Reliving History in a Small Town

The Younger Brothers Capture weekend is an exciting time for many people in my hometown of Madelia, Minnesota, population approximately 2,500. This year especially significant since our town was hosting events sponsored by the county to celebrate Minnesota's 150th year as a state. The bank robbery (which really took place in Northfield, not Madelia) was set to take place at high noon, just as the Jesse James gang had planned back in the 1880s. We (my mom, my brother, Brittany, and myself) arrived “up-town” at 11:24 a.m. We decided to park in the grocery store parking lot even though I told my mom she should save it for people shopping at the grocery store. She said it would be fine because she was parked in the last of the three sections of the Food Pride Parking lot. We got out of the car and noticed a very different Main Street than what we were used to.

An orange barricade indicated that the road was closed to passersby but the two food vendors with picnic tables between them, the tables set up with sidewalk sales, and the yellow rope that indicated the robbery and capture “stage” clearly indicated no cars would be traveling through. Right when we started walking down the block we saw Bea, a woman who goes to our church getting out her car. It was rainy then and my mom asked her if she needed an umbrella so she didn’t have to get her hair wet. Bea said she had one and we talked to her only briefly. Immediately after that, we saw Gerald, another man in the community who goes to our church but we only briefly talked with him because he said he was in a hurry to go pick up his family and bring them back to town for the robbery event. Since we had a bit of time, we went shopping in the stores having sales. My mom is well known in the community and Mrs. Schwandner immediately recognizes her and says “Dianne, you’ve brought a few more people with you today.” My mom laughed and said “Yeah, I know. Isn’t it great? I could really get used to this.” Both of the women laughed. I laughed as well and said that I enjoy coming in to look every time I am there and my brother and Brittany just smiled. Wanzek’s is a Pharmacy and Gifts store. The Pharmacy is in the back of the store and there was quite a bit of laughter coming from the back. Separating the Pharmacy from the front end of the store with gifts and home décor is a massive amount of Greeting cards, stationary, and first aid supplies. Paula, another employee of Wanzek’s came to the front of the store and told my mom she recognized all but one of these people with her. My brother clearly took this as his clue to introduce Brittany to Paula. Brittany shook her hand and said “It’s nice to meet you” and Paula started asking her about how she was liking Madelia. Brittany answered her questions cordially even though she’d been there before, just hadn’t been into the store. We continued to look around the store and mention things were pretty, cute, or “really nice” but we didn’t buy anything. When we were leaving the store, Mrs. Schwandner (I can’t remember her first name even though I graduated with her oldest son Jason) said “What’s this? Empty handed?” My mom laughed and said “I know it, this doesn’t happen very often.” We all laughed as well and I turned around as I was walking out the door and said “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll be back sometime this week.” Everyone laughed, waved and said goodbye, and we went back outside to the festivities of Younger Brother Days.

Most of the morning has been drizzly. It was raining pretty hard when I woke up this morning but it has since stopped raining. Regardless, most of the people outside are either in plastic parkas, raincoats, or have umbrellas. Even though it’s rainy, the humidity is unreal. I shouldn’t have done my hair this morning, as it is already much “bigger” than it was when I left and I’ve given up already and put it in a ponytail. The four of us walked down the block to Faith & Hope Gifts. It’s still an adjustment for me to call it that as it has been “Mainstreet Floral” for as long as I can remember. There are tables of gifts (clocks, plates with the Lord’s prayer on them, ornaments, jewelry in baskets, a LARGE stuffed animal in a box, decorative flags and stands, picture frames, and candle holders) with yellow plastic over them to prevent them from getting wet. The plastic itself is very wet and when I lifted the plastic to see what was underneath, the water rolled right off of it. A woman standing by the door greeted my mom and said “Dianne, didn’t we just see you here yesterday?” My mom laughed and said “Yeeeaaah, you did…but I brought extras with me today!” The woman (I don’t know her name) laughed as well and told my mom she had to go inside and check it out to see if anything new had been put out since she was last there. I don’t know this woman. At first glance, she looks a lot like Joann, my cousin Cody’s fiancée Katy’s mom. We are good friends with her and she has been to family functions. I was wrong however and I don’t know the woman after all. Regardless, I walked inside the flower shop (I mean Faith & Hope Gifts; the shop is named after their two daughters, Faith and Hope). The woman then started joking about how those women from Farmers State Bank are good to them and we all started laughing. I chimed in and joked that the women at the bank send a scout in the morning to see if there’s anything good, then they go back and show everyone what they got, only for a small stampede of women at the bank to come make wild purchases. Everyone in our group laughed at the comment but my mom still didn’t introduce me to the woman. We didn’t buy anything there either and as soon as we life, I scolded my mom for not introducing me and she apologized because she thought she knew I knew who the woman was.

