Artifact #89: Letters to and from Skagway historian Cecelia Selmer Price, 1958-1963

Artifact #89
Letter to Justin M. Smith
From Cecelia Selmer Price
May 9, 1958
Courtesy of
Jeff Smith collection

(Click image to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

also told him that he was really known more as a Robin Hood, who helped the poor and unfortunate, than as a gangster."

Artifact #89 contains the first communication with Skagway resident and historian, Cecelia Selmer Price, a typed letter to Justin M. Smith (my uncle), May 9, 1958. I would not be born for another five months.

     It all started with a small piece written by Harold Helfer published in the Saturday Evening Post, May 10, 1958. 

 

So We Commemorate
A PIONEER GANGSTER
Saturday Evening Post
March 22, 1958
Jeff Smith Collection

 (Click image to enlarge)

 

Below is the context of the article.

 

So We Commemorate

A PIONEER GANGSTER

 

Leering down from all comers from a cliff above the harbor of Skagway, Alaska, is a white-painted skull twenty-five feet high, shaped of natural stone. It serves as a reminder of the abrupt end of Skagway's leading bad man, Jefferson R. (Soapy) Smith, and is lettered: Soapy Smith's Skull.

     Soapy Smith, a lanky, sardonic saloonkeeper with a long black beard, ruled Skagway ruthlessly during the hectic 1898 gold rush. Hijacking, shakedowns and the stealthy technique of taking rivals "for a ride" were among his specialties long before Chicago and New York gangsters used them.

     If his crooked gambling tables failed to part a flush prospector from hard-earned gold, Soapy resorted to holdup at pistol point. When he publicly robbed grizzled old Alexander Steward of $3500 in nuggets, however, it was too much even for wide-open Skagway to stomach.

     Frank Reid, a railroad construction boss for the White Pass and Yukon Railway, organized vigilantes. Soapy and his gang overawed them without a shot. Then Reid called a law-and-order meeting on a harbor pier. Sneering, Soapy stalked down the pier to break up the meeting. Reid, . 45 in hand, warned- then fired. Soapy shot back.

     Soapy died almost instantly. Reid passed away in agony twelve days later. The two were buried nearly side by side. But where Soapy's wooden slab bore only his name, age and death date, Reid's marble monument is inscribed: FRANK REID-THE MAN WHO GAVE HIS LIFE FOR THE HONOR OF SKAGWAY.

NOTE: The blue pen ink notes that don't make sense. Who wrote this, and why, is unknown.

      Price wrote a "letter to the editor," responding to the article, and the Saturday Evening Post published it. Below is the page cut from the issue, and the content of that letter.

 

 

The Legend of Soapy Smith
Cecelia Selmer Price
The Saturday Evening Post
May 10, 1958
Jeff Smith collection

 (Click image to enlarge)

 

 Below is the content of Cecelia Price's "letter to the editor."

Dear Sirs:

     I have just finished reading several paragraphs on page 78 of your March 22 issue, written by a Harold Helfer, entitled, SO WE COMMEMORATE: A PIONEER GANGSTER. There's been a lot of tripe published about Soapy Smith in the last sixty years, but this is the living end....

     The "grizzled old Alex Steward" that Mr. Helfer says was robbed of %3500 was a young man in his early twenties named John Stewart who lost a poke consisting of $2500 in Soapy's saloon.

     Frank Reid (who killed Soapy) was never at any time employed by the White Pass & Yukon Railway. He had been a schoolteacher in Oregon, but his main occupation was that of bartending, both in Oregon and Alaska, and he was a bigger crook than Soapy Smith ever dreamed of being.

     Now we come to the picture of the four dubious-looking men. None of them is Soapy Smith.... The bearded man identified as Soapy was a gambler named Turner Jackson....

     I have lived in Skagway all my life, and my family has been here since the gold rush. For the past eleven years I have made a thorough study of the life of Soapy Smith.

 

CECELIA SELMER PRICE

Skagway, Alaska  

   

In April 1958 Alaska Sportsman forwarded a letter written by my uncle Justin M. Smith, a grandson of Soapy, to Cecelia Price, and on April 10, 1958 she typed out a letter to Justin.

 

Typed letter from Cecelia Selmer Price
To Justin M. Smith
April 10, 1958
Jeff Smith collection

 (Click image to enlarge)

 

 Below is the content of the letter to Justin Smith.

