BUNKO MEN AND THEIR TRICKS. San Francisco Chronicle, April 10, 1898

Shell and Pea Game on the Trail
"Sketched from life by M. W. Newberry"
San Francisco Chronicle
April 10, 1898

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UNKO MEN AND THEIR TRICKS

 

     A wonderfully detailed description of the modus operandi of Soapy Smith's three shell and pea manipulators along the Chilkoot and White Pass trails.

 

Witnessed and reported by Joseph D. Barry, and published in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 10, 1898. Besides this article, Barry played an important role in Skagway history, as an official witness and jury member in the May 31, 1898, inquest into the death and robbery of prostitute Ella D. Wilson. Below is the transcribed text of the article, complete with my additional comments.  

 

BUNKO MEN AND THEIR TRICKS.

Many Are at Work on the Trails.

Weary Plodders Often Taken In.

Klondike Pilgrims and their Wealth Separated.

The Old Pea and Shell Game Finds Many Victims Among
the Climbers of the Chilcoot Pass.

SKAGWAY, March 27, 1898.—Since the grass has begun to grow short for them in town, some of the confidence workers who still remain have taken to the trails, where they continue to set snares for the dollars of unwary Klondikers. On the Skagway trail the sure-thing gambler seldom goes higher than the foot of White pass summit. Half a dozen or so of his tribe usually travel together, sharing at the close of the day the profits of the tricks they have turned.

One of the party is chosen as active operator. His necessary qualifications are a capacity to judge human character and a tongue that is gifted with glibness. The successful confidence game operator is best described by the expressive term “spellbinder.” His confederates, the steerers carefully disassociate themselves from him whenever a possible victim is in sight.

The better to disguise his wolfish character the steerer frequently dons the sheep’s clothing of a packer. It is no uncommon incident on the trail to see two or more notorious bunko-steerers faring along, one after the other, apparently heavily burdened with packs, which if investigated would prove to be nothing more substantial than straw or chips in canvas sacks.

The "sheep's clothing of a packer" description perfectly fits the methods of soap gang member Van B. "Old Man" Triplett. According to his newspaper obituary, he was born about 1841 in Virginia and was the originator of the gold brick scam. A con man of forty years, he joined Soapy's entourage in 1894, going to Skagway where he impersonated a stampeder complete with pack (said to be filled with feathers), working three-card monte at the Skaguay entrance to the White Pass trail. It was Triplett who operated the three-card monte game against John Stewart, stealing his gold, which directly resulted in Soapy Smith's death at the hands of the vigilantes.

A little ahead of them always is the operator, equipped with a small, portable table, three shells and the elusive pea. When the first one reaches the manipulator of the ancient but to the “sucker” ever new game he stops, watches and listens, and finally lays down his pack, as if to rest, Steerer No. 2 follows his example, as do the other in turn. By the time the prospective victim arrives he finds a spurious Klondiker just winning a bet from the shell game player, amid the half envious congratulations of his confederates.

“Well, well, this is my unlucky day,” says the man with the table, “but I’ll give some other gentleman a chance to win on the little pea.” Back and forth and round about go the shells again, a glimpse of the pea being given the watchers at seductively frequent intervals. Another steerer guesses its location and wins a greenback or two.

“You fellows are hitting me too hard,” dubiously comments the operator. “I must size up my roll before I take any more bets.” He opens a well-lined pocketbook, and while his attention is taken up with its contents one of the steerers slyly raises the shell under which the pea is hidden. That catches the outsider, unless he be invulnerable against the temptations of bunko. Laying his finger on the shell indicated to him he offers to bet $10, $20, $50 or a higher sum that it covers the pea. His bet is taken, the shell is lifted and the pea proves to be somewhere else. Usually the victim makes a second and perhaps a third bet in the hope of retrieving his loss, always with the same result. A witness to one of these episodes tells of having seen a prospector who had lost $90 sit upon his pack and burst into tears. He said that his last dollar had gone on the game. Still higher up the trail that same day a man who runs a tent restaurant bet and lost $20, but the shell-game player was glad to disgorge it when the victim’s wife, a 200-pound lady of German nativity, seized him by the coat collar and screamed lustily for help.

