Leaving Webster Spinning in His Grave

If you think that texting and instant messaging has butchered the English language, then let the following article assure you that dodging cleaver swings is nothing new for our wonderfully perculiar manner of communicating.

Is the following article meant to be sarcastic? It’s a bit hard to tell.

If the editor was sincere, you’ll notice that even in two short paragraphs they were unable to keep their “simpl system” consistent. For example, “have” is spelled both with and without the final “e”.

Despite the arguments presented, I think I’ll stick with dictionary English despite all it’s little quirks and silent letters.

Y Not Mak It Simpl? – Stillwater Messenger – September 22, 1906

A simpl styl of spellin has ben okd by som big men, and it has its gud points. But the list givn out is not big enuf. If we ar to hav a simpl system y not get down to bed rok rite of? Y not include al the words that can be speld in an e-zy way? Y b a thousn yrs doing something that can be don in one? Just think of the trubl to spel rite when it mite be so much ezier to tak a short cut.

Then u cud spel just as wel as the nex man and wud have no caus to blush because u sometims mist the way other folks spel. If we ar to hav reform let us reform in ernest. To b sure the simpl way wud lok funy at first but after a wile it wud be al rite, and think of the savin in tim, ink and papr! Ther is nothing lik getin ust to an inovasun. Then it comes as a mater of corse. We hav the simpl life y not the simpl spellin? We paus for anser.

The Adventures of Captain John Oliver

by Brent Peterson, WCHS Executive Director

In the early days of our country, sailing at sea was difficult and dangerous, and it took a certain type of man to do this. One of these early sea explorers found his way to Washington County, and told many exciting stories of his days on the sea.

John Oliver was born in 1796 in the county of Kent, England. His father died while he was very young, and due to difficult times, Oliver probably never received and proper education. He helped out at the family farm until the age of nine, when his desire to go work on the sea made him leave home.

Oliver’s first voyage was to Canton, China, and it was on this voyage that he learned, first hand, how cruel the treatment of seamen was by the officers. He was often kicked by the officers, and was also ordered to the masthead of the ship during the voyage while the seas were turbulent, just to test his nerve and courage.

On another voyage, this time to Calcutta, the crew deserted the ship due to severe officer cruelty. The crew planned to make their way to Bombay where they might sign on with another ship for a trip back to England. Oliver was with the crew as they made there way inland to avoid the natives along the coast. The group of men were in constant danger from the animals, both day and night. One night, the men made a fire circle and slept inside of it. However, in the morning, the man sleeping next to Oliver had disappeared. It is thought that he was taken by a lion or tiger during the night.

The men finally reached Bombay and signed on with a ship bound for Canton, China. While in Canton, John Oliver went to work on an American ship, and ever after that, Oliver claimed to be an American.

This American ship made many trips to the Marquesas Islands in the Pacific to bring back sandalwood to Canton. The Chinese used the sandalwood in their incense burners and there was a good market for the wood. After one such voyage the ship’s officers decided to leave two men on the island to collect sandalwood prior to their next return visit. Oliver was one of the two. The two sailors stayed with a native tribe who was eager to trade with the white men. However, the sailing ship never returned, and later it was assumed that the ship was captured by the British because this was the time of the War of 1812.

Oliver remained on the island for some time, and during that time he was welcomed into the native tribe. He was honored by participating in a tattooing ceremony in which nearly all of his body was tattooed with many designs and characters.

In 1813, the Commodore Porter of the U.S. Frigate, Essex, landed on the island. Oliver and his companion were able to get passage on the ship. However, the ship was hoping to capture an English ship. The Essex was soon surrounded and the crew taken to Halifax prison, in Nova Scotia. He was transferred to Dartmoor prison in England, just a few miles from his home and family.

Oliver was released after 13 months as a prisoner. He sailed to New York, the first time he had seen his adoptive country.

In 1820 he married Miss Sarah Spear, and the couple had several children. Oliver continued to work as a seaman in and around the Boston Harbor and eventually acquiring the title of Captain.

As his eyes began to fail in his later years, he had to give up his pilot duties, but his son, also named John, followed his father as a harbor pilot until 1848, when he came west and stopped in the Lakeland area of Washington County. Young John pre-empted 160 acres of land, and left his brother Edwin to watch over it, then returned to Boston to bring his father and family to Minnesota.

The family became well-known in the area and the Young John Oliver went on to operated the ferry boat from Lakeland to the Wisconsin shore.

It is everyone’s dream to live a exciting and adventurous life, and in the case of John Oliver, it certainly came true.

Stealing the Front Page

Typically the front page of the Stillwater Messenger was reserved for re-prints of national newstories from other papers. I usually have to dig to page 3 before I find any sort of local reports. However, the intensity of the Northfield Raid had thrust the encounter onto the national stage. The name “Heywood” would be read in homes across the country.

In the normally quiet rural bank at Northfield, a party of former Confederate soldiers had murdered Joseph Heywood, a man who had served opposite his killers as a corporal for the Union. As the details of Heywood’s death circulated the country, an outpouring of support and donations made their way to Heywood’s widow and young daughter. In the following months, the family received almost $13,000 (around a quarter million in 2015 dollars).