April 10, 1958

Mr. Justin M. Smith

5618 Vecina Drive

Corina, California

Dear Mr. Smith:

     Mr. Tobin of the Alaska Sportsman has forwarded your letter to me, and I must say that I'm utterly speechless to learn that there really are living decendents[sic] of Soapy Smith. I knew he was married and had a son, but I always felt that any living members of his family would have stepped forward long ago and claimed relationship to my "Gentleman Outlaw."

     I say "my" because, as a Skagway-ite, and a writer, I have devoted the past eleven years to serious research on your grandfather's life - so seriously in fact, that I feel I knew him personally, and in all probability - know more about him than anyone else now.

     As a result, I wrote a book - "Gentleman Outlaw" - which I have condenced[sic] for SAGA Magazine. Since your letter states that you have his papers and letter, would it be asking too much to be allowed copies of them for reference? I will gladly reimburse you in anyway, and you have no idea how they would help my work. Knowing now that they exist, and may be available, I will hold off on sending the manuscript to SAGA, until I have heard from you.

     As you may be interested in my past research, I am sending, under separate cover, my story "The Green Farm Kid" which will appear in the Sportsman, The story was certainly not of any effort to write, as it's word for word they[sic] way I took it down in shorthand, while Fletcher talked. I consider it to be an excellent example of the real Soapy.

     You will also be pleased to know that I sent the Saturday Evening Post a nasty letter in reply to that stupid "So We Commemorate" in their last issue. As you know - the man the identify as Soapy was not him at all. Frank Reid never worked for the White Pass, and never was anything but a crooked bartender.

     Enclosed with this letter are a few excerpts from "Gentleman Outlaw" which I will not change, even in view of the fact that you have Soapy's papers, etc., since I can prove the events to be correct. Believe me - Jesse James has nothing on Soapy, and I certainly hope my efforts will bring him into his own, and I hope you will allow me the use of copies of his papers.

 

Most sincerely

Cecelia Selmer Price

Box 8L2

Skagway, Alaska  

I could not find Cecelia's stories, "Gentleman Outlaw" and "The Green Farm Kid" online. It is unknown if they were ever published.    

     Upon seeing Price's "letter to the editor," Smith family member, Frances Stanton Peniston of Newnan, Coweta County, Georgia obtain Price's mailing address from the Saturday Evening Post and wrote to Price. Upon receiving the letter, Price wrote to Justin M. Smith again. Following is the transcribed letter artifact #89, for ease of reading.

 

May 9, 1958

Dear Mr. Smith

 

I received the following letter today, in response to my "Letter to the Editor" of the Saturday Evening Post and thought it would be of great interest to you, if it should be that you and Mrs. Peniston are not aware of each other.

 

My dear Mr. Price:

     My husband's father, Paul E. Smith (changed to Peniston) was Soapy Smith's double first cousin.

     "Little Jeff" - or Jefferson Randolph Smith's [Jeff Sr., Soapy's father] family, his ten brothers and one sister, lived on the Smith Plantation, in Coweta County, Georgia, about 12 miles from Noonan.

     I was most interested to hear your version of the Soapy Smith legend. I also wrote to the editor of the Saturday Evening Post and told him some of the family history.

     I also told him that he was really known more as a Robin Hood. who helped the poor and unfortunate, than as a gangster.

     We would be most happy to hear from you, and how you think he came by the name of "Soapy". There are several versions about this.

     Soapy's parents were Jefferson Randolph Smith Sr., and the daughter of a physician of Dinwiddie County, Va. was his mother. Three sisters married three brothers of this Smith family, and my husbands grandmother married Dr. C. W. Smith (Soapy's brother)

     Soapy had three brother and two lawyer brothers. The family history is very interesting.

     My husband is a physician - as was his father and uncles and grandfather.

 

Very sincerely

Frances Stanton Peniston

(Mrs. Joseph B. Peniston)

199 Jackson Road

Newnan, Georgia (Coweta County)

 

I am sill looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Cecelia Selmer Price

Box 812

Skagway, Alaska

 

Frances Lebby Stanton
Married Joseph Bowdoin Peniston
1898-1994

 

 

Frances Stanton Peniston made some major errors in her description of her husbands family.

