The Swindling of James Kelliher's Grandfather by Soapy Smith

Soapy's three warehouses
Drawing by Brenda Wilbee

(Click image to enlarge)

ID SOAPY SMITH SWINDLE JAMES KELLIHER'S GRANDFATHER?

————————

“My grandfather and a bunch of other Irishmen
who had come up from Australia won out over his hijacking of goods.”

—James Kelliher

————————

       According to James Kelliher, his grandfather, some of his brothers and about 2 dozen others, had come up from the gold fields in western Australia to the Klondike to dig for gold. In Skagway, Alaska they were preparing to carry at least 2,000 lbs (required by the Canadian government) over the border at the White Pass summit. According to James, Soapy Smith had a storage area on the American side of the border, where miners could (for a fee) store their goods until they were ready to hit the trail up the pass summit.

      The swindle, James says, was that the miners were told "one price given at "check in" much much higher at "check out." His grandfather and brothers, "all tough and experienced and armed decided, 'hell no.'"

James continues,

"... and one night went to the warehouse with pack animals. Comrades armed with rifles on buildings. Someone, maybe my grandfather who was 6'-4," 250 lbs -- big man for the times -- pulled the lock and hasp off the door. One of the guards ran to where Soapy was playing cards, 'Soapy, they're stealing their stuff!' As he is laying his cards down and getting ready to deal with this, he asks, 'Who is it?' 'It's them Irish Australians.' He sits back down and says, 'Let them go, they been killing British soldiers for years, it ain't worth it.'"

________________________________________

MY THOUGHTS.

      It's a great story, and very well could have been one of Soapy's scams. If the story is true, then it likely took place in Skagway proper, and not at one of the summits. There were no "warehouse" size structures at either summit, but there were a number of them in town. There is a belief that Soapy owned three buildings near the water front that could have been used for a storage swindle. Brenda Wilbee of Skagway penciled the above drawing from a photograph showing 3 black buildings that supposedly belong to Soapy Smith while he was there. “It's inscribed on the photograph itself, 'Soapy Smith's Black Buildings.'”

      Not in defense of Soapy, but this sort of swindle was also a common tactic used by a number of the greedy merchants in Skagway who could have used a warehouse for storage and then raised the price to retrieve the supplies from the warehouse. It is well-known that there were merchants who took advantage of the fact that the stampeders were in a hurry to get to the fields, or to get back home to their families. Stampeders who knew that they were being cheated, often accepted their losses and moved on, as waiting for law and order to run its course in Skagway, also meant having to remain in Skagway for a hearing, which could take days, even weeks. This little certainty was injected into the conversations by the cheating merchants as well as Soapy and the members of the gang, to discourage victims from staying in town and lodging a complaint with the deputy US marshal, five miles away at Dyea. 

      There are three basic types of people who went up to Alaska and Canada for the Klondike gold rush.

1. The stampeders and miners, those who planned to strike it rich in the gold fields.
2. The merchants, who planned to strike it rich supplying the stampeders and miners.
3. The confidence men (Soapy's ilk), who planned to strike it rich by swindling the stampeders coming and going, to and from, the port cities of Skagway and Dyea.

      I am interested in learning how James' grandfather knew it was Soapy Smith who had cheated him. How did the grandfather learn that Soapy was inside a room playing cards? How did the grandfather know of the conversation that took place ("Let them go, they been killing British soldiers for years, it ain't worth it")? Did he go into the card game room? Did someone come out of that room and tell him what Soapy had said?

      Is it possible that the grandfather did get price gouged, but adapted a more interesting ending to tell others back at home? In my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, I included a newspaper reporters opinion about the stampeders that gave up their journey before ever reaching Dawson and the gold fields. He wrote that rather than trudge home with a story of quitting in defeat and failure, of choosing to give up, some of these "cheechakos" (a person newly arrived in the mining districts of Alaska or northwestern Canada) concocted a fictional account to preserve their reputations back home. Tales of being robbed, or perhaps even being swindled by the greatest con man of the era, "Soapy" Smith, rather than being thought of as a "loser," these unsuccessful prospectors became heroes back at home, battling the "king of the bad men" for life and property. Do understand that I am not implying that this particular story did not actually occur. I cannot make that call. I can have my doubts, but in the past 34 years I have on more than a few occasions discovered that my doubts were incorrect. I keep all stories I encounter as provenance can emerge to prove, or disprove, a narrative. In fact, this story came to me from James Killiher fourteen months ago, in November 2017.

FINAL THOUGHTS FROM JAMES KELLIHER.

      “Like I said this was a word of mouth story--so the wording and the placement may not be exact--how it was related back--not sure--again as you say--and this kinda fits in--reputable business informed by a watchman--and so it goes-- understand your desire for proof--I too am a historian--did my graduate work at Kansas. not sure we will get the answer. Do know that after the Klondike he went on to Nome [Alaska] where he was a recognized miner among miners both at Council and in the Kougarok. Unfortunately, he passed in 1936 I believe and my father in 1987.”

"The only difference between the inmates and the guards
is, the inmates got caught."

—unknown

MARCH 22

1622: Indians attack and kill 347 colonists in the James River area of Virginia.

1630: The first legislation to prohibit gambling is enacted in Boston, Massachusetts.

1638: Anne Hutchinsoon, a religious dissident, is expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1733: Joseph Priestly invents carbonated (seltzer) water.

1765: The Stamp Act is passed. It is the first direct British tax on the American colonists, and is repealed on March 17, 1766.

1775: Edmund Burke presents his 13 articles to the English parliament.

1790: Thomas Jefferson becomes the first U.S. Secretary of State.

1794: Congress bans U.S. vessels from supplying slaves to other countries.

1822: The New York Horticultural Society is founded.

1858: James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, age 20, is elected village constable of the Monticello Township, Johnson County, Kansas.

1863: A stagecoach is attacked by Indians near Eight Mile Station in Tooele County, Utah Territory. Passenger Judge Mott takes the reigns and outruns the attackers after the driver is killed and another passenger is wounded.

1871: William Holden of North Carolina becomes the first governor to be removed by impeachment.

1872: Illinois becomes the first state to require sexual equality in employment.

1873: Bad man John Wesley Hardin along with 12 others, busts into the Gonzales, Texas and relieved it of all its prisoners. Hardin later claimed vigilantes were planning on lynching the prisoners.

1874: The Young Men's Hebrew Association is organized in New York City.

1875: Silver is discovered in the Pinal Mountains of Arizona Territory.

1877: 3 civilians are reported killed near Fort Clark, Texas.

1877: Gambler Charley Harrison is shot and killed by gun-slinging gambler James H. Levy during a duel just outside of the Senate Saloon in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

1881: Outlaw George “Big Nose George” Parrott, the leader of a gang of rustlers in the Powder River region of Wyoming is lynched by vigilantes for killing two peace officers. His hide was made into a pair of shoes.

1882: Congress bans polygamy.

1882: Wyatt Earp and his posse shoot and kill Florentino Cruz during a “vendetta ride.” With Earp is John O. “Texas Jack” Vermillion, who later becomes a member of the Soapy Smith gang in Denver, Colorado, becoming known as “Shoot-Your-Eye-Out-Jack.”

1883: Apache Indians kill three people at the Total Wreck Mine in the Whetstone Mountains, Arizona Territory.

1886: Abilene, Kansas turns on electric lighting for the first time. A local newspaper writes "time will tell whether it will be to the interest of the city to use the same to any extent."

1886: Seattle, Washington turns on electric lighting for the first time.

1903: Niagara Falls runs out of water due to a drought.