From the gift shop, we decided it was time to go across the street to get ready for the re-enactment of the robbery. There was yellow rope blocking off a large majority of main street, indicating that is where the re-enactment was going to happen. Two two food vendor carts are in the street on the East end of main street in front of the hair salon and Wanzek’s gift. The smell of onion rings and other fried food is in the air and people are lined up at the window’s ready to order whatever it is that is making the hungry. There are six picnic tables in the street as well, offering places to sit for those who buy food. We walked by the vendors to go find a spot to stand in preparation for the re-enactment. The streets are filling up quickly with people ready for the show. There are also tents and tables set up selling homemade potholders and kitchen towels, an informational tent giving information about the day’s events and selling Younger Brother buttons, t-shirts, can koozies, and other items. As you keep walking down main street there is another table with historical books recounting the Jesse James Gang, which included the Younger Brothers who were captured in Madelia. The man standing behind the book table also had his books covered with a yellow plastic tarp-like thing. Since it’s the same one as the plastic that was over the gifts at Hope & Faith, I’m assuming the Younger Brother Committee provided it for everyone. The man asked me to watch the books for a minute while he ran into Madelia’s Best, a variety store that sells pretty much anything “standard” you would ever need. He came back out with a box of gallon sized plastic bags and help them up for me to see while he smiled. He was so proud of his idea and I knew right away what he was going to do so I jumped right in and started putting one of each different book into the plastic bag so it could still stand out on its easel even if it rained. The rest of the books stayed under the plastic but he seemed satisfied that some of them were out. The man was wearing old-style Western garb. He had on brown knit pants, a holster with an old pistol in it, a white tattered shirt, a cowboy hat, and brown cowboy boots as well. He was continuously being greeted by other people so I moved away from the table and joined my family in standing by the buildings to get ready to watch.

The crowds have really picked up and the actors for the event are starting to assemble. They all look great! The women are wearing old dresses. They are long, full, and most of them are very colorful. Some of the women have bonnets on to keep their hair out of the way, but others have their hair back in messy French braids. Other people who are not in the re-enactment are also dressed up in their Western garb, ready to go back to the 1800s. Three little boys, all brothers, walked by us wearing cowboy boots, jeans, western shirts, and black cowboy hats. The hats look pretty new, but it could be because they don’t get to wear them too often around town. What a good event for a small community! The man at the book table is continuing to be quite popular. Adeline, one of the organizers of the event and a long-time resident of Madelia went up to greet him and the two men he was talking with. She was wearing her riding pants, boots, and a western shirt as well. She has really long, black hair and it goes to the bottom of her back. The men all greeted her with a hug and the man selling books said “Well don’t you just look beautiful today.” Adeline just looked at him, smiled, and then laughed. She was clearly embarrassed because she looked down as soon as she laughed and then changed the subject. I was standing between my mom and my brother. Brittany leaned forward, looked around Geoff to see me, and asked if I heard what he said. I told her I had and she smiled, put her hand over her heart and said “That was so cute.” Geoff nudged her and told her to stop being cheesy. I thought THAT was cute and am really beginning to think the two of them are getting quite serious.

