The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-09-22
Wild night FOR
MEN; even TOWN
HAS Wild name
Posse Scours Country
South Of Fargo For
Three Holp-up Men
YOUNGER DAYS
ARE RECALLED
Whole South Country Ter
rorized By Attempts
Of Robbery

IN LnelE DOoJS' ana doors were DarT co
while a posse consisting Of members
Of the sheriff and police depart
ments, city and state officials, mil
itiamen, home guards and citizens,
secured the country in the vicinity
Of Saunders and Wild Rice at mid
night for three men reported to
have held up several autoists.
It was a wild ride for some. Even
one of the towns had a wild name,
the members Of the posse were arm
ed with a wild array OF weapons, re-
sulting in many wild stories and
ending in a wild chase.
Farmers Shake In Boots.
When Sheriff A. M. Ross and his
band of sharp shooters" drove up
to a farm house. seven miles south
of Fargo, and near the grove where
the holdups were reported to have
gathered in groups. Autotsts using
the famous trail leading south OF
Fargo to Wahpeton had heard OF the
yeggs and rather than take a chance
at passing through the long wind
ing road in a stretch of heavily
foliaged woods, stopped at the farm
houses and waited the arrival Of Of
ficers.
Ben Larson, Fargo taxi-cab
driver, had driven several passen-
gers to Hiskson. He was returning
to Fargo about IL o'clock, and was
speeding along at a lively clip.
- -. Commanded TO Halt.
While going though the woods he
noticed by the light of his soma
phore on the side Of his car,
stranger standing in the middle Of
the road. who commanded him to
halt. Two other men, both masked
with white handkerchiefs, sprang out
from the side of the road. Certain
that they were bandits. Larson step
ped on the tall of his machine and
whizzed by them. He reported the
attempted robbery upon his arrival
in Fargo to the police and the sheriff.
Then followed another story that g.
E. Cobb, employed by the Dwight
Elevator company, a Moorhead man,
was held up and robbed Of small
amount of change as he was driving
through the grove. A report of a
third robbery reached the police and
the sheriff. but this could not be
"WiId" Stories, Too.
wild" stories were circulated In |
Fargo. Captain Colley and members |
Of Company B and citizens volun- |
teered their services. A fiotilla of
was soon on the way. |
For miles the country in the vicin-
ity Of Saunders and Wild Rice was
machines. The police machine hit |
IS miles an hour at one time.
Sheriff Ross machine touched the
same gait and City Engineer Anders'
machine is said to- have even ex-
ceeded the 45-mile an hour mark.
The ride of Paul Revere on the
of April, 1775. had. moth
ing on the ride Of the members of
the posse on the twenty first of
September, 1917.
Firs-fIiss and Ghost.
AS members Of the posse covered
the fields. the woods, searched box
cars and dug into straw-piles, the
lights. from their flashlights looked
as though the fire-fiies of North Da-
kota had gathered for a party"
Way og in one field were seven
Or ten lights, fiuttering as though on
On. Occasionally one would be seen
10 take a quick. drop as though
winged" This. was when some one l.
stubbed his toe on a piece of plow-
I'd ground and paid homage to Moth
pr Earth.
Assistant States Attorney william
G. Green Of Cass county, a member
Of the Fargo Home Guard, who up
On hearing of the hold-ups got about
three members Of the guard over
the telephone after putting in some
one hundred calls. He says that
when the members of Company B
leave the state he is going to make
with the city or the
light plant to have the whistle blown
whenever the services Of the mem
bers~ are needed and when the
whistle is blown all should gather at
the auditorium.
Horrors, Horrors, Horrors!
At one time a member of the
posse thought he saw a ghost. A
crowd Of men looked off in the dis
lance and saw a white form moving.
In its hands was a light. Step by
step the squad crouched nearer and
nearer. Guns were focused straight
ahead. It proved to be some farm
woman awakened by the passing
and who had stepped
put into her yard to see what was
going on.
Even the Sheriff Gets Lost.
Sherig A. M. Ross with few start
ed to comb the woods along ~he /
river. 1t was an hour before he APP
peared on the roads. Stories were
even current that the sheriff and his
band had fallen into the hands OF
the yeggs. Not so. The men be-
came lost in the woods and had
wandered back to the same spot i
from which they started. If they 1
had been as easy targets for bullets
as they were targets for burrs, their
bodies would have been riddled with
holes. Attorney Charles Pollock
thought he had freed himself of the
burrs. When he sat down in the
Ross machine he abandoned the
thought.
chief of Police Louis Dahlgren,
Oficer William SHETLAND and Serg- i
cant Sydness combed the railroad
yards at both Wild Rice and Saund- /
ers. No sign of the disturbers could 1
be found. City Engineer r. L.. And |
ers piloted squad to town over the i
west road; Chief Of Police Dahlgren i
and his men took the Wahpeton /
road, and Sheriff A. NJ. Ross and !
other autoists returned on the Moor
head side.
WITH DEMPsTER MILL CO.
Manager Sells phoned Dakota
Business college for 3 capable
once man. p. #. Larson who
came from way down IN Wis
consin to get the advantage OF
D. B. g. thoroughnsss has acc
cepted the situation. Il paid him
lit win pay you 70 start Nom
day publicity.