Robber and hero: the story of the raid on the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, by the James-Younger band of robbers, in 1876.Huntington, George
History
Robber and hero: the story of the raid on the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, by the James-Younger band of robbers, in 1876.
Huntington, George
Bank robberies -- Minnesota -- Northfield
A few rods from this bridge lived a Norwegian farmer named Suborn, with
his wife and his son Oscar, an intelligent and active lad about seventeen
years of age. As the men kept watch at the bridge in the evening, Oscar
would come down and sit with them, talking of the robbers and the robbery,
and forming in his mind a pretty distinct idea of the appearance and the
tactics of the outlaws. He repeatedly expressed the wish that he might
meet them and have a shot at them with his father’s old gun. When the band
was supposed to have escaped, and the guards were withdrawn, Col. Vought
charged Oscar to keep a sharp lookout, and if he saw any fellows that he
thought might be the robbers, to come into Madelia and tell the Colonel.
This the boy promised to do.
On the morning of September 21st, while Oscar and his father were milking
the cows, two men walked by, bidding Oscar a civil good morning as they
passed. Something in their appearance instantly convinced the boy that
they were the bandits; and he ran to his father and said, “There goes the
robbers.” His father scouted the idea, and bade him go on with his
milking. But the conviction grew upon the boy as he milked, and he soon
set down his pail and ran to look after the men, making inquiries of the
neighbors and freely expressing his views concerning them. When he
returned to the house, he learned that the men he had seen and two others
had been there asking for food, and saying that they were fishermen. Oscar
insisted that they were the robbers, and after many objections on his
father’s part, finally got permission to take a horse and go and tell
people what he had seen.
He instantly started for Madelia, seven or eight miles away, urging the
old farmhorse to the top of his speed, and shouting to every body he
passed “Look out! The robbers are about!” but finding nobody to believe
him. A short distance from Madelia the horse fell down, throwing the
excited rider into the mud; but he was soon up and a way again faster than
ever.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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