The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1888-03-08
THE YOUNGER BROTHERS.
Jim and Cole Tell = Few New Things
About Their Early \
y' % Lives.
They Claim That They Were often More
sinned Against Than Sin.
ming.

The editor Of the Saltwater Messenger has
succeeded in getting Jim Younger to tell
something about his early career, and since
1t Is claimed hat neither Of the Younger
brothers. since they cane to Minnesota, have
ever been detected In q falsehood, this story,
as told to the Messenger, will be read with
interest ~ .. '.'
JIM YouNaER's NARRATIVE. "
After minor particulars of the murder of
his father by q mob Of highwaymen and the
destruction Of their homestead, Jim Younger
said:
In February, 1866. we were run off by a
mob, and l went to an uncle in Howard
county. It was while I was there that the
Liberty bank robbery took place, though
that affair was not laid to Is until a long
time afterward. OF until after the celebrated
Iowa train robbery. 1 staid from home until
the fall OF 1865, and on the day I returned
I was captured at the house by the same
supposed mob that murdered my father. I
escaped from those men within twenty min
n,tes after my capture by leaping, upon a
horse that stood near the door, and riding
for my life. In the spring of 1867 I went
back to my mother and planted, cultivated
and harvested q crop for her. But while
doing that I slept every night In the woods,
going to the house after sunrise and leaving
~ 6uuOOWu. L VOOh UuoU p1CSuuukOA W
avoid being murdered. I was not, however,
afraid of meeting ordinary people and was
glad to go often to Independence and mix
with the people there, most all of whom
knew me we'll. In 1868 I went to Texas and
remained Their until 1870, when my mother
take her to Texas. but she died soon after
my arrival home. Upon her death she gave
me q special charge, sister Bette and the old
black woman. asking me to take them to
Texas I obeyed. n remained IN Texas un-
til the fall of 1872. During the time I lived
there I drove herds of horses to Louisiana
and cattle to Neosho, Kan. caring for nearly
five hundred of the latter. That was in the
winter of '71-2. In the following winter I
took sister Bette to Missouri, and was visit
robbery occurred. and We were accused
of that act At that time we were
hardly know how to most foroibly or con-
vincingly put my words, but I can truthfully
say that the accusation regarding the Iowa
affair was a lie. If there is on the face OF
|sthe ealth q man or woman whose word ia
good in the community where they ARE
known, and that man or woman will SOL
EMMY say that we are guilty OF any offense
except that committed ut Northtieid, then I
will admit the truth OF everything charged.
There has never been issued even a writ in
connection with any other alleged crime.
After the Iowa robbery we were surrounded
by Pinkerton's detectives. One day brother
John and I were eating dinner at old man
Suffers when a party OF these men rode
past We mounted our horses and started
for the house of our aunt. and on the way
met the detectives in the road. We said
to them @Good day." whereupon a man
whose name I now know is Lull pulled a
revolver, which he had kept concealed, and
shot my brother. John returned the fire and
Lull dice from the effects of the shot, while
John died within a few minutes I soon went
to Kentucky. remaining there until the
spring OF 1875, when I went to California.
r%anching. Then / came back and, in a way
not necessary to be explained, got at once
into the Northtield affair ard into the state
prison After the murder Of father, none of
us were given q m OF peace, yet / was
never afraid of the open day or of any ex-
cept the secret assassins who murdered my
moved in the best social circles, took the
school census, was deputy marshal for a
time, and when I left was deputy under
Sheriff Jere Brown. All the leading men
knew me well, and no man there can truth
fully Say -aught against me. While I was
| chartered at NeOsho, Kan. I Went under my
| right name and mingled freely with people,
attending the balls and parties as a welcome
and respected guest
CONFIRMED By COLEMAN
The reporter afterward visited Coleman
Younger, librarian Of the prison, and having
narrated the substance Of his brother's con-
versatio1 expressed a desire to add thereto
anything he desired in confirmation or ex-
PLANTATION that might occur to him.. Where
upon he said: 49,
Well, it was that Iowa train robbery, and
the fact that we were charged with the
crime, of which we were wholly innocent
and ignorant, that brought us into this
prison for lite. AS Jim says, we were then
preparing to 60 to Texas and be lid of the
bounding in Missouri of which he has spoken.
Had we gone our lives would have run or
peacefully and we would not have been
driven into straits and to this place: The
at Monogram Springs, Mo-, and attended
preaching there. At 4 o'clock in the
afternoon I took supper with Kelvin Tickle
and Rev. Mr.. Sutton, the preacher. Two
thirds OF the people present at the preaching
were originally from New York, Indiana and
Ohio, and were ex-Union soldiers and their
families; most all Of them knew me person.
ally, or as :<ole Or Bud" Younger. At the
close of the service I helped many Of the
ladies who knew me to mount their horses.
I mention those facts to show how many
people there are, Northern people, too, who
know where l was on that day, After sup
per brother John, who was with me, went to
uncle Frank Younger's at johnson City,
where Jim and Bob were. It was right after
Jim came back from Texas, as he has, told
you. l staid with friends in the vicinity of
the Springs that night The Iowa train rob-
berry was committed at 8 O'Clock the follow
ing Monday morning at q point 800
miles from Monegtaw Springs. The
what I saw in a St. Louis paper, and the
names of Youngers led in the headlines. as
the main perpetrators. The same accounts
said the robbers had been in the vicinity OF
the place where the robbery was committed
for two or three days previous to the COM
SocJo ~ Aha 1rir,4 HID a-oHF 1A4r
brought into court charged with the Iowa
business scores of people who were at the
preaching at the Springs that Sunday even
ing would havesworn as to my whereabouts.
The newspaper went on, after the robbery IN
Iowa, and charged US with serious offenses,
many of which I had never even heard of.
or, II I had heard, the recollection Of them
had passed from my mind. And since that
time books, made to sell, ave been thrown
together detailing our thrilling so-called ex-
PLOTS. None Of those accounts or pictures
or your best personal friend down
town. Why. half of Bob's odium in
public opinion comes from the fact that
those so-called histories speak OF sCole and
BUD The renders of that sort of literature
that Cole and sBud" are two different per-
sons, and that sB4d" is aBob.D It is a FREE
quent custom among Southerners to call q
brother a~tfeotionately Sud- q sort OF short
for brother. am Bud, as we'll as Cole, and
Bob. the youngest, generally speaks Of me,
now, like he did at home, as Bud. You'll see
how the word Bud is used IN Eggleston's
sHoosier Schoolmaster." Well. after the tu-
multi OF the Iowa affair our laudable plans
were DESTROYED. We were declared outlaws,
but I never resisted q civil officer In my life.
lam q outlaw, l Supposed Missouri mob
law has any sanction or legal authority. We
dared not 60 voluntarily to Iowa to- answer
the false charges, on account Of the certainty
that we would be lynched nearly as soon as
we gave ourselves up We were obliged to
give up our plans Of going to Texas, because
there, as elseWhere. we had been published