Stillwater Messenger – September 8, 1876

One of the boldest attempts at robbery ever made in this country took place at Northfield, Minnesota, about two o’clock yesterday afternoon. Eight powerful men, heavily armed, rode into the place at intervals during the forenoon from the same direction upon unusually fine horses. At the hour named a squad of them entered the First National Bank and commanded the cashier to open the safe, which he steadfastly refused, preserving its contents with his life.

Several shots had been fired at random in the streets previous to this, and a crowd assembling, one of the robbers shot the cashier, Mr. Heywood, in the head, killing him instantly, when the band decamped, two being killed on their flight and two wounded.

The robbers are supposed to have gone into the Big Woods southeast of Northfield. A large force of men started in pursuit, and it is hardly probably that they will escape.

Through the sublime heroism of Mr. Heywood the bank and depositors were preserved from loss. His death at his post of duty is a sad calamity, as he was one of the most highly esteemed citizens of Northfield. If lynching is ever justifiable it will be if these desperadoes are captured.

The Infamous Younger Brothers

by Sean Pallas

It doesn’t matter that Bob Dylan left Minnesota as soon as he could; you’ll still see a “Bob Dylan Way” in Duluth and a newly finished mural in downtown Minneapolis celebrating the musician. When aviator Charles Lindburg moved away from his boyhood home, he only returned to the property on a single occasion, yet, the town of Little Falls, Minnesota maintains the home in shrine-like fashion.

Here in Minnesota we’re a bit obssessed with the famous folk who were born or lived in our communities. Even if they didn’t exactly call our city ‘home’ by choice…

The core group of the James-Younger gang were comprised of two sets of brothers; Frank and Jesse James and Cole, Jim, and Bob Younger. The group had bonded years prior while serving together in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. After the war, the gang robbed a series of trains and carriages across the South and enjoyed a “Robin Hood”-esque reputation among the bitter defeated Southern states.

However, on September 7th, 1876 the gang had set their targets a bit northward.

Through half-whispers and rumors, the outlaws believed that General Adelbert Ames had recently deposited $50,000 into the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota. Until recently, General Ames had been the hated military governor of the Younger’s homestate of Missouri. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation would not be created for another 50 years meaning that any money stolen from physical banks were simply gone. The lack of any sort of robbery insurance would ensure General Ames would feel every penny of his missing $50,000.

Shortly before noon on that Thursday morning, Jesse James, Frank James, Thomas “Cole” Younger, Jim Younger, Bob Younger, Charlie Pitts, Clell Miller and Bill Chadwell were sitting around a table at a local eatery near the town’s mill. The gang shared a meal of fried eggs and according to later testimony, smelling heavily of alcohol.

Over the next few hours, the gang trickled into town to avoid raising suspicion. In a moment of historic irony, Cole even found himself passing Gen. Ames himself on the street. The would-be bank robber, recalled tossing the General a sarcastic greeting before making his way into the town center.

The James brothers along with Bob Younger burst into the bank, quickly taking command of the frightened employees. The remainder of the gang were either guarding the doors of the bank or securing the group’s escape route across the town’s bridge.

So far the plan had gone without a hitch…but suddenly, the entire operation stalled. What ideally should have taken brief seconds was turning into minutes. Inside the bank, the robbers were growing increasingly frustrated at cashier Joseph Heywood’s refusal to open the safe. And outside, the citizens of Northfield began taking notice of the commotion.

Hardware store owner J.S. Allen saw the armed men through a bank window and instead of adding him to their pool of hostages, gang member Clell Miller made the fateful decision to instead sternly suggest that Allen should continue down the street minding his own business. The cool-headed man immediately raised the alarm once he was out of the gang’s sight.

Within moments, the whole street had turned into a warzone. Sharpshooting Northfield men made their way to every window and rooftop, quickly seizing the advantage against the outnumbered raiders. Both sides drew blood from one another.

Out of spite, Heywood had been slashed by a knife and then shot in the head by one of the Jameses. In the confusion and crossfire, another bystander, Nicholas Gustavson, had been gunned down as well. Clell Miller and Bill Chadwell were dead in the dust and all of the Youngers were sporting mild to serious gunshot wounds.

After barely escaping the disaster, the surviving robbers decided to split their party into two portions. The James boys would flee in one direction and the three Youngers and Charlie Pitts in another. Mr. Pitts selected the wrong travelling companions.

On September 21st, the hundreds of Minnesotans who were now hunting the fugitives managed to track the three Youngers and Pitts a swamp outside of Medelia. After another brief but intense firefight – Pitts was dead and as Cole Younger later described, the three brothers had been “shot to pieces.”

The photograph above was taken shortly after the Younger’s capture. You can see Cole’s eye swelled shut due to a bullet lodged underneath his skin. Jim had taken a shot to through his lip into the roof of his mouth that would cause him constant pain for the remainder of his life.

A few weeks later, the Youngers would begin their 25 year stay at the Minnesota State Prison in Stillwater and unwittingly secure their position as Stillwater’s most famous residents.