Cole Younger
So then we started northward and northward we did go,
To that God forsaken country called Minnesotio.
Our plans were fixed on Mankato, when Jesse James did say,
"Now, Cole, if you undertake that job, you'll surely rue the day."
Then we started onward, for Northfield was the town,
'Twas there we dismounted our horses and cautiously we got down,
We swore an oath of allegiance, to each other we would prove true,
And for the rest of our conversation there, I fear 'twould never do.
Then we mounted our horses and straight to the bank we rode,
We stood before the counter and struck a deathly blow,
Saying, "Deliver up what cash you've got without any further delay,
For we are the noted Younger boys and we give no time to pray."
(Excerpt from the song Cole Younger in California Gold: Folk Music from the Thirties, 1938-1940.)
Thomas Coleman Younger made his arrival into the world on January 15, 1844, in Jackson County, Missouri. One of fourteen children, Cole, having dropped the "Thomas" when he was young, was born to Henry Washington Younger and Bersheba Fristoe Younger. Henry was quite a prosperous farmer, owning about thirty-five hundred acres in Cass County, Missouri. He threw his loyalties to the Union even though he owned two black slaves. Unfortunately for the family, even his ties with the Union did not stop him from being murdered by Union irregulars in 1862.
But even in a family of fourteen children, the Youngers were blessed that only four of their eight boys took to the other side of the law. Cole and three of his siblings - Jim, John, and Bob - rode the outlaw trail, their ultimate destruction being in the form of Northfield, Minnesota. John's demise, however, was earlier than Northfield. He and Jim were involved in a gunfight with the law near Monegaw Springs, Missouri. John lost his life March 16, 1874.
Cole joined the destructive William Clarke Quantrill in 1861, his brother Jim joining a couple of years later at the Civil War's end. At first Cole was made a lieutenant of cavalry in Quantrill's band in 1862, taking part in the Battle of Lone Jack. When the raid of Lawrence was made, Captain Cole Younger rode with the men.
War plays strange things with a man's mind. Men returned home from the War disillusioned, broken, hurting, beaten inside and out. Thinking of revenge against the Yankees was only natural for them. It was the Yankees who had stolen their families, their houses, everything they owned. Some of the soldiers took up the life of the outlaw having been issued guns, taught to kill, trying to take back a piece of their lives that had been taken.
Quantrill and his lieutenant 'Bloody' Bill Anderson had taken these country boys and made them experts in riding and marksmanship, drilling them in the art of guerrilla warfare. It was this training that enabled the James boys and the Younger brothers to become efficient in the art of bank robbing. The men gathered together at war's end, the Missouri farmers encouraging their every move.
Cole who had ridden with Frank James during the Lawrence massacre was also said to have taken an Enfield rifle, eager to try it out. Yankee prisoners had been tied together against a tree, one on top of the other, Cole using their backs as his testing targets. He wanted to see how many bodies a bullet could pierce. Quantrill and Anderson's bloody tactics had sunk in.
Frank and Jesse James, Cole and a few others began meeting as soon as the War ended, planning on what their missions would be. In 1868, Cole, dressed in regular street clothes, entered the bank of Russellville, presenting a fifty dollar bill to the bank's president, wishing to have it changed. As the president, Nimrod Long, examined the bill, checking for counterfeit money, he suddenly found himself looking down the barrel of a pistol. "Surrender!" Cole demanded as the others in on the hold-up entered the bank, guns drawn.
As Long ran for the back door, a bullet grazed his head then the back of his head connected with the butt of a gun. Thinking Long was out of it, the outlaws were surprised when Long stood and ran from the bank. Though the gang fired at him, Long stayed on his feet, crying out for help. Because of this robbery, detective D.G. Bligh, was sent out to find the James-Younger boys. This was the first time anyone of Bligh's profession had been sent to find them, search them out.
