HISTORY TOPICS

Northfield Raid & the James-Younger Gang

Overview

Cole Younger, along with his brothers Bob and Jim, robbed banks and trains with Frank and Jesse James and other members of the James-Younger Gang following the Civil War. After more than a decade of life as an outlaw, Cole's exploits were halted by a fateful attempt on September 7, 1876, to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota.

When members of the gang rode into Northfield, they wore flowing dusters to conceal their guns. Once inside, they dropped their coats and demanded the money from the vault. Joseph Lee Heywood, the bank clerk on duty, was killed when he refused to open the safe. When the townspeople were alerted and the shooting started, the robbers dropped everything and fled. In the melee that followed, Nicholas Gustavson, a Swedish town resident, was killed, as were gang members Clell Miller and William Stiles.

The pursuit of the gang went on for weeks and covered 400 miles, during which the gang split up and managed to get away. The Youngers were eventually captured at Madelia, Minnesota, in another gun battle, in which gang member Charlie Pitts was killed. The three Younger brothers were tried in Faribault, found guilty of murder, and sentenced to 25 years in the state prison at Stillwater. Bob Younger died in prison in 1889; Jim was pardoned in 1901 and committed suicide in 1902; Cole, also pardoned in 1901, died in 1916. Cole served his time as a model prisoner, and started the prison's first newspaper, the Prison Mirror.

The Northfield Raid, as the robbery attempt has come to be known, has been the subject of countless novels and movies. It has inspired endless speculation and multiple theories of the sequence of events and who actually participated.

Get Started with Secondary Sources

The Bank Robbery

• Faithful Unto Death: The James-Younger Raid on the First National Bank Northfield, Minnesota, September 7, 1876, by John Koblas.
  Northfield, Minn.: Northfield Historical Society, 2001.
  MHS call number: HV6661.M62 K632 2001.
• Funeral Discourse of Joseph Lee Heywood . . . Given at Northfield, Minn., Sunday A.M., Sept. 10, by Delavan Levant Leonard.
  Minneapolis: Johnson, 1876.
  Copies of Reverend Leonard's eulogy for Joseph Heywood were distributed widely. The description of the robbery contains no mention of the James-Younger Gang. Their participation would not be general knowledge until later that same Sunday.
  MHS call number: HG2463.H62 L5.
• Jesse James and the Northfield Bank Raid, produced, written, and directed by Donald Knox.
  St. Paul, Minn.: Twin Cities Public Television, 1981.
  Story of the robbery of the First National Bank in Northfield on September 7, 1876, by the James-Younger Gang.
  MHS call number: Videotape 641 (1 29-minute color videocassette).
• The Jesse James Northfield Raid: Confessions of the Ninth Man, by John Koblas.
  St. Cloud, Minn.: North Star Press of St. Cloud, 1999.
  MHS call number: HV6661.M62 K63 1999.
• "The Northfield Bank Raid," excerpt from a manuscript by Harold B. Kildahl, Sr.; edited by Erling E. Kildahl.
  In Journal of the West, vol. 28, no. 3 (July 1989): pp. 67-72.
  MHS call number: F591 .J86 v.28:3.
  Note: The entire manuscript was later published as "Westward We Came: Memoirs of My Youth and Early Manhood as an Immigrant in Minnesota and a Pioneer in Dakota Territory, 1866 to 1898," and is available at: BX8080.K454 A3 1991.
• Robber and Hero: The Story of the Northfield Bank Raid, by George Huntington; introduction by John McGuigan.
  St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1986.
  MHS call number: HV6452.M6 N8 1986.

The James Brothers

• The Escapades of Frank and Jesse James, by Carl W. Breihan.
  New York: F. Fell Publishers, 1974.
  MHS call number: Reading Room HV6446.J3 B843.
• "Where Oh Where Were the James Boys When the Northfield Bank Was Robbed?" [by Joseph W. Zalusky].
  In Hennepin County History, vol. 22, no. 4 (spring 1963): pp. 20-22.
  MHS call number: F612.H52 H4 v.22:4.

The Younger Brothers

• The Border Outlaws, by James W. Buel.
  St. Louis, Mo.: Historical Publishing Co., 1881.
  The only author with whom the Youngers agreed to talk was James W. Buel because he was a fellow Missourian. Buel was permitted by Warden Reed to conduct an interview with the Youngers at Stillwater, the only full-length interview known from their prison years.
  MHS call number: HV6446.A7 B8 1881.
• Convict Life at the Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, Minnesota, by W.C. Heilbron.
  St. Paul, Minn.: Heilbron, 1909.
  MHS call number: HV9475.M63 H5.
  Stillwater, Minn.: Valley History Press, [1996] (updated and expanded edition).
  MHS call number: HV9475.M63 H4 1996.
• Hard Time: Voices from a State Prison, 1849-1914, edited by Ted Genoways.
  St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002.
  MHS call number: Reading Room HV9475.M62 M553 2002
• The Story of Cole Younger, by Himself.
  "Being an autobiography of the Missouri guerilla captain and outlaw, his capture and prison life, and the only authentic account of the Northfield Raid ever published."
  St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2000 [reprint].
  MHS call number: Reading Room HV6446.Y7 A2 2000.
• Youngers' Fatal Blunder: Northfield, Minnesota, by Dallas Cantrell.
  San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor Co., 1973.
  MHS call number: HV6661.M62 1876 .C35.

