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When’s the last time you saw a legal case be settled through a fistfight? How about the last time you saw your local Mayor strap on a pair of gloves and take a swing at one of his constituents? I’m sure most of you would answer “what are you talking about, that’s a ridiculous thing that would never happen”; but not only have both of these things happened, they happened right here in Lac qui Parle.
This story begins on Halloween night in 1905 when a group of young pranksters released a pack of domestic animals loose in the Madison High School. The Madison community were incredibly angered by the prank, to the point where the Western Guard seems to have outright refused to publish a story covering the event. The issue the week after did feature multiple articles and editorials that contained lectures and reprimands pointed at the pranksters. One article reads, “Halloween evening has come and it has gone, only the disagreeable duty of replacing, restoring and rebuilding the property left by the hoodlum and lunatics of our city remains for the taxpayers to do”.
Tempers were so high around the community that even the Mayor, John F. Rosenwald, felt the need to get himself involved. Mayor Rosenwald along with the Chief of Police William Robinson and Justice of the Peace Henry Davis made a strong attempt to find and punish the culprits. After a few weeks of questioning and searching, the men found sixteen youngsters who they deemed guilty. The pranksters were brought in front of Judge Silas E. Farnham and the court began to deliberate on what punishment to dish out.
While most citizens agreed there should be some form of punishment for the pranksters, the level of punishment was a hotly debated topic. Some people felt that the prank was just the standard mischief of youth and should be punished lightly. Others, including Mayor Rosenwald, felt the need to make an example out of the youths and argued for the children and even some of the parents to be given jail time. At one-point Rosenwald asked a local lumber yard to supply some wood to build a temporary stockade for the guilty parties. Defending attorney John H. Driscoll was so offended by Rosenwald’s proposals that he felt the need to defend his clients honor personally.
It is not quite clear what arguments and drama happened next, but we do know that it culminated in a boxing match between Rosenwald and Driscoll. The local newspapers were apparently a bit ashamed to report their mayor getting into a fistfight, so the details of the fight and its lead up are unreported and somewhat murky. We do know the fight was planned rather than being a heated impromptu brawl. Both men were given gloves and sent to a clear area near the railroad to have it out. The two swung at each other for three rounds before the Town Marshall stepped in and stopped the melee. We can’t be certain on how much damage the fighters dished out, but since both men were career lawyers well into their 40s we can assume the match wasn’t exactly Ali v. Frazier.
In the end the fight must have been close to a draw. Driscoll was able to get his clients out of their jail time, but Rosenwald was able to deliver a $5 fine to each of the offenders (around $180 each today). The boxing match was eventually forgotten about and pushed into the back of Madison’s collective memory with the exception of local historian Jon Willand who thankfully wrote about the story, collected a few pictures of the fight, and donated his papers to the Historical Society where they can be preserved and used for articles like this.