The “stage” was set up with the Bank right in the middle of the roped off area. Three-quarters of the width of the street was blocked off for most of the business district of Main Street to allow for the horses coming in and out. The bank is on a corner. Opposite to the west is the Christensen Telephone company. For the event, there was a snowmobile trailer set up with what looked like a theatre set on it of the Flanders Hotel. The Flanders Hotel was in Madelia during the actual Younger Brothers capture. It was where the posse took the four brothers (3 alive, one dead) while the officials arranged for a court hearing in Northfield, where the robbery took place. The Younger Brothers were kept there for 8 days and, as is historically noted, they were very surprised by how kind everyone in Madelia was to them. Women who worked at the hotel fed them, mended their wounds, and had long conversations with them about who they were and where they came from. The Younger Brothers were all expecting to be shot or hanged in the “town square” as soon as they arrived in Madelia, but they were presently surprised by just the opposite. When the men were finally extradited to court, the people of Madelia made a plea to treat them humanely and to not sentence them to death. The court listened to the plea and all of the men were sentenced to “a prison sentence that shall end when they leave this world.” The set had speakers surrounding I, a podium, and benches that sat in front of the hotel windows. There was a white fence on the ground hiding the wheels of the snowmobile trailer and the steps leading up to it and the set was an important addition.

We were still waiting for the show to start and noticing that the space between us and the rope was also filling up. Our group talked about moving forward so more people couldn’t come stand in front of us but we got interrupted as my cousin Kyle and his girlfriend walked by......

The robbery re-enactment was getting ready to start and the streets were now full. There was a clear separation in where people were standing though. There was the group that I was standing in back against the buildings, and then there was another, much larger group standing up against the yellow rope for the “front row standing.” Between us was a clear walking lane that people would walk through in. As the narrator, Les, got up to start the show, Keirstan, one of my friends’ sister who is in 8th grade this year, came up to me holding Drew’s hand. Drew is my friend Gayle’s son and Keirstan said “Drew, should we say hi to Katie.” He just looked at me as I talked to him and tried to get him to smile. He’s grown a lot since I saw him last. I asked Keirstan how she was and she said she was ‘good.’ My mom asked her how she was feeling and Keirstan responded that she was feeling ‘better.” I asked her if she was sick and she told me she had gotten her tonsils and adenoids out and then went to vacation in Colorado right after that. She said she still had fun but she was in a lot of pain and she was throwing up the whole time she was there. As Les continued talking, Keirstan said they were going to go get a spot so Drew could stand up and see since he was getting too heavy for her to carry. I asked her if her sister was in town and she said “Yeah, she’s standing down there.” We looked to our right (West) and I could see Gayle and Keirstan said she was standing on the steps under the awning. I told her I’d say hi in a little bit. She said “okay,” I gave her a hug and then we back to watching what was going on.

Les was talking about the bank robbery in Northfield and explaining how we were going to re-enact that. He also mentioned that everyone should stay out of the roped off area as a three women were wheeling a man in a wheelchair right through the roped off area. He continued to explain a bit more about the history. Several people were rushing toward the front of the area to get a better view. Off to the side, one of the women with a table selling goods had two poodles with her. One of them started trying to go to the bathroom but it was having obvious trouble. The women definitely saw what the dog was trying to do but she ignored him like it was nothing. Brittany and Geoff both looked at me and I winced and got a disgusted look on my face. The dog finally finished the job and then there was a pile on the pavement in the road. I found it very inappropriate and thought the woman should have picked it up immediately but she continued to pretend that nothing had happened. I started gagging because it was just there in the middle of this public place and historical event and the thought of it grossed me out. My brother looked to Brittany and said “See, she’s got the Drevlow stomach – really weak.” I told her it was true and we all laughed about it. I had to move to the other side of my mom to distance myself from the dog but we ended up moving closer to the rope anyway so we could avoid people walking in front of us so much.

