Magazine Article

A Peace Officer Murdered for Booze

Notbohm, Ellen

2023

Overview

For 129 years snow, ice, wind and moss have done their best to sully his grave marker in the town's tidy cemetery, but not enough to obscure the gripping inscription: EVEN PAULSON Born Dec. 29, 1862 Killed while on duty As Nightwatchman at MAYVILLE, N.D. Sept. 3, 1893 1 O'CLOCK A.M. To lay eyes on the chiseled epitaph is to feel the piercing depth of loss dealt to a close-knit community. (The author's grandfather, Stener Wenaas, served as a deputy sheriff and sheriff of Traill County and hailed from the same small Norwegian town as Paulson.) Paulson believed policemen should be visible in their communities, thus he became a fixture on the streets of Mayville, talking to children, parents and business owners. Cooler heads managed to quell the fury long enough for County Sheriff William K. Seaver to hold both prisoners (\"two well-known town toughs,\" according to the Hope Pioneer) for a day before transporting them across the line to the Cass County Jail, in Fargo, to await trial during the next term of court at Hillsboro, the Traill County seat. Traill County State's Attorney John Carmody (a future state Supreme Court justice) painted Law as the principal in the crime during his trial.

• Publisher: Weider History Group, Inc
• Subject: American history / Criminal sentences / Evidence / Imprisonment / Indictments / Murders & murder attempts / Robbery / Sheriffs / Trials