Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-07-20
The Dunn County Tragedy.
TMenomonie Times.1


The readers of the Times have already
been advised of the bold burglary and
larceny committed in the jewelry store uf
E. A. loft in Menomonie on Friday July
l. No trace of the burglar had been
discovered until last Saturday evening,
when Mr.. loft received dispatch from
Wabashaw, Minnesota, informing him that
they had arrested man there who had
in his possession some watches that were
undoubtedly taken from Mr.. lofts store,
and requesting his presence for the pur
pose of identifying the stolen property.
Accordingly, on Sunday morning,
Mr.. loft, accompanied by Mil
ton Coleman, undersheriff of Dunn
county, started at O'Clock with team
for Wabashaw, arriving there about
noon Finding, the watches, four in
number, to be Mr.. lofts property, the
authorities of Wabashaw gladly turned
the prisoner over in the afternoon to I'm
der Sheriff Coleman, and at o'clock in
the afternoon the party started on their
return to Menomonie, arriving at Durand
at O'Clock in the evening, where they
stopped for rest, placing the prisoner in
the Pepin county Jail.
At about o'cock in the evening as
Under Sheriff Coleman and Mr.. loft were
making preparations to leave Durand
with their prisoner, two men were seen
coming across the Chippewa river in
boat, and word was conveyed to Mr.. Cole
man that the occupants of the boat were
the celebrated Williams brothers, two
dosperadoes who have for some time
made their headquarters in St. Croix
county, about Hersey and Woodville, and
for whom warrants were then out on the
charge of grand larceny, and for whose
arrest Uunder Sheriff Coleman and ex-
Sheriff Doolittle had but a day or two
previous been threading the woods
of St. Croix county. Under Sheriff
Coleman Immediately called to
his assistance his brother
Charles, resident of Durand, an ex-
sheriff of Pepin county, and vigilant,
intrepid and faithful officer, and arming
themselves heavily with double barrel
shot guns and revolvers, they directed
their steps to the northern part of the vii
lage of Durand, where from the direction
in which the desperadoes crossed the
river, they would be apt to meet them
At the junction of two streets, and in
front of the residence of Mr.. Dorchester,
the Coleman brothers halted, iDquiring
of young Dorchester if he had seen any
thing of two strange men who had Just
come across the river, heavily armed. The
young man replied he had not, and at that
moment the Williams brothers came
around the corner, and Milton Cole
man seeing them, exclaimed, "Y GU
are our - but the word "prisoners''
was never uttered, for almost simultane-
ously the gun of one assassin and Cole
mans were fired, and Coleman fell dead
where he stood, and the assassin turned
and fled back around the corner. At the
same instant Charles Coleman fired at the
other Williams, who instantly fired at
Charles, the shot taking effect in his
breast, and bringing him to his knees, in
which condition, and as it is now known
in the agonies of death, Charles, true to
his own heroic nature, fired second shot
at his murderer, and then he, too, sunk
down in death. But his murderer, not
satisfied with what he had done, fired
shot after shot at his victim, until his
devilish nature was satisfied, and he
was fully glutted with blood, and he,
too, turned and followed his COM
panion. Milton was struck twice, the
first shot, and the enc that killed him, was
through his throat, severing both branch
es of the jugular vein, and the other took
effect on the left cheek bone. The par
ties were but twelve feet apart when the
shooting was done, and they were all
near the fence in front of Mr.. Dorches-
ter's grounds, and from traces Of blood
on the fence it is supposed that the shot
from Millions gun wounded tn man that
killed him. There were three witnesses
to the bloody transaction, boys, the sons
of Mr.. Dorchester, and the public is in
debted to them for all the facts that will
ever be known of the terrible conflict
The accounts given of the affair by
the three boys do not agree in
all the minutiae, because in the sudden
ness of the meeting and its unlocked for
fatal results, it is not probable that they
saw everything just alike.