On September 7, 1876, the James-Younger gang was thoroughly defeated as it attempted to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota. The building shown here is the Scriver block, which housed the bank. The bank is in the back of the building, facing onto Division Street, which runs off to the left; a dry goods store occupies the front of the building, facing to the right onto Bridge Square. A dentist's office was at the top of the exterior staircase.

The robbery began when three of the bandits entered the bank; two others (Clell Miller and Cole Younger) guarded the entrance; the last three remained at the bottom of Bridge Square. Almost immediately, a number of Northfield residents realized that a robbery was underway. As Younger and the others began to fire off their revolvers in an attempt to intimidate the townspeople and drive them inside (killing an unarmed bystander in the process), return fire swiftly took the lives of Clell Miller and William Stiles. The three Younger brothers eventually grouped together along the wall beneath the exterior staircase. Adelbert Ames stood behind Anselm Manning, a hardware-store owner who ran to the Bridge Square corner of the building with a rifle. Manning used the foot of the staircase as cover during a close-range duel with the bandits. Inside the bank, acting cashier Joseph L. Heywood refused to open the safe, and was murdered as a result. The bandits fled without any loot, leaving behind the corpses of two comrades and two innocent victims.