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March 31, 1960
RANDOLPH - April 4 is the fiftieth anniversary of the daring $10,000 robbery in Randolph of the First National bank, now the First State Bank. The bold trio of men who staged the holdup was never apprehended nor was any of the money recovered.
Following are excerpts from the account of the robbery as it appeared in the April 7, 1910 issue of the Randolph Enterprise.
“The usual good peace of our city was greatly disturbed Monday morning, when it became known that the First National bank had been burglarized, three masked men holding up the night watch about 2 a.m. and dynamiting the safe and making away with over $10,000.
“According to the best information at hand, Night Watch J. J. Carroll had been to the depot, and upon returning stopped in the Hotel Boughn for about 10 minutes. Hearing the Burlington freight whistle he started for the depot. . . . .
“Just as he arrived at the corner of the old Boughn store building, three masked men covered him with their pistols, demanding that he throw up his hands. The night watch promptly complied and the three yeggmen bound him with a rope and tied his hands behind his back with flynet strings, and placed a gunnysack over his head.
“With Carroll between them, they marched across the street to the rear of the bank where one guarded the night watch, while the other two went to the C. F. Schauppner blacksmith shop and procured the necessary tools to do the work. Upon their return they broke out the plate glass to the front door with a sledge and gained entrance to the bank. They took Night Watch Carroll in with them — placing him in the little room under the stairway, proceeded to gain admittance to the vault.
“Breaking the lock on the vault door with a sledge, they next began the task of dynamiting the safe. Applying the glycerine and soap they would retire to the private office in the rear of the bank and when they would return and apply another dose. It required from five to seven explosions to open the 2 doors, the night watch being unable to tell the exact number of discharges. . . .
“During the hour they worked the night watch lay in the further corner of the little closet trying to keep from injury, as pieces of the safe door would be driven with great force against the front of the room with each explosion, as at each discharge of dynamite he would be tossed to the floor . . . . As soon as Mr. Carroll knew that they were gone he broke the strings tied to his hands, untied the rope and came out of the bank. After notifying Cashier F. S. Stegge of the robbery he at once got busy and telephoned in every direction to try and head off their getaway. This was continued until noon that day, but no clew to the direction they had taken was learned . . . .
“The trio was composed of a large man, a medium height man and a very poorly built man — the third was a rather small man. They wore a dark cloth over their faces as a mask to shield their identity.
From their mode of action, it is firmly believed that the robbers had been thoroughly familiar with the situation in every detail, and were familiar with the trips of the night watch to the Burlington train, and a bunch of umbrella repairers and chair viner’s that were in the city about two weeks ago are believed to compose the trio . . . . . .
“That same morning a team was stolen from the barn of Mr. Bell, living ten miles south and two east of Randolph. Sheriff Mears, of Wayne, was notified and about noon Monday recovered the team about a half mile north of Norfolk, where they had been turned loose. He telephoned Marshal Carroll of his recovery of the team and said that while at the Bell farm he noted that buggy tracks from the north and turning around coming right back again were the only ones of evidence, and leads one to the belief that perpetrators of the theft of this team had something to do with the bank robbery.
“President James F. Toy of Sioux City was notified at once of the burglary, and his son, J. Fred Toy, arrived in Randolph Monday noon. A detective for the burglary insurance company arrived Tuesday, and in company with Marshal Carroll and C. W. Fox started at once in an automobile to investigate every clew of the very minutest nature. A reward of $2,000 has been offered for the capture and conviction of the robbers, and every effort will be made to bring these yegmen to justice.
“The bank is financed by substantial men. James F. Toy, of Sioux City, is president and a heavy stockholder; with John Oliver, of this city, as vice president and a heavy stockholder. Other prominent business men of this city are stockholders in this institution. While the loss is a heavy one, yet this will no wise impair the excellent financial standing of the First National. They carried $8,000 burglary insurance, but the loss of over $2,000 in cash does not begin to amount to the damage by the destruction of the vault, safe and to the building. These will be repaired and a fine new safe installed as soon as possible. Not an hour of business was missed on account of the burglary, but with what money was left in one box of the safe and an amount borrowed from the Security National, they opened for business as usual Monday morning at 9 o’clock.
“This is the first robbery of any consequence in the history of Randolph, and is one of the boldest ever perpetrated in this state. While no special effort was made to conceal the noise, only one or two heard the disturbance and believed it to be some door slamming.
“Just as we are ready to go to press we learn that the detective has found where the robbers had put up at the brick-yard after the robbery, presumably staying there all day Monday. He tracked the trio across an old creek bed to the drying kiln, and there found a pistol with the barrel broken off, a pile of paper ashes where it is believed they burned the papers taken from the bank and a dime that was bent nearly double similar to the coins found scattered over the bank floor. He also traced them to the creek and found the can they carried water in. It is very evident that a clue has been found that may lead to later developments.”
