The colorful days of newspaper reportage often featured unfettered character descriptions, opinion, and editorial acrobatics. On this date in 1904, the Emmons County Record reported in amusing prose that “the law mill was a-grinding” on four men recently arrested in different cases. Lawmen were also connecting the dots between three or four stooges.
Guy Allen had been charged with stealing harnesses from neighbors. He denied the charges at first but eventually admitted his role and pled guilty. Since Allen was a young man with no prior offenses, he was fined $10 plus costs and released. He had turned state’s evidence on his accomplice and brother-in-law, Mr. Tutland. Tutland denied the accusation, went to trial, and was discharged when the jury failed to agree on a verdict.
Next was Amos Henderson, arrested on a warrant sworn by Mr. Gudem, who had traveled with Henderson to Winona to buy horses. Gudem alleged that while under the influence of a “medicine” he had taken, likely booze, Henderson convinced him he was an Emmons County law officer. Henderson persuaded Gudem to hand over a large wad of cash for safekeeping, then “skated across the river to Fort Yates.” Arrested and brought to Linton, Henderson first denied the charge, but under persistent efforts of the state’s attorney and sheriff’s deputies he confessed. From between his hat and its curled rim he produced $960 of the stolen money.
Another arrest involved Paul Seer, an old-timer considered honest but caught bootlegging. Officers found his still and brought him to court “to face the offended majesty of the law.” Deputies suspected Seer knew more about the Henderson affair. After a meeting arranged between Seer and Henderson, while deputies listened nearby, Seer and Levi Henderson, Amos’s brother, were implicated. Levi confessed to receiving $917 of the stolen money. Seer admitted holding $930 and returned it.
Meanwhile, ranchers near the Tutland place had been losing sheep. A teenage witness later confessed he and Tutland had stolen five lambs. At press time, Tutland had not yet been arrested, though the paper noted that “confession is good for the soul.”
Dakota Datebook by Lise Erdrich
Sources:
- The Emmons Couty Record, March 25, 1904, Page 1
