Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1891-11-18
BIG TRAIN ROBBERY.
A st. Paul Express Is Held Up Twenty
three Miles from Milwaukee.


three Miles from Milwaukee.
The midnight train from Chicago on
the Milwaukee & st. Paul road was
robbed near Western Union Junction at
| O'Clock on the morning of the 18th
inst. The robbers are supposed to have
boarded the train at the junction. As
soon as it was well away from the sta
ton, in the open prairie, they stopped
it and broke into the express car.
The messenger, named Murphy, was
told that if he resisted he would be shot.
The robbers then removed the two safes
from the car.
There was quite a large force Of the
robbers, and they stood around with
drawn revolvers, keeping the train
hands and passengers from interfering
with their work.
At this stage a fagman started back to
Western Union Junction and kilograms
were sent TO Racine and Milwaukee no.
tifying the police. special train was
at once sent from Milwaukee with Off
GERS to the scene of the robbery.
At 2 o'clock it was learned that the
train which was being robbed had start
ed on towards Milwaukee.
The train arrived shortly after2. Pas
sengers stated that the robbers gained
entrance to the express car by blowing
the door open with dynamite, thereby
badly wrecking the end of the car. The
express messengers were seen by the
passengers soon afterwards; one of
them had bullet hole through his hat,
and another had two holes through his
coat sleeve.
The train had been out of Western
Union Junction, tWenty-three miles
from Milwaukee, about half mile and
the fireman, Edward Averill, was put
ting some coal into the furnace. He
was startled to hear noise behind him
and turned around to see two heavily
masked men clam boring over the engine
tender. Both leveled their double bar
relied muskets at the fireman and the
engineer, "BilP' Mckay, with the in
junction:
Don't move an inch till we tell you
to or we will blow the tops of your d
heads off.
Engineer Mckay was directed to run
the train to within point about one
mile from Western Union Junction.
Here the engineer was commanded to
stop.
Both men were ordered to step down
out of the cab and get in line ahead of
the robbers. They were marched to
the express car under cover and then
the work Of blowing open the express
car began. Several bombs, the fireman
thinks they we're, were thrown into the
car and the explosions were terrific and
must have awakened every passenger
on the train, but nobody appeared on
the scene.
The robbers undoubtedly were not
less than six or seven in number,
judging from the manner in which they
conducted operations. The trainmen
believe they had team close at hand
with which to cart away the safes,
which were taken bodily out of the car.
Agent John f. Bell, of the American
Express Company, said to a reporter
after Messenger Murphy had made his
report, that an approximate statement
of the amount taken by the robbers
could not be learned. He said that
$4,000 in local packages was certainly
gone besides a sum contained in two
sealed envelopes. i
Messenger Murphy stated that he had
secured all the bills of the money con-
tanned in the safe, and that the sum was
undoubtedly very large one. 1t is
probable that the total amount of the
robbers booty will amount to 100000,
and possibly more. An official Of the
St. Paul Road said that the train which
was held up was the one which general
ly carried all the money received by
Milwaukee banks from the East in the
morning