The boys only grew bolder. Banks and trains were a matter of course now. In Corydon, Iowa, the James-Younger boys lifted the money from the bank while the town was listening to a public orator at the local Methodist church. Having lifted $6000 from the bank, the boys then donned bandannas over their faces and went to the church. Jesse politely told the crowd they had just cleaned out the bank now they would clean the citizens of their valuables. Tipping their hats to all when they had finished, the boys rode off, shouting and crying out rebel yells.
In 1872, Bob Younger came to join big brothers Cole and Jim in the gang. He came in time to help the gang lift $10,000 from the Kansas City fair. On that mission the boys ended up creating quite a chaotic mess, even getting a ten year old girl hurt.
It was in the late 1860's that a young girl named Myra Belle Shirley entered Cole's life. Belle, as they called her, was the daughter of John and Eliza Shirley. When Belle's brother Bud was killed by federal troops, the Shirleys packed up and left for Texas, settling in a small town called Scyene. (Though Scyene Road still exists in Dallas/Mesquite today, the city has now been incorporated in to Dallas.) John was a business man and hoped to establish a hotel there.
When the heat became too much for the James-Younger boys to take, they would ride to Texas and visit the Shirleys. While Cole squired Belle, the others would often times become acting deputies, even going so far as to sing in the Baptist church's choir on Sunday mornings. Luckily none of the boys were known in Texas...yet. It was said that Belle bore Cole's child, a daughter she named Pearl. Other sources have said this was not Cole's offspring, rather Belle's husband's at the time, Jim Reed. Belle, who would later be known as the Bandit Queen Belle Starr, supposedly named her Rosie Lee and called her "My little Pearl."
It was in late summer 1876 that Cole, Bob and Jim Younger boarded the train for Northfield, Minnesota, and the ill-fated robbery there. Cole with eleven bullets, Jim with five and Bob with his chest shot up were finally found in an area known as Hanska Slough. After a brief gunfight, Bob stood and yelled, "I surrender; they are all down but me."
The Younger brothers were taken to Sheriff Ara Barton and then to the county jail at Faribault. Guarded round the clock, the town was fearful that a lynching would happen. One riot did break out, resulting in the death of a law official on October 2nd.
Four indictments were charged to the Younger boys at the Rice County courthouse - the murder of the teller J.L. Heywood, attacking another teller A.E. Bunker, robbing the First National Bank and the death of Nicholas Gustavson. The brothers pleaded guilty to all charges and were sentenced to life in prison.
Bob died in the Stillwater jail September 16, 1889, of tuberculosis, a result of his chest being shot. Pardons were attempted for Jim and Cole, but no law official would touch them.
Finally in 1901 Cole was released, followed by Jim. They had served twenty-five years in prison, yet though they were pardoned they could not leave the state of Minnesota. The two sought regular employment, selling tombstones, yet the state would not allow Jim to marry a girl he had fallen in love, Alix Muller. Jim killed himself in October of 1901. On February 4, 1903, Cole was granted a pardon by the state of Minnesota with the stipulation he never return to the state. Cole headed back to Missouri and home.
While in his home state, Cole met up with Frank James again and the two began what was known as the 'Cole Younger-Frank James Wild West Show.' Though it didn't last long, it did provide a means of legal support for the two. That venture led to Cole joining the Lew Nichols Carnival Company that advertised 'Cole Younger's Coliseum.' The one-time outlaw was growing older by then, the bullets in his body remained as a reminder of his early days.
Coleman Younger crossed over on March 21, 1916, one month after Frank James.
SOURCED:
Northfield Bank 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. Northfield News Publishing Company, Inc. Northfield, Minnesota, 1995.
McLoughlin, Denis. Wild and Woolly: An Encyclopedia of the Old West. Doubleday and Co., Inc, New York, 1975.
Time-Life Old West Series. The Gunfighters. Time-Life Books, New York, 1974.
Joni K. Buckner,
Dallas,
TX,
August 1998