By this point, I had missed much of what Les was saying about the history and setting up the bank robbery but things were just getting started. There were several “actors” in their places and townspeople were standing throughout the street in groups talking or going around to shops buying goods for the week. Les told the story of how the Younger Brothers came into Northfield about a week or two to scope it out before they actually robbed it. Les then said on the day they robbed the bank, there was one man who was told to keep watch over the bank and be on look-out. While he was telling the story I couldn’t help but be distracted by the many little kids who were running around and the people who were having side conversations about where to stand. One woman was walking and ended up standing right behind me while she was on the phone trying to find the people she was with. She was turning around and saw a man waving his arms to indicate where she was standing. She said “Goodbye,” hung up the phone and went over there. Most people in the crows were paying attention now because two men (who I knew to be Brian and Doug Bottin) rode into the staging area on their horses. They had the horses walk in calmly while Les described that the men came to town and acted cordial among the residents of Northfield. The people looked at the men very cautiously as they circled back and forth. At this point, it became apparent that other men standing in the street were not there to be residents of “Northfield” but they were part of the Jesse James gang waiting for the gesture to enter the bank. Les then indicated that after they scoped out who was on main street in Northfield, they sent the man keeping watch in and then he came to get the rest of the men. A child, about five years old was standing in front of us and kept asking his mom what was going on and what was going to happen. His mom didn’t answer him as she was listening intently and watching what was happening. He then kept saying “Mom,” “Mom,” and she finally told him that they were going to rob the bank and he should keep watching. He listened without an argument and she was right because just then the bank robbery started. A younger man in overalls, a flannel shirt, and a flimsy straw hat went to the door of the bank, looked in, and then came running out yelling “They’re robbing the bank, they’re robbing the bank!” It seemed like everyone in the crowd stood up on their tiptoes all at the same time and people started moving their heads to get a better view of what was going on. The women who were playing actors grabbed all the children and ran to take them to shelter while the men pulled their guns out of their holster and ran to the door. Just then, the bank door flew open and two men came running out with their guns drawn and started shooting up in the air. Several people chimed in to the gunfight after that. I counted twelve shots but I know I missed some. Smoke filled the air, people fell with injuries, and children in the crowd immediately started screaming and crying. The men (Doug and Brian) on the horses were there to be getaway and as one of the men coming out of the bank ran from the building, he fell to the ground indicating he got shot by the residents of the town. Doug, Brian, and two other men rode down main street on their horses very quickly to fully appreciate their need to escape quickly. While they were riding out of town, they were turning around and continued shooting at the people chasing after them on foot.

When the event was over I looked around and saw all kinds of parents holding their children who were crying and screaming. One dad took his son out of the crowd while he screamed with his mouth wide open. As he walked by everyone, several people looked at them and soon “oohh” with sympathy that the guns had scared him. Another mom who had her daughter sitting in a wagon watching the action had brought the wagon back to the curb. She leaned down to talk to her crying child who started hugging her and the mom assured her that they were “pretending” and it “wasn’t real. Nobody got hurt.” “They were just pretending.” She continued hugging her daughter, rubbing her back, and repeating that “The men were just pretending.” Parents took many other children away from the scene so they could calm down as well. After the men were all out of town and Les (the narrator) had finished the story of the robbery (that one man was killed, all the men were wounded and that the gang was only able to steal 28 dollars and some change from the bank), he told everyone to stick around because a professional gun-spinner was in our midst and the show would be starting soon.

I was actually surprised to see everyone sticking around for the show. We moved down the street a little bit to keep moving and I saw Gayle. I graduated with Gayle and was a personal attendant in her wedding although I don’t get to see her as much as I’d like. We waved to each other and then I went over to her, gave her a hug, and told her it was great to see her. Gayle is 8 months pregnant so I started the conversation by telling her she looks “Great.” She and her mom then joked about how she has reached full capacity and the baby needs to come out NOW. Gayle really emphasized the now part as she spoke. She was wearing a black shirt and carrying a jean jacket. She is much bigger during this pregnancy than she was with the last. She said she does not know what they are going to name it and asked if I had any ideas. After that the gun-spinner started and our conversations went back and forth between what was going on in the show and catching up. Brenda was also standing with Gayle and her mom and dad. She graduated a year before me, works with my mom in the summer, is a teacher during the year, and just got engaged to Gayle’s uncle, which is why she was standing with them. I said ‘Congratulations Brenda, I haven’t seen you yet” and she smiled and said “Thanks!” I told her my mom had been keeping me posted on everything and Brenda said my mom brought in the “wedding drawer” for her to look at invitations, party favors, and many other things that are there. I then had to explain the “wedding drawer” to Gayle and her mom. Gayle nodded and said she only keeps the really ugly stuff to show people what not to do. She described how she went to a wedding this summer and the bridesmaid dresses reminded her of something they would wear in the 80s. She acknowledged that the dressed were intended to be bunched an stylish but they failed to be that way in reality.

