[4v50 Gary]

Was it during their Sept. 7, 1876 robbery of the First National Bank in Northfield, Mo. where a schutzen rifleman picked off the gang?

[stevelyn]

It was Northfield, MN. One gang member was taken out with a shotgun and another with a breech loading rifle. Cole and Bob Younger were wounded.

http://www.civilwarstlouis.com/History/jamesnorthfield.htm

[Old Fuff]

I am going to research this further and provide details and cites, but I believe there was a doctor in Northfield that was located in a second-story office, and had a rifle. When the robbery went down he proceeded to pick off a number of the gang that was in the street below him. He was unquestionably a good marksman, but I don't know about the rest.

The events at Northfield ended the James-Younger gang as an effective organization, and the gang's destruction came at the hands of citizens in this small farming community, not professional peace officers.

[grendelbane]

Seems like I remember some of the story about that doctor. After the shooting was over, there was an unclaimed corpse. The doctor took it, and hung the skeleton in his office.

Must have made quite an interesting conversation piece.

[Old Fuff]

After doing a little reading ...

I wasn't exactly right, but in the ballpark. The doctor in question was named Henry M. Wheeler, who at the time was a young medical student. When the excitement started Wheeler was standing on the street in front of his father's drug store. Realizing that a bank robbery was taking place, he ran to a second floor room in the Dampier Hotel, which was across the street from the Bank. He had armed himself with what was described in contemporary reports as an "old army carbine."

From his second story vantage point Wheeler proceeded to pick off members of the James gang that were running their horses up and down in front of the bank and shooting into the air to provide some cover for others still inside the bank, and drive the town's residents away. They did not expect to encounter any serious resistance.

They were wrong ...

Wheeler put a bullet through Jim Younger's shoulder and shot Cell Miller dead. A hardware store merchant named Anselm Manning armed himself with a breech-loading rifle and shot Bob Younger's horse, and then reloaded and shot Bill Chadwell dead at a range of 70 yards. He then hit Cole Younger in the thigh. Another resident, Elias Stacy had peppered Cell Miller's face with birdshot just prior to that outlaw being finished off by Henry Wheeler. Other townsmen got their personal weapons and the outlaws came under general fire during which several were wounded. While they made it out of town they were badly shot up, and a citizen's posse captured the survivors later. In a gun battle between the outlaws and posse, Charlie Pitts was killed. Only Jesse and Frank James escaped after leaving the main group.

Wheeler by the way is supposed to have obtained the remains of one of the dead outlaws when it was not claimed, and used it in his medical studies. It is said (but not confirmed by any reliable source that I know of) that the skeleton was displayed in his office in latter years.

Northfield was for Jesse James a Waterloo from which he never recovered. The most dangerous outlaw gang of the time was brought down, not by the Pinkerton's or Peace Officers, but by ordinary citizens who were obviously not of the same stuff that make up today's sheeple.

(See: "Jesse James - The Man and the Myth" by Marley Brant)

[Mr. Apol]

Henry Wheeler used a Civil War Smith carbine to kill Clell Miller:

(quote)

A Gun With A History… 8/10/1898 Crookston (MN) Weekly Times

Dr. Wheeler, of Grand Forks was over Wednesday, visiting Dr. Dampier. Dr. Wheeler was the man who let daylight through one of Jesse James gang during the Northfield raid. The gun used was a Smith carbine, which was at that time, and is still, owned by Dr. Dampier. Dr. Wheeler borrowed the gun some time ago, and now has it on exhibition in his office in Grand Forks, where it is attracting considerable attention. The gun has quite an interesting history. It was carried all through the war by Dr. Dampier’s father, and upon his return home at its close, he gave it to Doc. As a present. The latter has guarded it carefully ever since. It was in his room when the Northfield raid occurred, and Dr. Wheeler used it with such good effect as to leave one less highway man in this vale of tears. Dr. Dampier has been offered a good price for the gun by the State Historical Society, but has refused to part with it.

(unquote)

I found this at http://www.crookston.net.

See also this news story from 2000:

http://www.texnews.com/guns.texnews/news/old0612.html

Replica Smith carbines are made today by Pietta, and are very popular with reenactors. I have one; it's quite an interesting weapon, using rubber cartridge cases . . .

Manning's rifle was almost certainly a Remington rolling block.

Wheeler acquired the corpses of both Miller and Bill Chadwell (aka William Stiles) for anatomical purposes. Miller's family claimed his body, and Wheeler had to return it. He did keep Chadwell's skeleton for many years. See Robert Barr Smith's "The Last Hurrah of the James-Younger Gang" (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2001) pp. 198-202.

Paul Thompson