It is also related that a man in clerical garb, said to be a missionary, dropped $100 in a single bet. He immediately picked up his daintily bound pack and resumed his journey. Without uttering a word of regret or complaint.

Yesterday a woman who said she was going to the Klondike in the interest of the Smithsonian Institution complained to Captain L. A. Matile that confidence workers were so annoying on the trail that she feared to continue her journey. She is traveling alone and had called at the Regular Army encampment on her way out of town. Captain Matile, who commands the troops here, sent an escort of two soldiers with her as far as the northwest mounted police post at Summit lake.

After working one point on the trail thoroughly the confidence workers scatter, to reappear at another point under like circumstances some time later in the day. On the Skagway trail the shell game is not in operation regularly. The men engaged at it are supposed to be a detachment of “Soapy” Smith’s gamblers. Those who operate in Dyea, Sheep Camp and along to the base of Chilcoot are under the leadership of “Tom” Cady, a notorious Colorado mining camp confidence man.

While it is true that the con men operating in Dyea and the Chilcoot (spelled Chilkoot) trail were under the leadership of Tom Cady, it is believed that Cady reported to Soapy Smith. Thomas P. "Sure-Shot" or "Troublesome Tom" Cady was a member of the soap gang in Colorado, operating the shell game for Soapy. Cady, known for his nasty temper and habit of carrying a 12-inch dirk, followed Soapy from Denver to Creede, Colorado, in 1892 and back to Denver, where he became a prime suspect with Soapy in the 1892 shooting death of gambler Clifton "Cliff" Sparks. He accompanied Soapy to Mexico in 1894 and likely followed Soapy to Alaska, becoming Soapy's manager of operations in Dyea.

Other devices for catching “suckers” besides the pea and shells are heard of occasionally. The salted-mine man is one of the most recent additions to those who seek to get something for nothing. J. T. Jones, president of the Guarantee Title and Abstract Company of Juneau, yesterday saved a Dyea merchant from falling into the clutches of one of this variety. The merchant told Jones that he had a chance to buy a placer mine for the very low price of $500. It was a new strike, only five miles outside of Dyea, and the locator, being out of funds, was willing to sacrifice his claim. Jones was then shown specimens of gold from the placer, it being in shot and smaller particles.

In the afternoon the miner accompanied Jones and the merchant to his claim, where he panned samples of the dirt. The specimens obtained looked genuine, but feeling dubious, nevertheless, the Juneau man to-day had them tested. They proved to be a composition of copper, zinc, bismuth and tin.

As a United States Deputy Marshal Cudihee is now the sole guardian of the peace for Skagway and Dyea, it is almost impossible to keep sure-thing gamblers and others of their ilk off the trails.

Amazingly, I do not have much on U.S. Deputy Marshal John Cudihee other than he was in Soapy's May 1, 1898, parade in Skagway.

 

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

 

Shell and pea game: pages 8, 10, 15, 27, 51, 53-55, 58, 64, 72, 78-80, 92, 99, 110, 112, 115, 141, 205, 210, 229-31, 248, 250, 256, 308, 351, 362, 368, 465-67, 471-72, 475-77, 482, 492, 498, 505, 535, 548, 594.

Joseph D. Barry: page 506.

Ella D. Wilson: pages 506-512.

Van B. "Old Man" Triplett: pages 90-92, 471, 475, 526, 554, 564-67, 575-79, 595.

Thomas P. "Troublesome Tom" Cady: pages 79, 210-11, 229, 250-51, 253-57, 260, 264, 362, 450.

 Clifton Sparks: pages 79, 250-59, 263, 268, 289, 291-92, 502, 507, 529.

 U.S. Deputy Marshal John Cudihee: page 500.

"With spots quadrangular of diamond form, Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, And spades, the emblems of untimely graves."

—William Cowper

Jesse Murphy mentioned as shooting Soapy Smith in The Dyea Trail, July 9, 1898

Skaguay Rises in Righteous Wrath
The Dyea Trail
July 9, 1898

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 man named Murphy had done his best to kill Soapy."

