Emma’s life had been one of frequent disappointment—both to herself and to her family. Born into a mixed family of Stockbridge and Munsee Indians on the Green Bay Agency, her mother, Arvila, was of noble lineage, while her father, Henry Davids, had served over two years in the Wisconsin Infantry during the Civil War. Henry and Arvila were married in 1865 and had ten children. Despite their strong heritage and the respect commanded by her father’s service, Emma had always felt the pull of adventure, sometimes at the expense of her familial ties.
The winter had been fairly mild after the terrible blizzard of late November 1905. People still chatted about the sinking of the Mutaafa in Duluth harbor just before Thanksgiving and often referred to the Great Lakes blizzard as the Mutaafa blizzard. Emma had been visiting with her older sister Mary near Lacrosse, Wisconsin, at the time. Other Davids relatives still lived on the Stockbridge Indian Reservation near Shawano, Wisconsin.
In 1900, Emma had ventured to Cripple Creek, Colorado, in search of excitement and found herself married to Willie Daugherty, a man she would soon lose to the rough, dangerous life in the mining town. With her husband’s death, Emma was left a widow in the heart of a lawless town, a place where union strife and violent clashes between miners were the norm.
Cripple Creek was the center of a major gold mining district and was home to many saloons, newspapers, and other businesses. The mining district had a population of over 50,000 people in 1900. The town buildings had burned in 1896, then been rebuilt mostly with brick. By 1900 Cripple Creek boasted two opera houses, seventy-five saloons, eight newspapers, and a stock exchange. Emma’s residence was just south of the Findley mine.
Emma witnessed firsthand the bloodshed and despair caused by the violent bombing of the Independence Depot on June 6, 1904. At 2:35 a.m., between 50 and 60 non-union miners completed their shift at the Findley mine and made their way down the hill to the Independence depot of the Florence and Cripple Creek railway. As they waited on the platform for the suburban train to take them home to Victor and Cripple Creek, a terrific explosion occurred beneath the platform. The blast tossed nearly half the waiting miners high into the air, mangled ten bodies almost beyond recognition, and ultimately killed thirteen men while maiming five more for life.
The explosion was triggered by 50 to 100 pounds of dynamite, detonated by someone who jerked a small feed wire running from the depot to the cribbing of the Delmonico shaft 400 feet away. Several buildings surrounding the station had been occupied by striking union miners, but warning had been given and none were home when the explosion occurred. It was clear cold-blooded murder, perpetrated by union miners on strike. Violent demonstrations by thousands of citizens and non-union members followed, and at least 150 union miners were arrested.
In the chaos that followed, a man on the Colorado Springs wagon road reported seeing Victor Poole, one of the arrested union miners, seated in a buggy driven by a woman, heading toward Colorado Springs at great speed. Whether Emma was involved remains unknown, but she needed a new location and did not want to return to Wisconsin.
Emma remembered that her cousin had gotten a job as a lath piler for the Crookston Lumber Company in a booming town called Bemidji. Although he had moved on, she decided it might be the place for her. She arrived in Bemidji in May 1905 and initially lived at 506 1st Street with a bartender, but this arrangement had not gone well. Now she found herself alone in a cheap room at what the Bemidji Pioneer described as “a tawdry sort of establishment.”