he filled with fidelity for four years, and in defence of
whose trusts he forfeited his life.
Mr. Heywood was twice married; first to Miss Mattie Buffum, and after her
death, to Miss Lizzie Adams. Both were natives of Massachusetts, and both
were women of superior character. A daughter five years of age, the child
of the first wife, survived her father. She has since graduated from
Carleton College, and also from the School of Music connected with that
institution, and is now (1895) an accomplished teacher of music in her
native state.
As has been elsewhere stated, Mr. Heywood’s sterling integrity and
business ability brought him into many positions of responsibility, among
which were those of Treasurer of the City of Northfield and Treasurer of
Carleton College. His personal traits have been so well characterized and
his place in the estimation of those who knew him so well defined in the
funeral address of the Rev. Mr. Leonard, quoted on pages 42 to 45, that
further words in that direction are needless. His memory has ever been
cherished with peculiar reverence by the people of Northfield, especially
by the College of which he was an officer; and his heroic character was
admired wherever the story was known. The banks of the United States and
Canada contributed a fund of over twelve thousand dollars for the benefit
of his family, and as a tribute to his heroism. The Grand Army Post in
Northfield is named for him, and his portrait hangs in their hall. The
College has a fund of $2,500, called “The Heywood Library Fund,” founded
in his honor; his portrait and a memorial tablet in commemoration of him
hang in the College library; and a memorial window in the First
Congregational Church of Northfield bears his name and the inscription
“FIDELITAS.” No word could better characterize the man and epitomize his
life. The following lines, from the New York Tribune, are the tribute of a
well-known poet to Mr. Heywood’s heroism:
ON A FAITHFUL BANK CASHIER
(From the New York Tribune.)
Unto how few the fadeless bays
Belong! How few the iron crown
Of virtue wear! And few the lays
That bear a hero’s honor down
Untarnished to the latest days!
Yet there was one but now who breathed,
Faithful to trust, and in that hour
Summoned, he laid down life, bequeathed
To all good men his good deed’s power,
And with great names his name enwreathed.
For tell me not his place was low,
His sterling voice till then unheard.
He knew and dared to answer “No!”
Whole volumes spoke in that one word,
And duty could no further go.
Nor oftenest on war’s glorious field,
Or in the gaze of favoring men,
Does duty call, but when the shield
Of secrecy protects, or when
Our dearest hopes; to her must yield.
Not oftenest does the martyr gain
By sacrifice his righteous fame:—
And this man knew it, stood the strain
Of silent trial. He prized the name
Of truth, and kept it free from stain.
If he betrayed not, death was sure;
Before him stood the murderous thief.
He did not flinch…Of one life fewer
The angels turned the blood-sealed leaf
That night, and said; “The page is pure.”
Of simple faith and loyalty!
If each true heart like this were strong,
The nation’s ancient majesty
Would rise again with joyous song,
Her beauty shine o’er every sea.
George Parsons Lathrop
Cambridge, Mass.
ALONZO E. BUNKER, second son of Enos A. and Martha M. Bunker, was horn at
Littleton, New Hampshire, March 29th, 1849. He came to Dodge County,
Minnesota, in 1855; received a common-school education in the public
schools of Mantorville; learned the printing business in the office of the
Mantorville Express, and in due time became the foreman of the office. He
taught school for a short time, after which he entered the St. Paul
Business College, from which he graduated in 1869. The following year he
was associated with Professor W. W. Payne in the publication of the
Minnesota Teacher, an educational Journal, issued at St. Anthony, now East
Minneapolis. In 1871 he entered the Preparatory department of Carleton
College, where he continued his studies for two years earning the means of
paying his expenses by working at his trade, teaching and keeping books,
until the incessant application had seriously impaired his health.
In 1873 he entered the service of the First National Bank of Northfield,
in which he continued for about five years. During this period he served
the College as its accountant, and also as the teacher of book-keeping. He
was married, in 1875, to Miss Nettie L. Smith of Red Wing, Minnesota.
The part taken by Mr. Bunker in the encounter with the robbers in the
bank, as detailed in Chapter III, shows him to be a man of nerve, cool and
self-collected in danger, and capable of bold action. Though not subjected
to the brutal treatment inflicted upon Mr. Heywood, he was subjected to a
similar temptation to secure his own safety by yielding to the demands of
the robbers; and he kept such possession of his faculties, mental and
physical, as to seize the first opportunity—an opportunity not afforded to
Heywood—to break from his captors and escape under fire. The wound which
he received at that time was a dangerous one, and narrowly missed being
fatal, and the effects of the nervous shock are still felt at times.
