That is the name of an online true story in Ancestry Magazine written by Ellen Notbohm is a three-time ForeWord Book of the Year finalist and frequent contributor to Ancestry magazine. Read her articles at her website.
The story is about Even Paulson on whose tombstone (above) at Mayville, North Dakota, is inscribed:
Even Paulson
Born Dec. 29, 1862
Killed while on duty
As Night watchman at
Mayville, N.D.
Sept. 3, 1893
1 o’clock a.m.
Here are excerpts from the story.
Even Paulson was born in Seljord, Norway. He arrived in Quebec in 1884. He then went to Granite Falls, Minnesota. Filed Declaration of Intention papers in Yellow Medicine County.
In 1892 he went to Traill County, North Dakota. May 13, 1892 Judge William McConnell granted him full citizenship.
He became a Mayville Deputy Marshal. Harold Wenaas in his book Stener, the Sheriff from Telemark, “he could talk unruly toughs and drunks into voluntarily accompanying him to the city jail.”
Paulson had surprised burglars in the act of stealing liquor to bootleg from the warehouse behind the R. L. Kenney & Co. drugstore, where it was used in the preparation of medicines. The first shot, to the abdomen, took Officer Paulson down. His shouts for help carried through the night air until silenced by a second bullet, this one to his forehead at point-blank range.
A posse described in Wenaas’s book as “half the population of Mayville” pulled one James Kelly from under the train depot, either drunk or claiming to be, and hauled him to the city jail.
Law enforcement officials found a .44 Winchester rifle traced to local butcher John William Law (Lowe). A trunk in his room harbored the stolen goods. The price for Even Paulson’s life: a 10-gallon keg of port wine.
A mob of 700 was in the streets. “It was with greatest difficulty that lynching was prevented,” reported the Hillsboro Banner.
A grand jury indicted Kelly and Law for murder and burglary.
James Kelly’s confession to the coroner’s inquest formed the centerpiece of his trial. In it, he had admitted to the robbery, implicated Law and the alleged third party, and claimed he wasn’t present for the murder. Placed on the stand, he denied the coroner’s evidence and, in doing so, contradicted himself. The jury deliberated through the night before returning a guilty verdict.
Law and Kelly escaped hanging due to lack of proof as to which pulled the trigger. They were sentenced to life in prison at Bismarck.
The governor denied Law’s application for pardon. But William Law’s life sentence was commuted to 15 years. John William Law walked free in 1907. He died in 1945.
In December 1911, the board of pardons commuted the life sentence of James Kelly.
Having been a prosecutor in my earlier life I found this story interesting and decided to post it here. Perhaps a reader out there is searching for information about Even Paulson, Kelly or Law. I hope you find it here perhaps in a Google search.
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To read the full story as it appeared in Ancestry, please visit my website at http://www.ellennotbohm.com/tombstone_tells_its_story/.
For further reading, transcriptions from some of the news stories of the day are at http://www.ellennotbohm.com/tombstone_tells_its_story_news_chronology/.
My research was fairly extensive. I would love to hear from anyone who has or wants more information on Paulson, Law or Kelly.
Ellen Notbohm, author
emailme@ellennotbohm.com
http://www.ellennotbohm.com