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Artifact #77-A
Jeff Smith collection |
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he smoke
of the pistol blinded me for a moment, but I returned the fire and shot
both my assailants"
The gunfight at the Pocatello, Idaho train depot, August 30, 1889, is one of several moments in
which Soapy Smith came very near of losing his life. The is the
fire-fight in which Soapy had famed Earp gunman, John O. "Texas Jack"
Vermillion at his side, as a member of the Soap Gang. Also there John "Fatty
Gray" Morris, G. E. "Auctioneer" Roberts, J. W. Allen, and Soapy's younger,
hot headed brother, Bascomb. This is my favorite letter in my collection. It is the
original letter Soapy wrote to his wife telling her some of the details of the shootout. The letter is transcribed below.
September 2, 1889
Dear wife,
I am all safe and with friends. I had a narrow escape but came out all
right. Was sitting in the car at the depot at Pocatello and a man came
up and shot at me without any warning through the car window. The smoke
of the pistol blinded me for a moment, but I returned the fire and shot
both my assailants, one through the thigh, and the other through the
calf of the leg and the heel. Five shots were fired at me in all and how
I was missed I can’t tell. It looks like providence helped me out. I
fired three shots, all of which took effect. The men shot were switchmen
and were working for the railroad. The railroaders tried to mob me but
we stood them off and got a few good citizens to help and escaped to
Blackfoot. We returned the next day. I had my trial and was acquitted.
Write to me at Spokan Falls, Washington, Territory.
Bascomb is in Dillon, Montana. Kiss little Jeff & Eva for me. Give
all my friends my best wishes and don’t be afraid. Will let you know
about other things in my next. I rode 25 miles on a horse in 45 minutes
and I am very sore on my sitter. I also lost my mustache as one of the
bullets cut half of it off (say nothing about that!) Write me who were
my friends. I had to use the money in Pocatello or I would have been
there yet.
God bless you my dear wife,
Jeff
p.s. address plain
Jeff R. Smith
Spokan Falls, Washington Terr.
The man
that shot at me was one of the men who got licked at Logan Park.
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Pocatello, Idaho train depot
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Artifact #77-B
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In 1889 Soapy was entrenched in the underworld and back-room politics of
Denver, Colorado. There was no getting rid of him. However,
occasionally he had skip town for a short time in order to let legal
troubles subside. So what caused the gunfight? There's quite a back-story.
In July 1889 an outdoor picnic excursion that was attended by Soapy and the Soap Gang, there to swindle guests, turned into a brawl. The Rocky Mountain News reported on the affair and decided to continue reporting on Soapy and the Soap Gang. Managing editor of the newspaper, John Arkins, made the mistake of mentioning Soapy's wife and children and how it's not so good to be a Smith. Soapy went ballistic, ending with the physical assault on Arkins. Previously, the RMN had declared war on all bunko men working within Denver city limits, but now it centered on Soapy himself, and it was decidedly time for Soapy to "skip town" for a spell, until the attacks subsided.
"Moving on" was a normal hazard in Soapy's line of work, so he was always prepared to move to another town and start over. On August 4, 1889, Spokane Falls lost thirty-two
blocks of the main business district in a horrific fire. Conceivably,
in this prime location Jeff saw special opportunity in the aftermath of
the fire. Further, there were all the towns between Cheyenne and Spokane
to look over and operate in until it was safe to return to Denver, so Soapy grabbed a few of his gang and set off for the north.
On Friday, August 30, 1889, Soapy’s train made a scheduled stop at the
Pocatello depot. During the wait, a man in railroad switchman clothes
came up to the window of the railroad car where Soapy sat and fired at
him five times, point blank. All but one bullet missed injuring him. It
came so close that it mutilated half Soapy’s mustache as it whizzed by.
