"A Pioneer History of Becker County Minnesota" by Alvin H.
Wilcox, written in 1907.


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. 1 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 home 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, learning something of his
history, which had been very eventful. He was about forty year 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 of this region
of country. Sometime 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 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 is not know, as Warren did not see the
villain. When he became conscious, 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 hear of him was in the year 1895, when he had found a final
resting place among the mountains of Wyoming.


Submitted by Dick Campbell <campbell45@juno.com>