 

 

 

 

An extremely rare opportunity slid by me in an eBay auction listing for the July 9, 1898 (Vol. 1,No. 26) issue of The Dyea Trail (Dyea, Alaska), which sold for $406.00.
     This 8 page weekly publication measuring app. 12"x18" was started on January 12, 1898 and was one of two weekly newspapers in Dyea (the other being The Dyea Press). The inner pages (3-6) are printed on slightly smaller paper (10¾"x17"). This Newspaper only lasted about a year, roughly coinciding with the peak and ebb of the Klondike gold rush. There were 5,000 to 8,000 inhabitants in 1898 but by 1900 the town had dwindled to just 250, and by 1903 it had become a ghost town.

     This issue is important because it is the first report of Soapy's death from the shootout on Juneau Wharf, in Skagway, five miles away. Being published the day after the gunfight, it contains the earliest mention of Jesse Murphy shooting Soapy. The Skagway newspapers make no mention of Murphy having fired a single shot. I really hated not being able to get it.

     Unfortunately, the photographs used by the eBay seller are too poor to transcribe properly. 

 

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"Midway Saloon"
The Dyea Trail
July 9, 1898
"Renie Baker, Proprietress"

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"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."

—Ecclesiastes 9:11

Soapy Smith related to Tom Word, one of the vigilantes that helped capture the soap gang

Thomas Marshall Word
Nov 7, 1857 - Feb 5, 1929

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OAPY SMITH RELATED TO ONE OF THE VIGILANTES THAT HELPED END HIS REIGN!

     December 2009: Fred Wood contacted me as a descendant of Tom Marshall Word, one of the vigilantes that helped end the reign of Soapy Smith in Skagway, Alaska. That alone was very interesting, and I was very happy to hear from him, but at that time he did not have a lot of information, nor did I. One of the reasons had to do with the spelling of the last name as "Ward" in Skagway, which had me believing it was two separate individuals. Tom Word's story as a vigilante, is definitely included in my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, as he was involved with the fay shooting and the capture of key members of the Soap Gang after the death of Soapy. More on that in a bit.

     February 2010: I rekindled communications with Fred Wood who had found some very interesting information. Fred wrote that Word's full name was Thomas Marshall Word, and was related to Soapy Smith! I had no way of proving or disproving the claim as I was not on Ancestry.com with a detailed family tree and Fred had no provenance at the time, and thus the story remained on a back-burner for the next decade.

Thomas Marshall Word

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     September 2020: After reopening communications, I was able to add Fred Wood and the Word ancestors to my tree, now located on Ancestry.com. The connections and the original claim by Fred are verified, even if a little distant. The family connection between Soapy Smith and Thomas Marshall Word is as follows:

 

3rd cousin of husband of aunt of wife of uncle of wife of 1st cousin 1x removed

History of Thomas Marshall Word

     In Skagway, Alaska history there is confusion as to Word's last name, which is published in the newspapers as "Ward," which obviously caused problems for future researchers. One of the first interesting mentions of Word involves his connection to the John Fay shooting murder of Andy McGrath and Deputy US Marshall James Mark Rowan inside People's Theater on January 31, 1898.

Tom M. Ward, a local merchant, said he knew the whereabouts of Fay and that he had agreed to give himself up if guaranteed protection and a fair trial.[1]

     Fay went into hiding and Soapy became involved, helping to guard and protect Fay from any vigilante action. At the time, Word was likely not a member of the vigilantes that arose from the murder. As a respected "merchant" (grocer) it is probable that he was used by Soapy as a neutral mouth-piece. Word's history is that of a law-abiding individual so it is likely that Word sought legal justice, as opposed to being on friendly terms with Soapy and the Soap Gang. Word was a grocer while in Skagway, Alaska, as mentioned in Portland, Oregon newspaper bios on Word during his run as county sheriff in 1904. 

Word siblings
Circa pre-1906
Thomas M. Word - center (sitting)
Tom's sister Nell - center (standing)
Tom's brother Samuel - left
Tom's brother Lee - right (died 1906)

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     In the days following the shooting death of Soapy, Word joined the vigilantes to assist the capture of Soapy's gang. He missed an opportunity to capture the three key Soap Gang members. 

