Accordingly, being again arraigned in court, on the following Saturday, they pleaded guilty to all the indictments. Whereupon Judge Lord pronounced upon them the severest penalty then allowed by the law,--imprisonment for life.
A few days later, Sheriff Barton, with the aid of a strong guard, conducted the robbers to Stillwater; and the State Prison, the goal of so many a criminal career, closed its doors upon them. Though commonly regarded as but the second-best place for them, it has thus far safely held them, except in the case of one of them, whose sentence had expired under the great Statute of Limitation. Robert died in prison, September 16th, 1889. Many attempts have been made to secure pardons for the others; but thus far no governor has been found willing to accede to such a request.
[Brass Tablet in Library Building, Carleton College]
Brass Tablet in Library Building, Carleton College
No extended biographical notices are compatible with either the purpose or the limits of this book; nor is a large amount of such matter desirable. The deeds that have been recounted speak for themselves and the men who performed them. Yet many readers will doubtless desire to know something more of the personality of those men, of their antecedents and their subsequent career. The brief sketches which follow relate solely to those who were actively connected with the three most important scenes in the narrative,--the struggle in the bank, the fight on the street, and the capture of the four robbers near Madelia.
JOSEPH LEE HEYWOOD was born at Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, August 12, 1837. His parents upon both sides were of the sturdiest New England stock. His father was an energetic and progressive farmer, taking much interest in public affairs, state and national, in politics a Whig, and later a Republican, and an opponent of slavery. His mother was a devout and conscientious woman, unwavering in her moral convictions, and unselfishly devoted to her children. She sought to inspire in them the highest ideas of honor, truth and duty; and they were accustomed to ascribe to her, more than to any other influence, whatever virtues of character they developed.
Our hero's early life was spent on the farm. The rudiments of education acquired at the district school, were supplemented by reading and study at home, until he became well fitted for the practical affairs of life. When about twenty years of age he left home, to make his own way in the world. He spent about a year in Concord, Mass., another in Fitchburg, another in New Baltimore, Michigan, where he was clerk in a drug-store, and then a part of a year in Moline, Illinois, whence he went to Chicago in 1862, the second year of the Civil War.