In 1878, Mr. Bunker resigned his position in the First National Bank to
accept one in the Citizens Bank, of the same city. In 1880 he became
connected with the Western Newspaper Union, in which he held responsible
positions in Kansas City and St. Paul. In 1882 he went to Helena, Montana,
where he assisted in organizing the Second National Bank, of which he was
for three years the cashier. His health then requiring a more active life,
he engaged for a time in stockraising and mining operations. In 1888 he
returned to the Newspaper Union, of which he is now one of the principal
officials, with headquarters at Chicago. Mr. Bunker has found time amid
his manifold occupations to perform various collateral duties. For a time
while in Montana he acted as correspondent of Chicago and St. Paul papers.
He has also been active in religious work. While he lived in Helena, he
and Mrs. Bunker were largely instrumental in organizing and building up
the First Congregational Church of that city.
FRANK J. WILCOX is the son of the late Rev. James F. Wilcox, a clergyman
of the Baptist denomination, who held various important positions,
pastoral and official, at the East and at the West. Mr. Wilcox was born in
Taunton, Mass., September 8th, 1848. Changes in his father’s pastorates
took him when five years old to Trenton, New Jersey, and when ten years
old to Northfield, Minnesota, where he has ever since resided, excepting
during the temporary absence of college life.
His education was begun in the public schools. Upon the opening of the
Preparatory department of Carleton College, in 1867, he entered the
institution, in which he remained until the completion of his preparation
for college. His college course was taken in the Chicago University, from
which he was graduated in 1874, in the class with President Sutherland of
Nebraska, Rev. C. H. D. Fisher, missionary to Japan, and others.
Returning to his Northfield home after his graduation, Mr. Wilcox did not
immediately settle down to his vocation in life, but for a time pursued
various temporary occupations, one of which was that of assistant in the
First National Bank. It was here that he was found by the bank-robbers
when they made their raid upon the bank in 1876.
Mr. Wilcox was not subjected to so severe an ordeal as were Heywood and
Bunker, as his position gave the robbers less reason to make demands upon
him and less excuse for molesting him; but so far as occasion required he
co-operated with his colleagues in maintaining the attitude of passive
resistance which made the attempted robbery a failure. Immediately after
the raid he was appointed to a permanent position in the bank, where he
has remained continuously ever since. He is now the Assistant Cashier. He
is also prominently connected with other business enterprises in the city,
and has held various official positions, educational and Municipal. He was
married in 1879 to Miss Jennie M. Blake. Both of them are leaders in the
social and religious life of the community especially in the Baptist
Church of which they are members.
ANSELM R. MANNING was born in Canada, not far from Montreal. By trade he
was a carpenter. He was also an adept at blacksmithing, a competent
surveyor, and a successful man of business. Possessing this Yankee
versatility and knack at turning his hand to almost anything, it was
natural that he should seek his home in the United States. He came to
Northfield in 1856. Here he pursued his various vocations, mechanical,
mathematical and commercial, as occasion seemed to demand. When the
railroad was to be constructed through Northfield, he helped to survey it.
When the increased facilities which it afforded brought an increase of
business, he went into trade, establishing the stove and hardware store so
long a familiar feature on Bridge Square.
It was here that he received the visit from a member of the robber band on
the morning of the raid, and here that he and his trusty rifle were found
ready for the bloody encounter which shortly followed. Mr. Manning is a
quiet, goodnatured, peaceable man, the last man to seek or desire
conflict, but well qualified to meet it when it is forced upon him. He is
alert, observant, quick to take the measure of a situation, and prompt and
fearless in action.
He still resides in Northfield with his wife and children, and still goes
as unobtrusively as ever about his daily business, with no apparent
consciousness of being what his neighbors hold him to be, the hero who
turned the tide of battle.
HENRY M. WHEELER, the son of Mason and Huldah W. Wheeler, was born in
North Newport, New Hampshire, June 23d, 1854. In 1856 the family removed
to Northfield, Minnesota, where they arrived on the Fourth of July.
Minnesota was still a territory, and Northfield an embryo village, of
whose life and development the Wheelers became a part.
Henry began his education in the public school of Northfield; took the
preparatory course of study in Carleton College; graduated in medicine
from the University of Michigan in 1877, and from the College of
Physicians and Surgeons in New York in 1880. He was still a student, at
home on a summer vacation, when the robbers made their appearance in
Northfield. At the time when they were approaching the bank for the
attack, he was sitting as the reader will remember, in front of the
drug-store of Wheeler & Blackman, of which his father was one of the
proprietors. Regarding the movements of the strangers as suspicious, he
followed and watched them, and had already shouted an alarm when he was
driven from the street at the point of a pistol. How promptly he secured a
weapon, and with what deadly execution he used it, has been duly related.