"Van Triplett gave his captors the last known location of Bowers, Foster, and Wilder. An armed posse of 30 men scoured the hillside all day Sunday and into the early evening, looking for the men, but did not find them. In the early evening Tom Ward and 8 others were searching the hills near the cemetery. John Patten and James Little had a hunch that Bowers, Foster, and Wilder might be in the area, so they hid near a little bridge just north of the cemetery and waited for Ward and his men to leave, which they did around 8 p.m. About 8:30 the 3 fugitives stepped into the open about 50 yards to the east of Patten and Little and began walking straight towards Patten’s hiding spot. When they were about 15 feet from him, he stood up, aimed his Winchester rifle at the men, and demanded their surrender. They did so without resistance."[2]

 

Thomas M. Word

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     After the capture of the main gang members, "Sehlbrede [Judge Charles A. Sehlbrede] then ordered Tanner to transfer Bowers, Foster, and Wilder to the same third-floor Burkhard Hotel area occupied by Van Triplett." Tom Word was one of the men assigned to guard the prisoners.[3]

     Word's son Arthur Clark Word passed away on March 14, 1898, in Skagway, Alaska, at the age of 4. The Word's, or at least his wife, left Skagway previous to the birth of another son, Richard Moseley Word who was born on December 24, 1898, in Portland, Oregon. The Oregonian newspaper states that Tom Word ran his grocery store in Skagway for "two years," which, if correct, Tom ran the store through 1899, after the birth of his son Richard.[4]

     Judge Charles A. Sehlbrede, who had ordered the Soap Gang transfer to the Burkhard Hotel, was living in Portland, Oregon during Tom Word's first campaign run for county sheriff. Sehlbrede offered up his opinion of Word. 

     "One of the bravest men in Alaska in the days when bravery meant that the man who possessed it went forth with his life in his hands, was Tom Word, the Democratic candidate for sheriff."

     Judge Sehlbrede has been a life-long Republican, and he pronounced himself as a defender of Mr. Word when he had learned that the question of Mr. Word's bravery had been raised. Continuing, the Judge said:

     "It was because of the courage of such men as Mr. Word that Alaska was freed of the disreputable 'Soapy' Smith and his gang. ..."

     "In the call for volunteers to join the Citizen's committee Tom Word was one of the first men to respond and offer his services.

     "The remnants of the Smith gang had fled to Dyea, five miles away. Word hired a boat and got some men together and went after the gang. They brought back 20 of them. Each fellow was convicted and sentenced to prison. Tom Word paid for the expenses of the trip out of his own pocket; and never got a cent of the money back. ..."

     "Captain John Sperry of this city was a member of that committee and can vouch for what I say...."[5]

 

Cartoon of Tom Word
Oregon Journal
June 5, 1904

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     Interesting to note the story about Word capturing 20 Soap Gang members in Dyea. This is not mentioned in the pretty detailed accounts by Skagway newspapers. Is it a true, but largely unreported event, or could Judge Sehlbrede have added in some larger-than-life fictional accounts to help an old peer? Indeed, other parts of the interview of Sehlbrede include exaggerations and misinformation.
     After leaving Skagway, Tom Word resided in Portland, Oregon where he worked as a traveling salesman until he decided to run for county sheriff in 1904. He served as sheriff of Multnomah County (Portland) twice, 1904-1906 and again in 1913-1915. In 1918 Word became an agent for the Department of Justice. (retiring once in 1925 and immediately being rehired) until his death in 1929. 

 

Thomas M. Word
The Oregonian, 02/06/1929

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     In 1926, 28 years after Soapy's reign ended, Tom Word returned to Alaska for several months on a work related trip. It has to be wondered if he made the trip back to Skagway for a visit.
     Thomas Marshall Word died at the home of his daughter on February 5, 1929. He was 71.[6]

Word's final resting place
Wilhelm's Portland Memorial Mausoleum
Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon

 

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SOURCES:
[1] Daily Alaskan, 02/01/1898 and 02/05/1898.

[2] Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel. Note the spelling of Word as Ward.

[3] Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel.
[4] The Oregonian, 02/06/1929.

[5] Oregon Journal, 06/04/1904.
[6] The Oregonian, 02/06/1929.
Find-A-Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/102215903/thomas-marshall-word

March 17, 2010

Thomas M. Ward (Word): pages 458, 567.

"In times of trouble, though, he usually preferred to rely on his wits, smooth speech, and dexterity rather than on physical force."