     All correspondence written by Justin to Cecelia is missing or non-existent. Above her signature is the message, "I am still looking forward to hearing from you," which indicates that Justin may not have contacted her. At some point Justin did give his portion of the Soapy Smith collection to his brother (my father) John Randolph ("Randy") Smith. Within Justin's portion of the collection were the letters sent to him by Cecelia Price, and this appears to have been when John learned of Cecelia and began communicating with her.

 

Typed letter from John Randolph ("Randy") Smith
To Cecelia Selmer Price
September 13, 1963
Jeff Smith collection

 (Click image to enlarge)

 

 Below is the context of the letter.

FROM THE DESK OF

RANDY SMITH

9-13-63

Dear Cecelia,

     The Soapy Smith clan is a very peculiar bunch!

     There was originally nine of us children born to my late father, Jefferson R. Smith (Soapy's son). Two of the girls have passed away; three boys and four girls remain. We are not as close as we should be and are living all over the country.

     I have just run across a letter that you wrote to my younger brother Jesse in 1958. I do hope you are still active along these lines!

     We all have an extremely deep affection for Soapy, perhaps in a different way than you say you have in your letter, for we have lived with Soapy's wife and also feel we knew him personally..... nothing was hidden from us kids, both good and bad.

     To get to the point.....I do not know to what extent you have communicated with Jesse, however my older brother Joe has in his care, outside of a few odds and ends, everything that was handed down belonging to Soapy. He is now in the process of having copies of letters etc. distributed to all members of the family. Perhaps we can exchange copies of interesting articles.

     You sound more like a Smith then most of us!

     Why not join our family!

 

Sincerely,

 

Randolph J. Smith

618 Elmwood Street

Anaheim, California

 

To introduce myself:

 

     I was born in St. Louis Missouri in 1917, the son of Jefferson R. Smith and Grandson of Soapy.

     Enclosed is a copy of two newspaper clippings.

     My father was involved in politics, in one way or another, most of his life and for reasons of his own kept much of his past to himself. Some however did get out.

 

The fact that John ("Randy") wrote, "I do hope you are still active along these lines" indicates that this is the first correspondence he had written to Cecelia. 

     

Typed letter from John Randolph ("Randy") Smith
To Cecelia Selmer Price
September 30, 1963
Jeff Smith collection

 (Click image to enlarge)

 

     At some point between September 13 and September 30, 1963 John R. and Dorothy Smith (my father & mother), Joseph J. and Thelma A. Smith (my uncle and aunt), Justin M. and Ester Smith (my uncle and aunt) and Cecelia Selmer Price, met with Royal Pullen, son of Harriet Pullen of Skagway, both being pioneers of that town. My father recorded the interview. That interview reel-to-reel tape and a recorded cd of the tape is in my collection and the information was used and credited on several pages throughout my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel.

     Below is the context of the letter.

 

FROM THE DESK OF

RANDY SMITH

9-30-63

 

Cec,

     

     I wish to sincerely thank you for making it possible for us to obtain the tape recording of Mr. Pollen[sic]. Upon returning to Anaheim we replayed the tape and the results were excellent. As soon as possible I will make copies and will forward one to you if you so desire.

     As I do not know Mr. Pullens[sic] address, will you please convey our deepest appreciation to him and his wife. They are certainly wonderful folks. ...and by the way, so are you.

     Perhaps some of the differences that arose came about because of the DINNER we had.

     My wife Dotti and I both thank you again for the time you spent with us, and perhaps when you are in Anaheim we might get together for LUNCH.

Randy Smith

618 Elmwood Street

Anaheim, California

This is the last communication with Cecelia Selmer Price that I have in my files. 

     I remember learning about Cecelia Price from my father, and how she believed that Soapy was a "gentleman outlaw" and was not the only criminal in Skagway. That the vigilantes that killed Soapy had criminals and "not so innocent" citizens within it's ranks. She said that "Reid [Frank H. Reid, shot Soapy at least twice during the shootout on Juneau Company wharf, before being shot and mortally wounded by Soapy] was a crooked bartender at best." I am not making any judgement calls here, but rather I am simply letting the reader know who Price was and what she told my father. I wish I had been old enough to meet her.

 

 

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

 

Cecelia Selmer Price: page 531.

"[Frank Reid] was a bigger crook than Soapy Smith ever dreamed of being."

—Cecelia Selmer Price
1958 letter to Justin M. Smith (Soapy’s grandson)