Had the gun been better and the ammunition more abundant, he would no
doubt have given still more emphatic proof that a doctor may upon occasion
make himself more useful in giving wounds than in healing them. One, at
least, of those he gave that day was so far unprofessional as to leave no
chance for the surgeon’s services.
Dr. Wheeler settled in Grand Forks, North Dakota, in 1881, and still
remains there in a large and successful practice.
JAMES GLISPIN was of Irish descent, but was born on American soil. He was
a man of slight physical proportions, about five feet, six inches in
height, but possessing great strength, quickness and endurance, as well as
unlimited courage. He had a magnetic influence over men, and was noted
both for the skill with which he was able to quell the unruly and the
prowess with which when necessary he could overcome larger men than
himself in a trial of strength. After a brief business career, he was
elected Sheriff of Watonwan County. He proved one of the most popular
officers in the state, and was serving his second term at the time of the
robber-raid. The promptness with which he started after the bandits on the
day of the capture, and the important part taken by him in the capture
itself has been related. It was to his care also that they were committed
after the capture, and upon him rested the responsibility of holding them
until they could be turned over to the authorities of the county in which
their crimes had been committed.
Mr. Glispin left Madelia in 1880, and went to California, where he engaged
in mercantile business. In 1883 he removed to Spokane, Washington, where
his fitness for official life was soon recognized. He was elected Sheriff
for a two-years term, and was re-elected for two years more. At the close
of his second term he went into the real-estate business, in which he
continued until his death in 1890.
WILLIAM W. MURPHY was born in Ligonier, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania,
July 27th, 1837. On leaving school in 1854, he went to California, seeking
his fortune in the gold-mines. Here he remained till 1861, when he
returned to his native state, and took up his residence in Pittsburg. When
the call came for volunteers for the Union army, he assisted in raising
Company G, of the 14th Pennsylvania Regiment, and entered the service as
2nd Lieutenant of that company. He was promoted to a first lieutenancy, on
his merit as an officer; was brevetted Captain by the Secretary of War for
gallantry on the field of battle at Piedmont, Va., and was appointed as
Captain of Company D in the same regiment, the first vacancy occurring
after the brevet.
During the first two years of the war he served in West Virginia, one year
under Gen. Sheridan. After Lee’s surrender, Capt. Murphy’s regiment was
ordered to Texas, overland; but when they had reached Leavenworth, Kansas,
they received news of the surrender of all the rebel forces in Texas, and
the regiment was mustered out at Leavenworth. He received a gunshot wound
in the elbow at Lexington, and a sabre wound in the head and another in
the arm in a cavalry charge at Piedmont.
In 1866 Capt. Murphy married and settled in Madelia, Minnesota, where he
engaged in farming and stock-raising. He has ever been a highly respected
and influential citizen, and in 1871 was elected to the Legislature, where
he served with credit. He is a man of marked intelligence, especially upon
agricultural subjects and is possessed of great coolness and daring. When
he came upon the field at the Watonwan, where the robbers were to be
routed out of their hiding-place, his assumption of command was accepted
as quite a matter of course.
THOMAS LENT VOUGHT was descended on his father’s side from one of the old
colonial Dutch families of New York, and on the side of his mother from
the early pioneers of Orange County. He was born in Walcott, Wayne County,
April 29th, 1833. His boyhood was chiefly spent on his father’s farm on
the shore of Lake Ontario, He lost his mother by death when he was seven
years old, and his father at seventeen. In the year preceding the father’s
death the family had emigrated to Rock county, Wisconsin. At nineteen
years of age Thomas went to La Crosse, where he was employed first as a
lumberman and afterwards in a hotel, and where, in 1827, he was married to
Miss Hester Green. Two years later the young people settled on a farm at
Bryce Prairie, where they remained until the opening of the War of the
Rebellion. Mr. Vought then enlisted in the 14th Wisconsin Regiment, in
which he served throughout the War.
In 1866 he removed with his family to Madelia, Minnesota, then so far on
the frontier that their house was the first one in Watonwan County to be
painted and plastered. For the next five years Mr. Vought operated a line
of mail and passenger stages. When the building of the railroad rendered
the stage obsolete, he purchased the Flanders Hotel, destined to become
famous in connection with the two visits—one voluntary and the other
involuntary—of the bank robbers in 1876, as already stated. Since that
time, Col. Vought has resided at different times in New York, Dakota and
Wisconsin, as health and other interests dictated, and has been now a
farmer, now a merchant, now a landlord. His present residence is La
Crosse, Wisconsin, where Mrs. Vought died on Nov. 17th, 1894. They have
had seven children, of whom four are still living.
