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THE NORTHFIELD RAID
A Story of the Heroism of Pioneer Citizens of
Northfield, Minnesota
Who Frustrated an Attempt by the James-Younger Gang to Rob the First National Bank of Northfield on September 7, 1876
The Northfield Raid was originally published in 1933 by the Northfield News, Inc., Northfield, Minnesota.
PREFACE
The story of the Northfield Raid in which a notorious gang of bandits led by Jesse James met their Waterloo, not at the hands of armed officers of the law, but of quiet, ordinary, peace-loving citizens of a little college town, has been often told. The events of that September day of 1876 are a vivid memory to a few persons, still living, who can recall some features of it, although none of the chief characters are now living. Scarcely a day passes but visitors to Northfield ask about the historic event, want to know the location of the scene of the battle, or inspect the bronze memorial tablet on the stone building which housed the bank at the time.
Books have been written about the event, and it has been the cause of filling many columns of newspaper space, not only in Northfield, but throughout the Northwest. Among all these Professor George Huntingtons accurately-written book, Robber and Hero, published in 1895 by the Christian Way Publishing Company, remains probably the most authentic story of the raid. It is that source-book which furnished most of the data for this account, corrections in a few details and additions having been made from other sources believed authentic. Much of the same material was included in a pamphlet published by the Northfield News in September, 1926, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the raid.
* * *
JOSEPH LEE HEYWOOD
Joseph Lee Heywood was the hero of the Northfield Raid of September 7, 1876. He was thirty-nine years old when he fearlessly met death at the hands of armed bandits while defending his trust as an officer of the First National Bank. His memory has been cherished with peculiar reverence by the people of Northfield, especially by Carleton College of which he was an officer, and his character is admired wherever the story is known. The banks of the United States and Canada contributed to a fund of over $12,000 for the benefit of his family, and as a tribute to his heroism. The Grand Army Post of Northfield was named in his honor, and his portrait hung in their hall. Carleton 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. A memorial window in the First Congregational Church of Northfield bears his name and the inscription Fidelitas.
I. NORTHFIELD INVADED
Late in the summer of 1876 a mysterious company of eight Missourians, all of them notorious bandits, moved upon Minnesota. The outfit, which had determined to raid and rob a bank somewhere in the southern part of the state, included Jesse James and his brother, Frank, Thomas C. Younger, (commonly known as Cole Younger) and his brothers, James and Robert, Clel Miller, William Stiles (alias Bill Chadwell) and Charlie Pitts (alias George Wells). In all-around outlaw efficiency this band probably never has been equaled in America or anywhere else, is the testimony of Jesse James biographer.
The outlaws did not ride about the state in a single group. They were divided into scouting parties, and for a fortnight they traversed the roads of several Counties, visiting such towns as Red Wing, St. Peter, Mankato, St. James, Janesville, Waterville andNorthfield.
Mankato appears to have been the first selection as a place where they might raid a bank, but on Monday, September 4, when the plans were ready for the attack on Mankato, the presence of a large number of citizens on the streets near the bank, who, unknown to the robbers, were but watching the progress of repair work on an adjoining building, twice deterred them from their purpose, and they abandoned Mankato. Bill Stiles, one of the gang, was a former resident of Rice county, and knew that at Northfield the First National Bank was a prosperous institution. The robbers now moved upon Northfield. Monday night found them in Janesville, eighteen miles east of Mankato; Tuesday night in Cordova; and Wednesday night at Millersburg, nine miles west of Northfield. Ten days before the attempt on the bank, two members of the band had visited Northfield for a survey, but nobody seems to have questioned their motives when they made inquiries about the bank and the lay of the land.
Early on the morning of Thursday, September 7, the various detachments of the band, (they traveled in pairs and trios) met in the woods five miles west of town, and in the course of the forenoon some of them appeared on the streets and in the stores, and five of them ate their noon-day meal in a restaurant on the west side. All wore linen dusters, which served to conceal their weapons and cartridge belts.
It was about 2:00 oclock in the afternoon that the first trio, consisting of Pitts, Bob Younger and, it is believed, Jesse James, came over the bridge, and crossing Bridge Square, dismounted in front of the bank. They threw their bridle reins over some hitching posts, and then walked leisurely to the corner and sat down upon some drygoods boxes in front of Lee & Hitchcocks store, assuming an air of indifference. Presently two other horsemen, Cole Younger and Clel Miller, rode up Division street from the south. Upon their approach the three men at the corner walked back to the door of the bank and went in. Thereupon Miller dismounted, and going to the bank closed the front door, while Younger dismounted in the middle of the street, and pretended to tighten his saddle girth. This conduct attracted the attention of several citizens.
J. S. Allen, a hardware merchant, whose store was located around the corner west of the building which was occupied by the bank, attempted to follow the three men into the bank, but was instantly seized by Miller and ordered to stand back. Allen jerked away from the grasp of the robber and ran toward the store, around the corner, shouting, Get your guns, boys. They are robbing the bank!
About the same time, H. M. Wheeler, then a young medical student, at home on a vacation from the University of Michigan, and who was sitting in front of his fathers drug store on the east side of the street, became suspicious and moved down the street opposite the bank. When he saw Allens encounter with Miller, he shouted, Robbery! Robbery!
