Tuesday, October 2, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: October 2

October 2, 1914 – In the glare of electric lights, at 3 a.m. today, a highwayman entered the lobby of the Markham Hotel, the leading hotel in the heart of the business district in Bemidji, and forced two bellboys and the night telephone operator, Miss Arvilla Patterson, to throw up their hands while, at the point of his gun, the bandit compelled night clerk Harry Broscoe to unlock the safe.

This done, the bandit lined Broscoe up against the wall, jumped over the counter and took the contents of the safe, amounting to $500 in cash and several checks.

With the money in his possession the robber sprang back over the counter and as he left by the hotel’s main door shouted back, “Now you can call the police.” The robber is described as being of medium height and weighs about 140 pounds.

He wore a handkerchief over his face and a long raincoat. No arrests have been made. At the time of the robbery the hotel bus had just gone to the Great Northern station three blocks away, and as straggling pedestrians were on the streets, it is believed that an accomplice guarded the entrance and that the escape was made in an automobile. It is also believed that the robbers are the same who blew open the safe of the Long Prairie post office a few nights ago.

The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “Bemidji Hotel Held Up by a Masked Robber. Lines Up Clerk, Phone Girl and Bellboys—Loots Till at Gun Point.”; Oct. 3, 1914; p. 4.



Markham Hotel

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If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching  genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including:
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