Soapy drew his pistol and returned three shots, all striking their targets,
two in one fleeing assailant and one in another. Next, railroad
personnel “tried to mob” him, as Soapy put it, but “we stood them off,”
and Soapy and his party, with the aid of “a few good citizens,” fled
Pocatello on a hasty, twenty-five-mile horseback ride north to
Blackfoot, Idaho. The newspaper there gave the shootout only two sentences:
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"Pocatello had a shooting scrape last week. Nobody killed however."
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It appears that the group rode as far as Blackfoot, before splitting up. Some of them, including younger brother, Bascomb, kept riding north to Dillion, Montana, while Soapy and some of his men returned to Pocatello to defend his "good name," declaring that the shooting was in self-defense, which worked. It was one less "bridge burnt." Once exonerated on September 1, Soapy and the others left. The Idaho News
noted the departure: “The smell of gunpowder has been wafted away and
the fightists are all gone.” It appears that Soapy and the group went back to Dillion, Montana and picked-up Bascomb and those with him, and traveled north to Butte, Montana where three days after the affray, on September 2, using stationary imprinted with the design and address of
the St. Nicholas Hotel in Butte, Montana, Soapy made time to record in a
four-page letter to Mary, the details of the event and assurances of his well
being. It is very likely that Soapy stayed the night at the St. Nicholas Hotel, I could find little on the Hotel. It advertised a dining room that could seat 100. It was on East Broadway, straight across from the site of the 1890 City Hall, and bragged that it was the largest hotel in Butte. It was gone, possibly destroyed by fire, by 1891.
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Butte, Montana
1887 |
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Artifact #77-C
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The Denver News printed the following on the evening of August 30:
Arrested in Idaho.
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The following dispatch was received at police headquarters last evening:
POCATELLO, Idaho., Aug. 30.—Police Headquarters, Denver, Colo.: Is Soapy
Smith and gang wanted there? All arrested here. SIMPSON.
According to Soapy, though, in his letter to Mary, he and the men with
him returned to Pocatello the next day, August 31, 1889. The police put
them in jail while figuring out just what had happened and while waiting
for a reply to a wire to Denver about whether Soapy was wanted there.
Denver declined the offer to have Soapy returned.
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Drawing by Jeff Smith
circa 1985
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Details of the shootout reached The Denver Times the day after the event, and the story appeared the next day. It was based on a dispatch from Pocatello.
JEFF SMITH SHOOTS A MAN
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The Result of a Feud Between Rival Gangs
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“SOAPY” PROVES TO BE GAME
From All Accounts the Shooting Was Justifiable Pocatello Toughs Attempt to Drive Denver Experts Out of Idaho.
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Jeff Smith, accompanied by “shoot-your-eye-out Jack,” Fatty Gray and
others, left Denver last Monday night [August 26], ostensibly for the
mountains. It appears now, however, that they did not intend going on a
pleasure trip, as they stated, but that they were going to Ogden and
other cities to “work.” It will be seen by the following dispatch that
the party has not had smooth sailing since leaving Denver:
Special to The Times. POCATELLO, IDAHO, August 31. On the arrival of
yesterday’s train from Ogden a shooting affray occurred, in which Samuel
Belcher of Ogden was shot through the left leg and right ankle. Jeff
Smith of Denver has been arrested as the party who did the shooting.
From all facts that can be learned it seems that Smith was justified. A
notorious gang at Pocatello, who have been “working” Ogden and other
cities, attempted to kill Smith and his companions, but Smith was game
and refused to quit the territory which the other gang claimed….
Three
guns were drawn on Smith, but he, instead of running, pulled his own
gun, shot Belcher and put the others to flight. He was immediately
afterwards arrested and will be given a hearing to-day. Another
statement as to the effect that the affair grew out of an old feud in
which the gang headed by Smith was opposed to a gang being led by “the
Rincon Kid.”
It has been well known among “fly” people that an attempt to kill Smith
would be made as soon as he left Denver. The “Kid” and his gang are
especially bitter against the smooth soap man and in frequent letters to
people in Denver the “Kid” has expressed himself as determined to “do”
any member of the Smith gang that he might meet.
