NORTHFIELD, THE END OF AN ERA
A GUNSLINGER Scenario
by Michael Lee Merritt
from The General, 20, #5, pp 31-32.
The James-Younger gang was the most successful gang of outlaws, if one is to believe the popular press, in the history of the West. And the destruction of the gang in the dusty streets of Northfield Minnesota, was the beginning of the end of the frontier outlaw. But what brought the Jameses and Youngers to make their disastrous raid on Northfield--a raid that would leave three of their members dead and three more captured out of the eight that participated?
Offspring of the Kansas-Missouri border wars and graduates of William Quantrell's guerrilla band, the James brothers grew up in a time where violence was the norm. It was only natural that, in the years following Appomattox, Jesse and Frank turn to outright banditry. Among their exploits was the first daylight bank robbery in America during peacetime--the plunder of sixty thousand dollars from the CIay County Savings Bank on 13 February 1866. The chief associates of Jesse and Frank during these years of robbery were the Younger brothers--Cole (who had been one of Quantrell's lieutenants), James, Bob and John. The James-Younger gang, usually led by Jesse, successfully looted banks in Missouri and the surrounding states for years.
In 1873 the James-Younger gang branched out and began robbing trains. Lucrative rewards were offered for the apprehension of the thieves, and by 1874 Pinkerton detectives were carefully scrutinizing the activities of the two families. With most the people in the area being relatives to either the Jameses or the Youngers, it is hardly surprising that no member of the gang was ever caught in the region. The Pinkertons were repeatedly made out as fools, and they didn't like it.
So it was that the Pinkertons came to plant one Jack Ladd on a farm across from the James' family home. One day both Jesse and Frank, it was rumored, were coming to visit their mother, Zerelda James Samuel(having remarried upon the death of the boys' father). Jack called in the Pinkertons, and they surrounded the house. The story of that day is still a matter of controversy. A Pinkerton agent crept up to the house and threw in what they later claimed was only a flare. The device was knocked into the fireplace by Mr. Samuel--and blew up. Zerelda James Samuel had her arm destroyed (later amputated). Her nine year-old son, Archie, was killed. The three were alone in the house at the time.
The Pinkertons lost any support they had had. The farmer who had sheltered Ladd was found murdered. The James-Younger gang made a last train-robbery and then split to the four winds. But not for long. A month later they boarded a train for Minnesota. With them were a semi-regular and two new members: Clell Miller, Charlie Pitts, and Bill Chadwell. Chadwell was from Minnesota, and he had seen a Minnesota bank. Claimed it would be easy to take. The brothers spent a few days looking around before they made their choice. They would raid Mankato.
Clad in linen dusters, the kind customarily worn by cattlemen, they rode into Mankato like a hundred towns before. Only this time was different. A man hailed Jesse by his given name. Jesse informed the man that he had made a mistake and promptly rode out of town. They would raid Northfield instead.
6 September 1876. Cole Younger and Bill Chadwell rode into Northfield to check out the town. There were no gun stores in town, and only two general stores had any. Only one aged sheriff around. It looked good. After their report, Jesse agreed. The bank in the morning.
Again in dusters, worn to conceal their weapons, the eight rode into town and calmly had breakfast at J.G. Jeft's restaurant. They moved to take up their positions--following as careful a plan as any military commander, anticipating no trouble. Jim Younger stationed himself at the bridge leading to the main part of town. Jesse, Bob Younger and Charlie Pitts moved to enter the First National Bank. Outside Frank and Cole, along with Chadwell and Miller nearby, were to keep the idle passersby away while the robbery was in progress. Confronting bank employees Joseph Heywood, F.J. Wilcox and A.E. Bunker, Jesse demanded cooperation. When cashier Heywood baulked, one of the three (who has never been determined) slashed him with a knife and then shot him to death. Bunker, a young teller, made a dash for freedom, but was shot in the shoulder as he escaped. Cole, outside, seemingly panicked when he heard shooting and promptly unlimbered his own gun, killing an innocent bystander--Nicholas Gustavson. Outside the bank, the air was suddenly full of bullets. All the guns from the two general stores were seized by fearless citizens, and the outlaws were placed under a tremendous fire.
Elias Stacy had taken a shotgun and a handful of birdshot shells. Racing into the street, Stacy shot Clell Miller from his horse with a charge into his face. Clell remounted and charged Stacy. From a second story window Henry Wheeler, a medical student, saw Stacy's plight. Taking careful aim with his army carbine, Henry pulled the trigger. Clell fell from his horse, tried to rise, and then rolled over dead.
August Suborn was a Swedish immigrant with very limited English. August was casually walking down the street. Confused by the sudden gunfire, he blundered into the path of Jesse and Bob as they bolted from the bank. Told to get out of the way, he did not understand. One of the outlaws shot him through the head.
A.E. Manning, a young store clerk, had never killed a man before but nevertheless grabbed a rifle from the rack. Unfamiliar with the weapon, he took careful aim before he pulled the trigger. His first shot took Bill Chadwell in the heart. His second shot took Cole Younger in the shoulder. Manning's third shot killed Bob Younger's horse.
As Jesse, Cole and Frank sheltered behind their mounts and Jim Younger dashed across the bridge into the fray, Bob decided to seek better cover. He sprinted for an open staircase nearby, still trading shots with Manning in the store. But upstairs, Wheeler instinctively took stock of the situation and fired a quick shot which tore along Younger's right arm from hand to elbow. Bob executed a desperate border shift and kept shooting as the others mounted.
By now, others had joined Wheeler and Manning. A hail of fire swirled about. Frank James was hit in the leg. Jim Younger was lightly wounded in the face. Cole Younger was hit in the shoulder. Clell Miller and Bill Chadwell were dead. It was time to leave Northfield. Cole galloped by and picked up Bob. Only Jesse left Northfield unwounded. The James-Younger gang was hurt.
On 21 September near Madelia Minnesota, Charlie Pitts was killed and the Youngers surrendered. All three Youngers lived to see jail, and were happy that Minnesota didn't hang robbers. Bob and Jim died in jail, though not of their wounds. Cole Younger would be paroled and spend the rest of his life giving lectures on penitent themes.
Jesse and Frank, deserting the Youngers who refused to leave the wounded Bob behind, made their way back to Missouri. Jesse would try to form a new gang based around Bob and Charlie Ford. Five and one-half years after Northfield, Jesse would be killed at home by the infamous pair. Bob would be sentenced to death for his crime, but was to be pardoned only two hours after sentencing. (He would be shotgunned to death, by a James' partisan, in Colorado.) Six months after Jesse was killed, on 4 October 1882, Frank surrendered himself to Missouri Governor Thomas Crittendon, throwing himself on the mercy of the courts. Released from custody in 1885, Frank lived out a quiet existence. He would never fire a gun again except as a starter at race tracks and county fairs. He died peacefully at the old Missouri farmsite in 1915. With him died the Old West.
Updated 14 Jun 09.
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