The homes of Mary Eva Noonan, Soapy Smith's wife.

Mary's homes - Mary's photo album
Shelagh Moriarty collection

(Click image to enlarge)

wo wonderful photographs from the Shelagh Moriarty collection. A page from the photo book of Mary Eva (Noonan-Smith) Little, the wife of Soapy Smith, showing the homes she lived in.
      The bottom house is the home Mary lived in Denver with first husband, Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith. The top house is the St. Louis, Missouri home of her mother, where she and the three children lived, after Soapy attacked the editor of the Rocky Mountain News in 1889 for mentioning her and the children in the newspaper in an unkind way.

     While at Shelagh's home learning about, and photographing her collection, she surprised me with a gift of an original photograph of the Milwaukee home. It was something I was not at all expecting, and I was ever grateful. Thank you, Shelagh.  

 








Mary Eva (Noonan-Smith) Little
March 17, 2009
May 5, 2010
May 6, 2010
June 14, 2010
June 18, 2010
September 4, 2010
September 10, 2010

May 21, 2011 
August 1, 2011
December 25, 2011
April 12, 2012
April 27, 2012
September 14, 2012
August 9, 2013


Denver house
December 7, 2010

St. Louis house

March 9, 2010
April 11, 2010
June 9, 2010
June 14, 2010
June 18, 2010
June 25, 2010
September 19, 2010
September 28, 2010
November 28, 2010
February 1, 2011
December 25, 2011
January 17, 2012
September 4, 2012

St. Louis: pages 7, 28, 53, 60, 63, 85, 106, 108-09, 115, 139, 147, 149, 172, 281-83, 379-85, 391, 403, 406, 410, 417, 420, 425, 427-28, 436, 443, 448, 473, 495, 599, 503, 545-46, 574, 583-86.

Mary Eva (Noonan-Smith) Little: pages 7, 19, 52, 104-08, 124-25, 139, 146-47, 167, 169-72, 197, 202, 281-82, 379, 407, 410-11, 418-18, 425, 428, 436, 442-44, 448, 451, 486, 495, 498-99, 503, 543-46, 554-55, 584-87, 592, 594.

"In his own home he was Mr. Jefferson Smith, a gentleman above reproach, and to his wife and children the dearly beloved who guarded them from all harm and bountifully provided for their every want, ministering to their happiness in every possible manner. Woe to the man, woman or child who dared bring sorrow to them or allude in any way to a life other than the one they knew."

— George T. Buffum, Smith of Bear City and Other Frontier Sketches, 1906.

AUGUST 19

1812: The USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides," wins a battle against the British frigate Guerriere, east of Nova Scotia.

1848: The discovery of gold in California is reported by the New York Herald.

1854: The Grattan Massacre, the first armed confrontation between the U.S. Army and Sioux Indians takes place near Ft. Laramie in present day Wyoming as Lieutenant John Grattan, an interpreter, and 29 infantrymen arrive in the camp of Chief Conquering Bear, firing their canon killing the chief. The Sioux attack the troops, killing Grattan and all but one of his men, who escaped to the fort.

1856: Processing condensed milk is patented by Gail Borden.

1864: Colorado Territory rancher, Elbridge Gerry, rides to Denver to warn of an impending Cheyenne attack on settlements on the South Platte River. Resulting troop actions disrupt the Indians plans.

1882: Las Animas County undersheriff M. McGraw is shot and killed by Trinidad police officer George Goodell in Trinidad, Colorado after calling Goodell a pimp and his wife a prostitute in the newspaper. The fight takes place in front of Jaffa's Opera House, where Goodell puts six bullets into McGraw, who dies two days later.

1887: The last Indian battle in Colorado occurs as troop clash with Utes near Rangely, Colorado.

1895: Bad man John Wesley Hardin is shot in the back of the head while playing dice in the Acme Saloon, El Paso, Texas, by lawman John Selman. Hardin is said to have killed between 27 and 44 men.

1896: Lawman Alfred Allee is stabbed and killed in a Laredo, Texas barroom brawl.

1900: Ex-Secretary of State Caleb Powers is found guilty of conspiracy to murder gubernatorial candidate William Goebels in Frankfort, Kentucky.

1909: The first car race to be run on a brick track occurrs at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.