This Clipping from “The Saint Paul Globe” dated Sept 28, 1896 and preserved by the Minnesota Historical society is a rare find. There is almost no historical news or references that I can find to the town of Clifftop, West Virginia. I find two reasons for making the assessment, that this is a rare find. One is I find it rare for a newspaper to report this story from so far away unless it was a significant story in that day. Two is that if you are familiar with the area where the robbery occurred ti was on a West Virginia Road, and not a Pennsylvania road, and I have no idea what town was eight miles away, certainly not Saint Paul Minnesota , nor any towns in Pennsylvania
Though it really isn’t funny, I find the last three sentences of this news article especially descriptive.
LONE TRAIN ROBBER
HE HOLDS UP A PAY TRAIN AND
MURDERS THE PAYMASTER.
MADE A HAUL OF $2,800.
DARING ROBBBRY SUCCESSFULLY
EXECUTED
ON A PENNSYLVANIA ROAD
ON A PENNSYLVANIA ROAD
A daring hold-up occurred on the Short
Line railway, between Sewall and Cliff-
Top, eight miles from this city, yesterday.
Joe Thompson, who came from
the West about a year ago, learned
that W. L. Wilson, bookkeeper and pay
|master of the Longdale Iron company,
at Cliff top, was going up the road in
the afternoon to pay off the men. Wil-
son had $2,800 with him and rode on
the engine. When the train reached a
Lonely spot in the mountains, Thomp-
son, who had boarded the train, held
up all those in the engine at the point
of two revolvers. He suddenly grabbed
the money from Wilson
from the engine. Wilson
Thompson twice and missed him.
Thompson returned the fire, shooting
his escape, and Wilson
A posse is in pursuit, and a lynching
is expected.