clay county histories
The gun Shang Stanton used to kill Slim Jim Shumway.
Markus Krueger | Program Director HCSCC
April 25 will be the 150th anniversary of the gunfight that created the government of Clay County, Minnesota. It is one of my favorite stories of Wild West Moorhead.
“There were about 400 residents, all living in tents,” Jim Blanchard recollected of Moorhead’s first spring in 1872. “The population consisted chiefly of gamblers and saloon keepers.” There was no rule of law, no police, no one in charge, just a bunch of boys behaving badly in a boomtown. Jim Sharp recalled “Gambling and shooting were prominent pastimes for the people. A shooting match before and after breakfast was not an unusual occurrence.”
Solomon Comstock, an out of work lawyer who found employment as a railroad laborer, was among them. He once said “In the bad old days when Moorhead was a small tent town at track end and when most of the buildings were dance halls, saloons, or gambling houses, the gunman was here too. He followed the track. He boasted that he would die with his boots on and he usually did. The talk of his six shooters was often heard.”
The most consequential of those gunfights occurred on April 25, 1872, in what Comstock called “Moorhead’s dark and bloody ground” (we know it as Herberger’s in Center Mall). The night before, gamblers Charlie “Shang” Stanton and Dan “Slim Jim” Shumway got into an argument. “It seems these two men had exchanged some words not intended to be complimentary,” reported The Duluth Minnesotian Herald “and had parted somewhat out of temper.” The next morning, a friend warned Shang that he better watch out – Slim Jim was looking for him.
It being early morning, Shang naturally went to the saloon to get a drink. Slim Jim walked up behind Shang and shoved him. Shang turned and fired his ivory handled 1849 Colt revolver into Slim Jim’s gut. It was a mortal but not immediately fatal wound, so Slim Jim started shooting back. Shang ran out of the saloon and down the street, followed by a staggering Shumway shooting wildly. J.P. Thompson, owner of the Orleans Club Saloon, stepped out to see what was going on. He reportedly said something about this not being a good place to stand just before being mortally wounded by one of Slim Jim’s stray bullets.
When the dust settled, Slim Jim and Mr. Thompson were bleeding on the ground and Shang was hiding. A mob of fed-up Moorheadians formed. Wild West movies are fun to watch, but you don’t want to live in them. Someone needed to take charge. Jim Blanchard agreed to arrest Shang Stanton and became Clay County’s first Sheriff. For the trial, Solomon Comostock, the laborer with the law degree, was chosen as our first County Attorney. David Grant was appointed Justice of the Peace. Who appointed them? Clay County Commissioners Peter Wilson and Andrew Holes, who were sworn in the day of the gunfight.
The government of Clay County was born.