A number of dispatches were received to-day by friends of Smith’s in
which “Soapy” declares that he was justified in shooting Belcher.
However, one dispatch from another source states that Belcher was an
innocent man whom “Soapy” did not know and did not intend to shoot.
The following dispatch was received this afternoon by a citizen:
"I was honorably acquitted. Show this to my wife. Will write particulars. Jeff Smith.”
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Artifact #77-D
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Major discrepancies occur between Soapy’s version and the Denver
dispatch. Soapy wrote that two men attacked him while the dispatch
reported three guns (three men?) drawn against him. Soapy claimed Belcher
was a beaten man at the Logan Park brawl, yet the dispatch wrote that
Belcher was a member of a rival bunco gang attempting to rid his turf of
encroachers. (Both reports could be true. Keep in mind that few of these men were obliged to tell the truth to the police and newspaper reporters) The dispatch reported that Soapy had been arrested immediately following the gunfight while Soapy
wrote that he and his men escaped and returned the following day to sort
out what had happened with authorities. The money he spent in Pocatello
likely went to attorney and enhanced fees to ensure his freedom. The
local paper did not publish statements from Soapy about the attack
because probably Soapy was gone, immediately having resumed his journey.
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Pocatello Depot
(red "X" marks the location)
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The man Belcher is not listed in the 1889 Denver City Directory, but
perhaps he and some of the others “who got licked” at Logan Park had
been part of a Utah bunco gang that had come over to “work” the
well-publicized event. Word was out that Soapy and some of his men were
leaving Denver, on holiday. Belcher and the man or men with him could
have been waiting for Soapy to come through Pocatello. On the other hand,
they might have been from the environs of Denver and as disgruntled
victims of Logan Park, were riding the same train, shadowing Soapy,
gotten off in Pocatello, changed into railroad work clothes, and closed
in on Soapy from outside to gun him down. Still another scenario is that Soapy and the men with him were “working” Utah towns and were being
tracked by a rival local gang. If Soapy were going directly to Spokane
from Denver, it would not have taken from Monday, August 26 (per the
Times story), to Friday, August 30, to reach Pocatello. Moreover, the Denver Times
reported Soapy had been on a train arriving in Pocatello from Ogden,
which is south of the route from Denver to Spokane. However the true
circumstances, clear is that a person or persons wanted Soapy dead.
Soapy also wrote that he could be reached in Spokane. He did not, however, travel northwest from Butte to
Spokane, at least not by rail. The Great Northern would not have a
railway through the Cascades until 1892. Traveling the steep Cascades
in 1889 would have been arduous. Clear, though, is that Soapy intended on going to Spokane. In his letter
to Mary, he asked her to address her letters “plain Jeff R. Smith,
Spokan Falls, Washington Terr.” This means of address was not uncommon,
at least for Soapy. A number of letters in the Smith family collections
are addressed in a similar manner. It was not wise to advertise a
specific place of residence, even on an envelope in the US mails. That
would be to invite another Pocatello-like threat to Soapy's life! Soapy suspected someone in Denver,
perhaps even a friend, had given out his itinerary and destination. Near
the close of his September 2 letter to Mary appears this cryptic
sentence “Write me who were my friends.” It seems likely that in an
off-hand way, Jeff is asking who might have been told of his whereabouts
and/or route, who might have been inquiring after him, or who might
have been inquiring about what had happened in Pocatello. After all, for
the attack to be so direct, it must have been known that he was a
passenger on that train.
Mary left the children with her mother and hurried to be with her
husband, probably at Spokane Falls. While with him, she tried to fix his
perforated mustache but without success. Soapy may have resorted to
shaving his face smooth and regrowing the beard and mustache that are
known in all post 1889 photographs.
Pocatello, Idaho
Pocatello, Idaho: pages 75, 88-89, 92, 166-70, 172, 366.
"The racetrack is a place where windows clean people."
