Nicholas Gustafson (August 20, 1846 – September 11, 1876) was a Swedish immigrant who was mortally wounded in the James-Younger Gang bank raid in Northfield, Minnesota. Various sources use alternate spellings of his names including Nicolaus, Nicholaus or Niclas and Gustavson.[1] He was born in Fiddekulla, Vissefjärda parish in Småland province.[2]
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Gustafson was a recent immigrant to the USA from Sweden. Swedish immigration records show that a "Niclas Gustafson" arrived in Faribault, Minnesota on June 9, 1876.[3]
Gustafson is known to have settled in the Millersburg, Minnesota area about 12 miles southwest of Northfield and 12 miles northwest of Faribault. At that time, the community was attracting a number of Swedish immigrants.
It is the general consensus that, because of his recent arrival, he didn't speak enough English to understand what was going on during the raid on September 7, 1876. Consequently, when members of the James-Younger Gang were yelling at local citizens to get off the street, he may not have understood them and was mortally wounded during the gun battle.[4][5]
Cole Younger pleaded guilty to Gustafson's murder (perhaps, in part, to avoid Minnesota's mandated death sentence if he had been convicted of the crime), but he also claimed he wasn't the primary killer. He later stated "I have always believed that the man Nicholas Gustafson... was hit by a glancing shot from Manning's or Wheeler's rifle. If any of our party shot him, it must have been Woods."[6]
Gustafson died from his wound four days after the raid.
Gustafson was buried in Northfield because the Millersburg Swedish community had no church or cemetery at that time. After his death, Millersburg Swedes immediately started planning for the construction of their own church and cemetery.
In 1948, Northfield citizens founded the Defeat of Jesse James Days to honor the heroism of Northfield's townspeople. It has become one of the largest celebrations in Minnesota. Every year Gustafson's death, along with that of Joseph Lee Heywood, the acting cashier at the First National Bank, are commemorated in a graveside memorial service at Northfield City Cemetery on September 7.[7]