 

Primary Resources

The Bank Robbery

• Charles H. Taylor Reminiscences.
  Photocopies of reminiscent articles published in the Northfield Independent, August 16 and 23, 1951. Taylor describes, among other things, the 1876 Northfield bank robbery.
  MHS call number: P939 (there are only 4 pages of material).
• A Chronology of Selected Newspaper Accounts Relating to the Attempted Bank Robbery at Northfield, Minnesota, September 1876, index cards compiled by Terry Nordenstrom.
  Nordenstrom cites September-December, 1876, articles in eleven newspapers from Faribault, Mankato, Minneapolis, New Ulm, Saint Paul, and Saint Peter.
  MHS call number: Microfilm 576 (1 reel of microfilm).
  Note: Microfilm may be borrowed on Interlibrary Loan.
• Northfield Bank Robbery of 1876 Selected Manuscript Collections.
  The collection contains letters, reminiscences, and related materials about the robbery and subsequent manhunt, primarily from southern Minnesota residents. It also includes correspondence from Cole Younger and copies of correspondence from W. C. Bronaugh, who was instrumental in securing Jim and Cole Younger's parole from prison.
  Restrictions: Access to and use of reserve materials requires the curator's permission. Reserve materials can be viewed online in electronic version of the inventory.
  MHS call number: P1416; see the Green Manuscript Notebooks for more details (there is 1 box and two folders in reserve of material), or use an electronic version of the inventory.
• Herman Roe Papers.
  Roe was a Northfield newspaper editor and publisher. His collection includes data on the 1876 robbery of the Northfield bank by the James and Younger brothers.
  MHS call number: P451; see the green Manuscripts Notebooks for more details (there are 3 boxes of material, but not all relate to this topic).

The James Brothers

• George C. Clapp and Family Papers.
  The collection includes George F. Clapp's 1943 reminiscence of a visit to the Clapp farm by the James brothers prior to the Northfield Bank Raid.
  MHS call number: P452; see the green Manuscripts Notebooks for more details (there is 1 box of material, but not all of it relates to this topic).

The Younger Brothers

• Bronaugh-Younger Papers.
  Photocopies of letters, mainly written to Warren Carter Bronaugh, reflecting efforts by Missouri citizens to obtain pardons for James and Cole Younger, who were held in the Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, after their robbery of the Northfield bank in 1876.
  MHS call number: M468; see the green Manuscripts Notebooks for more details (there are 23 items on 1 reel of microfilm).
  Note: The originals are in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri in Columbia.
• Minnesota State Prison, Case Files: Younger Brothers, (1900-1979).
  Correspondence, parole reports, photographs, and newspaper clippings relating to the incarceration in the Minnesota State Prison of Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger (file no. 699) and James Younger (file no. 700).
  MHS call number: M468, reel no. 2 (there are 7 folders of material on 1 reel of microfilm).
  Note: Microfilm may be borrowed on Interlibrary Loan.
• John E. Risedorph Papers.
  John Risedorph was living in LeSueur, Minnesota, in the fall of 1876. Amid his entries about his daily life, Risedorph kept daily record of the chase for the Northfield robbers, including their capture. His entry for September 10 clearly reveals that the identities of the robbers were not widely known until days after the raid.
  MHS call number: A/.R595; see the green Manuscripts Notebooks for more details (there is 1 box of material, but only the diary relates to this topic).

 

Newspapers

• Faribault
• Mankato
• Minneapolis
• New Ulm
• Northfield
• St. Paul
• St. Peter
• Stillwater (The Prison Mirror)

 

Visual Resources

• Photographs of the Younger Gang and other principal players in the raid were popular for years following the robbery. Many photographers made copies and composite shots such as these cartes-de-visite:
  • "Bill Chadwell, Charlie Pitts, and Clell Miller, Participants in Northfield Bank Robbery," by Sumner's Studio.
    MHS location number: HV8.2 r4.
  • "Northfield Bank Robbery Gang," by Den Chamberlain.
    MHS location number: HV8.2 r5.
  • "Northfield Bank Robbery Gang," by Louis Peavey.
    MHS location number: HV8.2 r6.
  • "Northfield Bank Robbers," by Charles W. Stiff.
    MHS location number: HV8.2 r7.
  • "Northfield Bank Robbers," by William H. Jacoby.
    This composite photograph, created by Minneapolis photographer William H. Jacoby, was the most popular of all those in circulation after the raid, because it featured all of the robbers and citizens then known to be involved.
    MHS location number: HV8.2 p17.
• Search the Visual Resources Database for more photographs. The following subjects may be useful for this topic:
  • Cole Younger
  • Minnesota State Prison
  • Northfield Bank Robbery

3D Objects

• Use the "Search the Collection" Catalog to find more 3D objects relating to this subject.

 

Learn More

• Check the library catalog for other materials.
• View a podcast on the Youngers’ lives after the raid and their time at Stillwater State Prison.
• Learn more about the Northfield Duster in the Society's collections.
• More information about the town of Northfield can be found at Minnesota Place Names.