tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4127229959267257059.post1904989894767271779..comments2024-01-20T16:49:46.154-08:00Comments on Soapy Smith's Soap Box: Welsh's fiction...Jeff Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14680146273701688630noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4127229959267257059.post-87057064229388983242009-04-30T09:17:00.000-07:002009-04-30T09:17:00.000-07:00Hello, Heidi Welsh.
It is a huge pleasure to meet...Hello, Heidi Welsh.<br /><br />It is a huge pleasure to meet you. I very much enjoy speaking with relatives of those who had dealings with my g-grandfather. I apologize if my comments offended you, it's just that I have hundreds of different historical versions of what took place in Skagway regarding Soapy and more then a few are not true, and some by people who were not even there. It is very frustrating when people did interviews or wrote about their experiences in Skagway and then added false story filler to make the story more appealing. It's frustrating because they may have great kernels of information that is true but then cloud it over with added false filler to make the story more exciting and this makes the whole interview suspect to a historian.<br /><br />From your family history I do believe your g-grandfather Walsh was in Skagway, however, from this interview I am having trouble believing he was who was "instrumental in 'cleaning up' the gang" as written. Please let me explain so that you can understand why I thought perhaps that he had never been there.<br /><br />I have studied the history of Skagway along-side the study of Soapy and I can positively say that "looting bank vaults, holding up men at gun-point (by Soapy or his gang), charging tolls on every person who came to town," did not occur.<br /><br />The robbery of Stewart occurred in the alley beside Jeff Smith's Parlor, not inside, and had to do with a three-card monte game, not the eagle (Fitzhugh Lee).<br /><br />William wrote, <I>"Once in Skagway, a miner got the drop on him, and facing the loaded revolver he coolly pulled out his own gun, although he had been told to hold up his hands, and shot the miner dead."</I> This story is completely false, never happened. The gunfight between Frank Reid and Soapy occurred much differently than described by your g-grandfather.<br /><br />Because of the interview I wrongly concluded William might have never been to Skagway.<br /><br />I look forward to hearing from you.Jeff Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14680146273701688630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4127229959267257059.post-88404502102095742352009-04-30T08:01:00.000-07:002009-04-30T08:01:00.000-07:00I am the great-granddaughter of the above-mentione...I am the great-granddaughter of the above-mentioned and maligned (!) detective William Howe Welsh. He definitely was in Skagway in 1898, as I've seen the records in Skagway to prove this. He was on his way to the Yukon and brought his family there. Whether or not he witnessed the events, I don't know, but he was a highly respected detective in the Yukon and responsible for tracking down a murderer in a famous case, going all the way to Utah before he brought him back to Dawson for hanging. We have a scrapbook of original clippings from his cases--although there's nothing in there about Skagway. He was from Portland, Ore., however, so it seems likely he was familiar with Smith and this case.<br />--Heidi WelshAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com