—Alias Soapy Smith

NOVEMBER 27

1779: The College of Pennsylvania is renamed the University of Pennsylvania, the first legally recognized university in America.
1839: The American Statistical Association is founded in Boston, Massachusetts.
1862: George Armstrong Custer meets his future bride, Elizabeth Bacon at a Thanksgiving party.
1868: Cheyenne Indian Chief Black Kettle and his wife are killed by troopers led by George Armstrong Custer, despite flying the American flag, during the Washita Massacre.
1885: Fire, starting above the Junction Saloon in Dodge City, Kansas, destroys a block of the business district, including The Junction, the Opera House, the Long Branch and Bob Wright’s store, are gutted. It is rumored that the prohibitionists intentionally set the fire, and while the embers still smoldered, Wright shot three bullets into Mike Sutton’s home, a leader among the anti-saloon crowd. He later claimed that he was firing at a prowler trying to get into Sutton’s house.
1887: U.S. Deputy Marshall Frank Dalton, the oldest of the famous outlaw brothers, is killed in the line of duty near Fort Smith, Arkansas. Dalton and Deputy J. R. Cole went to the Cherokee Nation to arrest Dave Smith on horse stealing. Dalton stepped up to the tent that contained Smith and his cohorts, and was immediately shot by Smith. Deputy Cole returned fire, killing Smith, but was then shot and wounded by one of the other men inside the tent. Cole escaped, believing Dalton was dead. Dalton, however, was still alive, and engaged the outlaws in a short gun battle. One of Smith's cohorts was wounded, and a woman who was in the camp was killed during the crossfire. Frank Dalton was killed by two additional rifle shots by from Will Towerly. One wounded man was captured but Towerly escapes unhurt. Towerly flees to his family's home near Atoka in Indian Territory where he is later killed by lawman Bill Moody.
1889: Curtis P. Brady is issued the first permit to drive an automobile through Central Park in New York City.
1894: A gambler’s petition signed by Denver businessmen starts losing signers when it is learned that famed confidence man Soapy Smith is behind the petition. His response to the Rocky Mountain News is, “I beg to state that I am no gambler. A gambler takes chances with his money, I don’t. I had nothing to do with the businessmen’s petition, and under no circumstances would I sign such a document. Hoping that the clergy will kindly leave me out of that “class…”

Artifact #66: Soapy Smith, Horseshoe Saloon, Wells Dyea Saloon, Dyea, Alaska, 1897.

Envelope (front)
"Horseshoe Saloon"
Jeff Smith collection

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rtifact #66

      A Washington Post envelope postmarked in Washington D.C., January 17, 1898, addressed to Jeff R. Smith Jr., care of the Horseshoe Saloon, Seattle, Washington. The postmark on the rear reveals that it was received in Seattle on January 23, 1898. This was likely sent by Soapy's cousin, Edwin Bobo Smith, a reporter for the Washington Post. Another key hint is that it is addressed to "Jr," and few knew his father was Jefferson Randolph Smith, Sr.

      Between 1896-1898 Soapy was seeking to prosper in Alaska, already having predicted a major gold rush there. Soapy was based in Seattle, Washington waiting for signs that a major gold rush was on. Seattle was already becoming the primary port for sailing to Alaska, and it is very probable that Soapy was on the Seattle docks, July 17, 1897 when the S. S. Portland arrived there with about 4,000 pounds of gold in her cargo hold.
      In August 1897 Soapy made his way to Skaguay (later changed to Skagway), made some $30,000 in nineteen days, and returned to Seattle, where on October 1, 1897 he had a "rough and tumble" fight inside the Horseshoe Saloon, the same saloon addressed on the envelope. In November Soapy went to Washington D. C. for a visit with cousin Edwin. While there, Soapy obtained cousin Edwin's help in obtaining permissions and permits to open a "hotel" at Fort St. Michael, one of the early hot spots for gold rushes in Alaska. The letter that went with this envelope probably contained some final formalities about the permits, as 11-days later the Adjutant General of the War Department signed a letter giving Soapy his permits he sought. But by this time, Soapy had probably already decided on making Skaguay his new base of operations.

Envelope (rear)
"Wells Dyea Saloon"
Jeff Smith collection

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      The rear of the envelope reveals some hand-written notes scribbled by Soapy, two sets of notes, separated by a line. The top note is very hard to read. I see "13 Whiskey," "ship to Minnesota," and "Out for cow against Smith." An old friend of mine, Erik Anderson, sees "3 whiskey," "ship to Minnesota" (could it be "ship FROM Minnesota?"), and "cut for cash against Smith." The latter may refer to a bank draft.

