Nils Persson Törnell

Blev högst 32 år.

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"Nils Tornell (also called Miles Tornell in one story) He was murdered near St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin in 1848. The story seems to have had some press at the time. He was killed by 2 Indians who were put up to it by a German trader Miller who did not like the fur/liquor trade competition from Nils. The Indians were hanged and Miller was flogged and forced to leave the area."
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Miles Tornell and his hired man.
Tornell’s post was located near St. Croix Falls,
and he competed for trade with the Indians
with a German immigrant named Frederick
Miller, whose post was on Balsam Lake. In May
a party of Ojibway attacked Tornell’s post,
destroying it and killing the two men. A few
weeks later some white men came upon the
ruins and reported the news back to St. Croix
Falls. There, a group of men appointed a coroner
and traveled to the scene of the murders to
investigate.27
The investigation led to the arrest of four
Ojibway men believed to have participated in
the raid. In separate examinations, each reportedly
implicated Paunais as the murderer and
Miller as instigator of the crime. A posse and
Sheriff Maurice M. Samuels, another local trader
who had illegally sold liquor to the Indians,
arrested both men and brought them to
St. Croix Falls for trial.

collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/55/v55i02p046-058.pdf
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In the spring of 1848 there were two rival whisky sellers at or near Balsam lake. Miles Tornell, a Norwegian, was located midway between the lake and the Falls. Miller, a German, had his post at the lake.
Miller was an older trader, and claimed exclusive rights. A bitter feeling sprang up between them, which resulted, as the testimony afterward proved, in the murder of Tornell. His house was burned, and his body found concealed in a coal pit. One McLaughlin, who was stopping with Tornell, was also murdered. An investigation was set on foot. Samuels and Fields acted as detectives, and fixed the crime upon an Indian, whom they arrested on an island in Blake's lake, and brought to the Falls for trial. H. H. Perkins acted as judge, a jury of good men was impaneled, and the trial was held in Daniel Mears'
store. A prosecuting attorney and counsel for the accused were appointed. The Indian frankly confessed the killing, and said that he had been hired to do the bloody work by Miller. Another Indian testified to being present on the occasion of the murder. After brief remarks by the lawyers, the jury brought in a verdict of guilty. There was no formal sentence. The Indian was kept under guard till next morning, when, by the unanimous consent of all present, he was hanged to a tree, since blighted, that stood near the old burying ground (later Louisiana street), and was hanged, Samuels officiating as sheriff. The Indians present were permitted to take the body, which they buried with Indian rites. Toward Miller, who ought to have been held as principal, the crowd were unexpectedly lenient. Instead of being hanged upon the same tree, he was merely lashed to it, and flogged, Pat Collins administering fifteen strokes on the bare back with a beech withe. He was then placed on a steamboat and ordered to leave the country, never to return. Of the more active participants in the hanging, Pat Collins, who officiated as hangman, and who flogged Miller, was undeniably a hard citizen. He had a bitter grudge against Miller, and administered the strokes with a will. He was himself hanged some years later in California for highway robbery. Chas. F.
Rowley, who assisted in the hanging, lived for some years on a farm at Wolf creek, enlisted in 1861 in the Union army, and was killed in battle.

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