BENJAMIN M. RICE was the son of Hon. W. D. Rice, a distinguished citizen
of St. James, Minnesota. He was born in Green County, Alabama, February
8th, 1851. In the following year his father removed to Arkansas. Benjamin
was educated at the Christian Brothers College in St. Louis. In 1869 the
family came to Minnesota, and in 1870 they settled in St. James. The town
was not then surveyed. In 1873 he was appointed as engrossing clerk in the
state legislature, in which his father repeatedly served as a member.
The young man was noted for both the ardent, impetuous temperament and the
chivalrous manners of the southern gentleman. He was exceptionally expert
in the use of arms, being, it is said, for quickness and accuracy of aim,
the equal of any of the robbers whom he encountered at the Watonwan. He
was one of the two men from St. James whom the news of the reappearance of
the robbers drew to the scene, Mr. G. S. Thompson being the other; and he
was one of the coolest in the contest that followed. A comrade who marched
by his side says that he “seemed to be in his element.”
In the autumn following the capture Mr. Rice removed to Murfreesboro,
Tennesee. Here he was married soon after to Miss Sallie Bell Wright of
that city. After a few years spent in commercial business there, he
removed to Lake Weir, Florida, where he died August 14th, 1889, leaving a
widow and two children. Mrs. Rice did not long survive him, but the son
and the daughter still reside in Florida.
GEORGE A. BRADFORD was born near the village of Patriot, on the Ohio River
in the state of Indiana, on the 28th of June, 1847. When about twenty year
of age, he emigrated with his parents to the then new state of Minnesota.
For the next six years he divided his time between farming and
school-keeping, working on the farm in the summer and teaching school in
the winter. In 1873 he became a clerk in a store, and after a time went
into business on his own account. He was married in 1877 to Miss Flora J.
Cheney, of Madelia. Mr. Bradford is well educated, and much respected in
the community in which he lives, and a man of the highest integrity, and
of great firmness of character. His modesty is shown in that when
responding to the writer’s request for biographical material for this
notice, he had much more to say about the virtues of his comrades in the
fight than about himself.
He was one of the last to arrive at the scene of battle, but one of the
first to respond to the call for men to enter the robbers’ retreat. He was
slightly wounded in the engagement; but the wound did not prevent his
doing his full share in the capture of the bandits.
Mr. Bradford has retired from business and is now engaged in farming at
Madelia.
CHARLES A. POMEROY was born in Rutledge, Cattaraugus County, New York. His
father, Mr. C. M. Pomeroy, was one of the earliest settlers in Madelia,
Minnesota, having come to that place in 1856, while Minnesota was still a
territory. He became one of the leading citizens of the community, a
justice of the peace, etc. The young man was early inured to the hardships
and the exigencies of pioneer life,—a good school in which to train one
for such emergencies as that with which, as we have seen, he was destined
to be identified. He was also a witness of some of the scenes of the great
Indian uprising and massacre which swept over that part of Minnesota in
1862.
Mr. Pomeroy is described as short, compact, powerfully built, quiet in
disposition, industrious and unobtrusive, yet cool and courageous in
danger. He did not hear of the proximity of the robbers on that memorable
21st of September until the first squad of Madelia men had started for the
scene; but the moment the news reached his ears, he armed himself, mounted
his horse and hastened after them, reaching the field in season to offer
himself as one of the seven volunteers who undertook the perilous attack.
Mr. Pomeroy was married in 1879, and his home is still in Madelia.
S. J. SEVERSON was born in Wisconsin, in 1855, of Norwegian parents, the
only one of that nationality among the seven captors. Coming, in the
course of time to Minnesota, he spent several years on a farm, after which
he became a clerk in a store, where he was employed at the time of the
raid. A published description of him at that time by one who knew him well
thus characterizes him: “The jolliest and most popular young man,
especially among his customers. He speaks several languages well. To his
wit and good nature everybody will bear witness, especially the ladies. He
is a good salesman, industrious, correct and to be depended on. He is
short, stout, and a little ‘dare-devil’ if any trouble is on hand.”
Mr. Severson quickly caught the news of the discovery of the robbers, and
was among the first to join in the chase and in the attack, shooting at
them in the open ground, following them through the slough, and hunting
them in their hiding-place. Like Mr. Bradford, he was slightly wounded in
the wrist at the first shot from the robbers,—a mere graze of the skin,
but enough to remind him that they were not shooting into the air.
Mr. Severson’s present home is in Brookings, South Dakota.
OSCAR OLESON SUBORN was, like Mr. Severson, the son of Norwegian parents,
but born on American soil. Little is known of his life excepting the
events narrated in Chapter VII, in connection with the capture; every
effort of the writer, seconded by those of obliging friends, having failed
to discover any trace of the brave boy who was the Paul Revere of the
final victory, and whose name may well close our Roll of Honor.