     Alaskan historian Art Petersen, believes that "Out for cow" may be "cut for law." He believes the upper portion may a shortened form something like, "13 cases of whiskey ordered from a shipper in Minnesota. There will be a cut for the law paid for by ("against") Smith."

What do you see?

      The lower notes are easier to read: "Well's Dyea Saloon OK." A saloon owned by a man named Wells? I contacted the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park and they provided me with a list of known Dyea saloons. Though there is no "Dyea Saloon," there is a "Dyea Beer Hall," located at the corner of 4th and Broadway in Dyea. Today, there are no remains of Dyea, but the Dyea Beer Hall is one of the few structures that the KGRNHP can locate on the ground, where it once stood. The name of Well's remains a mystery. Soapy probably wrote "OK" to remember that the saloon was fine with bunco men using the establishment for use, no doubt for a cut of the take. In letting my imagination run wild, I wonder if this Soapy's attempt to help, or swindle, a saloon in Dyea or Skaguay, in supplying a whiskey stock that is running low.

Wells Dyea Saloon: page 450.

"Poker is a game of chance, but not the way I play it."

— W. C. Fields

APRIL 18

1676: Sudbury, Massachusetts is attacked by Indians.

1775: American revolutionaries Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott, ride though the towns of Massachusetts giving the warning that "the British are coming."

1818: A regiment of Indians and blacks are defeated at the Battle of Suwann, in Florida, ending the first Seminole War.

1846: The telegraph ticker is patented by R. E. House.

1847: U.S. troops defeat almost 17,000 Mexican soldiers commanded by Santa Anna at Cerro Gordo, during the Mexican-American War.

1861: Colonel Robert E. Lee turns down an offer to command the Union armies during the Civil War, instead, joining the Confederacy.

1877: Charles Cros writes a paper that described the process of recording and reproducing sound. In France, Cros is regarded as the inventor of the phonograph. In the U.S., Thomas Edison gets the credit.

1895: New York State establishes free public baths.

1892: McGinty, the petrified man belonging to bunco artists Soapy Smith, goes on display in Murphy’s Exchange, Denver, Colorado.

1899: Bat Masterson opens the Olympic Athletic Club in Denver, Colorado at the corner of Sixteenth and Market Streets. One of his regular boxers is “Reddy” Gallagher, one of bad man Soapy Smith’s toughs, who had followed Soapy to Alaska in 1898.

Frank Clancy: "Skaguay a terror for horses."

"SKAGUAY A TERROR FOR HORSES"
Seattle Daily News
Aug 22, 1897

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KAGUAY A TERROR FOR HORSES

      It was Frank W. Clancy's first trip to Skagway [spelled Skaguay], Alaska, and now he was back in his home town of Seattle, Washington, where he reports on the conditions there. What he leaves out of his report is information meant only for the ears of his brothers. The Clancy's are well-known and politically powerful saloon and gambling proprietors in Seattle, and they plan to open a saloon in Skaguay and the neighboring camp of Dyea.

____________________________

SKAGUAY A TERROR FOR HORSES

______________

Frank Clancy Comes Home and Tells About Alaska.

______________

      Frank Clancy, the well-known Seattle sporting man, who has been in Skaguay for several weeks returned this morning on the steamer Rosalie. As soon as it was noised about that he had returned he was the most sought–after man in town. A large crowd captured him on the corner of first Avenue and Cherry Street, and to them he detailed some of his experiences and told of the sites he had witnessed.

      “You can have some idea of things at Skaguay,” he said, “when you think of the fact that the miners are paying from 35 to 50 cents a pound for packing over the Summit. Good packers are getting $8 a day. That is what John G. Scurry is paying his men today. The trail is simply awful. Very few of the thousands at Skaguay will get over this winter. George Rice of this city started out with a pack train the day before I left Skaguay, and had not returned when I left. Think of that, will you? The country is a holy terror on horses. Scores of them have been killed and lots of them ruined. One of Harry Struve’s horses stepped in a crack in the rocks and literally twisted his leg off. Skaguay is a lively town, and people in business there will make a good thing this winter. A good many of the boys up there will come home after they see how impossible it is for them to cross the Summit this winter.”[1]

______________

      On August 10, 1897, before leaving Skagway, Frank he purchased lot 1 on block 6, on Runnals and Shoup Streets, the future southwest corner of what would become Seventh and State Avenues.[2] It is here that Frank and John E. Clancy would open Clancy and Company Music Hall and Club Rooms [gambling] in January 1898.