Gayle’s brother was murdered in Georgia (USA) a year ago yesterday and the thought was in the back of my mind as I was talking to her. I kept going back and forth about whether or not I should say something to give her my condolences. My mom came over to talk to Annie and I heard her express her sympathy and acknowledge that it’s been a tough year for her. I got nervous and choose not to say anything even though I know I probably should have. At this point the gun spinner asked for a volunteer from the crowd and our friend Amanda, although we didn’t recognize her in her Western garb went out to the middle of the street. The spinner had her blow up two balloons, turn around and wait for him to shoot them to make them pop. He tried very hard to be funny but Gayle and I kept looking at each other saying how we would not be caught dead doing that. It was probably just my own head but I couldn’t stop thinking about Gayle’s brother and how hard it must have been for her to stand there and watch it because he was shot by a friend in the back of the head. Again, those thoughts continued to enter my mind and I was pre-occupied with how she was feeling. The crowd screamed when the spinner took the first shot, Amanda jumped and he scolded her in front of the crowd. Everyone laughed nervously as he repeated that same things three more times. Finally he shot them out of her hands and we thought it was over but he had her hold a balloon in her mouth then and shot it out. My mind continued to go back to Terry as I was standing there next to Gayle. I hope I didn’t look as nervous and uncomfortable as I was feeling. We continued to talk about how work was going, what her maternity leave would be like, and she was anxious to get the baby out of her when my mom interrupted us and said we’d better leave, as Brittany and Geoff had gone ahead.

We found Brittany and Geoff getting ready to sit at a picnic table with some “fair food.” Geoff was using napkins to wipe the water off the seat so they could sit down without getting wet. My mom and I went and joined them and another family at a picnic table. The man gave me some napkins to wipe the chair down for my mom and I as well. Geoff was eating a taco in a bag which smelled delicious. Brittany got “cheese nuggets” and Geoff told me I had to eat the ranch she got because it cost in a quarter. I looked at Brittany and she was smiling and rolling her eyes at how he was complaining. While we were sitting there Linda, a woman whose son graduated with my brother, came up and talked to us about her daughter. She also mentioned AJ’s onion rings and asked where they were because they were ‘to die for” and she wanted to get some. We talked about where they might be and then decided they were probably down at the historical society because there were events going on down there all weekend as well. When she left we talked about how it was strange that she greeted us because she usually doesn’t talk to Geoff and I when we come home. We quickly dismissed it, finished the food, and went on our way.

As we walked to the car, we saw my Pastor and his wife come out of the hardware store. Pastor had a can of pain in each arm and his wife was carrying a can of paint in one arm and a piece of tile, border, and several other things I didn’t recognize. They walked across the street to come greet us and Geoff immediately introduced Brittany to them. Pastor put the pain cans down to shake her hand but Kristen continued holding the things in her hand. I imagine it was because hers needed to be more balanced and would have required far more work to put down. My mom and Kristen started a conversation about remodeling their bathroom and they indicated there was mold growing under the tiles so it needed to be done. Pastor was asking Brittany questions about her major/school, her current job, and other things about Oklahoma. He then turned his attention to me and asked how school was going. I told him I had hopefully two years left and then I could start the rest of my life and we laughed. He then asked my brother about how the search for seminaries was going and Geoff responded that he’s hoping to have his application out by the middle of October and will likely be asking him for a recommendation letter. My mom ended all the conversations by saying we should get going so we all said our good-byes and went on our way. Phase one of Younger Brothers Weekend was complete. We got back in the car at 1:15 p.m. cold, wet, but filled with history.