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Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/
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Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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A PIONEER HISTORY OF
BECKER COUNTY, MINNESOTA
by Mrs. Jessie C. West
Pioneer Press Company, St. Paul, MN., 1907

          Page 232

          MARK WARREN

             The first man I ever saw in Becker County was MARK WARREN.
          He was one of those eccentric characters, always found on the
          frontier, whose occupation can best be defined as fur trader and
          wild rover, and who usually disappeared with the advent of
          civilization.

             I found him near the southwest corner of what is now Cormorant
          Township, in October 1870. I asked him where he lived, and he
          pointed to an old Red River cart that was standing near by and
          said that was all the house he possessed. He did not remain in
          the county more than a year or two longer, but I afterwards
          frequently camped with him both in Minnesota and Dakota, learn-
          ing something of his history, which had been very eventful. He
          was about forty years of age, a native of Vermont, well educated,
          and started out in life intending to become a lawyer. His life,
          however, about that time became blighted, the particulars of
          which he never gave me in full, but from occasional hints it was
          easy to surmise the cause that changed the whole future course
          of his life. He had been for many years engaged in buying furs
          from the Indians and frontier settlers, and for the last ten or
          fifteen years had been a rambler in this region of country. Some-
          time in the year 1865, he had gathered up a cart-load of furs
          and taken them to St. Paul, disposing of them at good prices,
          and returning by the old Red River trail, camped at night near
          the Buffalo River. His camp was a little way off from the trail,
          and sometime in the night, someone entered his tent, struck him
          on the head with a club, then stabbed him in the breast with a
          knife and robbed him of $400 and left him for dead. Whether the
          robber was a white man or an Indian was not known, as WARREN did
          not see the villian. When he became concious, it was noon the
          following day and he was scarcely able to move hand or foot, and
          lay in that condition until the second day, when he mustered up
          strength to crawl out to the cart trail, where he lay all that
          day and the next night. About noon of the third day, he was
          picked up by some Red River half-breeds, who took him to the
          nearest trading post, where he hovered between life and death
          for a whole month, and it was a year before he fully recovered
          from the effects of this foul deed.

             WARREN went from here to the Wild Rice River, and in the
          autumn of 1874, I found him on the banks of the Missouri, a
          little above Bismark, in Dakota, and again in 1878, I found him
          further up the Missouri in a snug cabin, herding cattle and
          reading Blackstone. The last I heard of him was in the year
          1895, when he had found a final resting place among the
          mountains of Wyoming.

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