Clancy and Company
Music Hall and Club Rooms

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      Frank and John Clancy align with "Soapy" Smith, and in the spring of 1898 they go in 1/2 ownership of Jeff Smith's Parlor (Soapy's saloon), where John Clancy works as a bartender.

      With the aid of Soapy, who has a detailed background in manipulating elections, Frank Clancy wins a seat on the Skaguay City Council.[3]

      In the last hours of Soapy's empire, as well as his life, John Clancy appears to double-cross Soapy as he is the only gang member completely exonerated from punishment by the vigilante's although the Clancy's were definite crime partners. Stranger still is that John is made executor of Soapy's estate.

 ______________

TRIVIA: In 1902 outlaw Harry Tracy talked about robbing the Clancy saloon in Seattle. Tracy said that he was going to hold up a policeman for his gun, and then go down to Seattle by Pike Street to hold up Clancy’s Saloon, because “I hear they have got some dough down there.”

FOOTNOTES:
[1]. Seattle Daily News, August 22, 1897.
[2]. Skagway Historical Records, lot locations, Vol 19.
[3]. Skaguay News, June 17, 1898.









Frank Clancy: April 16, 2011, December 27, 2010, June 24, 2010, April 14, 2010, August 20, 2009, July 4, 2009, June 7, 2009, October 5, 2008.

Clancy and Company: pages 481, 523, 595.
Frank Clancy: pages 455, 461, 471, 516, 521, 552-53.
John Clancy: pages 455, 461, 471, 481-82, 543-46, 552-55, 558, 585, 595.

"The first night they slept near the lake and remained in hiding all the next day. Saturday night, almost famished with hunger, they hit the trail again and came down to the slaughterhouse with the hope of escaping by boat or of getting back to friendly cabins. It seemed too risky to attempt to pass the lines of armed patrolmen, however, and shortly after 2 o’clock they started back up the trail. Tripp, who is an old man, was tired out and refused to go back. His companions expostulated with him for an hour, but he stuck to his declaration that he “would rather be hung on a full stomach than die of starvation in the ____ ____ mountains.” So he was at length permitted to return."

— Daily Alaskan
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 564.

JANUARY 3

1777: George Washington defeats British forces led by Cornwallis at The Battle of Princeton during the American Revolutionary War.

1791: The first known law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty in U.S. history is Albany County Constable Darius Quimby. A posse in Stephentown, New York attempt to arrest Whiting Sweeting on a warrant for theft. Sweeting resists, and stabs Quimby who later dies of his wounds. Sweeting is convicted for the murder in July of 1791 and is executed the following month.

1823: Stephen F. Austin receives a grant from the Mexican government and begins colonization of the region of the Brazos River in Texas.

1844: The side-wheel steamship Shepherdess sinks fast in the Mississippi River 3-miles outside of St. Louis. Forty passengers perish.

1847: The town of Yerba Buena is renamed San Francisco.

1868: The Colorado Central and the Pacific Railroad hosts a groundbreaking ceremony at Golden City, Colorado Territory. 1871: Henry W. Bradley patents oleomargarine (margarine).

1879: The War Department orders Captain Wessells to return Dull Knife and his Cheyenne Indians to Fort Reno in Indian Territory. Dull Knife and his men refuse to leave and are kept in the barracks at Fort Robinson, Nebraska with no food or wood.

1884: Soapy Smith is arrested for the second time while in San Francisco for operating the prize package soap racket. The first arrest was on January 1.

1888: The drinking straw is patented by Marvin C. Stone.

1894: The outlaw Doolin Gang members, Charlie Pierce and Red Buck Waightman hold up the community store and post office in Clarkson, Oklahoma taking supplies, tobacco, cash, and registered mail.

1959: Alaska, “the last frontier” becomes the 49th state.

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.