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| Soapy STAR notebook Page 13 - Original copy 1882 Courtesy of Geri Murphy |
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OAPY SMITH'S STAR NOTEBOOK
Part #13 - Page 13
This is page 13, dated 1882, the continuation of deciphering Soapy Smith's "star" notebook from the Geri Murphy's collection. A complete introduction to this notebook can be seen on page 1. Page 13 is a continuation from page 11 and 12, and concluding on page 14.
The notebook(s) are in Soapy's handwriting, and often times pretty hard to decipher. A large part of this series of posts is to transcribe the pages, one-at-a-time, and receive help from readers on identifying words I am having trouble with, as well as correcting any of my deciphered words. My long time friend, and publisher, Art Petersen, has been a great help in deciphering and adding additional information.
I will include the original copy of each page, an enhanced copy of each page, a copy in negative, and a copy with typed out text, as tools to aid in deciphering the notes. There are a total of 24 pages. This means that there may be upwards of 24 individuals posts for this one notebook. Links to the past and future pages (pages 1, 2, 3, etc.) will be added at the bottom of each post for ease of research. When completed there will be a sourced partial record of Soapy's activities and whereabouts for 1882-1883.
Important to note that the pages of the notebook do not appear to be in chronological order, with Soapy making additional notes on a town and topic several pages later.
Rather than plans to go somewhere, this page is an accounting of where Soapy has already gone (Oregon, Washington Territory, California) in 1882. Previous pages contained to do lists, work notes, an itinerary. This page engages in journaling—the recording of past events, perhaps for the purpose of revisiting them, or memorializing them for oneself, like a diary entry. The interesting thing is that, although the writing records the communication of twenty-one-year-old Soapy Smith with himself, the writing also communicates with us about him 142 years later (and potentially far beyond today).
Below are my attempts to attempts to make the writing easier to see and decipher.
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Below is what I believe to be the correct deciphering of the text, dated 1882. Do you agree, or do you see something else? All comments, suggestions and ideas are welcome! I will update the new information to this post.
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Page 13
- Line 1: "McMinnville [Oregon] from"
- Line 2: "there to Independence [Oregon]"
- Line 3: "Corvallis [and] Albany [Oregon]"
- Line 4: "Eugene to Halsey [Oregon]"
- Line 5: "up to Sept 10th"
- Line 6: "Harrisburg [Oregon] Sep 11th"
- Line 7: "Junction City [Oregon] Sep 12th"
- Line 8: "back to Halsey [Oregon], from"
- Line 9: "there to Brownsville [Oregon]"
- Line 10: "Brownsville to Salem [Oregon]"
- Line 11: "Salem [Oregon] til [until] Sep 24th"
- Line 12: "Good fair Salem [Oregon]"
- Line 13: "to Portland Portland [Oregon]"
- Line 14: "to Dayton W.T. [Washington Territory]"
- Line 15: "Waitsburg, Walla [Washington Territory]"
- Line 16: "Walla [Washington Territory] no good."
- Line 17: "for me from"
- Line 18: "Walla Walla to (1882)"
- Line 19: "Spokane Oct 5th [1882]"
The scratched out figures that appear between lines 17-19 seems to be Soapy trying to remember how much he had made up to that point, which is not "Oct 5th of 82" but "by Sept 18th 1882" of line 20. It could be that he scratched out the numbers and that date because he decided that he had remembered incorrectly and gave up trying to compute how much he took in. The scratched out numbers, though, give a sense of how much he was taking in. The figures appear to be
200.00
200.00
250.00
650.00
200.00
250.00
650.00
According to Tom's Inflation Calculator, $1 in 1882 equals $32.32 in 2024. So the total of $650 in 1882 would be equivalent to about $21,008 today.
- Line 20: "by Sep 18th 1882."
- Line 21: "Cheney [Washington Territory] Oct 6th"
- Line 22: "7 [th] to Dalles [Oregon] [Oct] 8th"
- Line 23: "to Portland, Or. [Oregon]"
- Line 24: "From there 9th to"
- Line 25: "Dalles, Oregon"
- Line 26: "Back to Portland [Oregon]"
- Line 27: "10th and sailed on"
- Line 28: "15 Oct for"
- Line 29: "San Francisco [California]"
- Line 30: "arrived 18th per"
- Line 31: "Steamship Queen"
- Line 32: "of the Pacific"
Soapy is moving from place to place, never spending very long anywhere, but returning to most of the more profitable towns in a hit-and run method, which was very common for most of the confidence men of the wild west. Now with page 13, it appears reasonable to conclude that the writings from page 11 on were filled out in San Francisco or beyond. He's remembering the trip.
Soapy arrives in San Francisco on October 18th 1882. An old blog post of mine shows that "Jeff R. Smith" registered into the Brooklyn Hotel on October 29-30, 1882. Soapy went to San Francisco at least four times, staying in the same hotel. Soapy remained in town at the Brooklyn, where on November 2 "Jeff R. Smith, Ft Worth" signed the hotel register and again on November 13. Also signing the register on the 13th was "John Taylor, Denver." Could Soapy have stayed in San Francisco for a time and been joined by John Taylor, his old mentor and partner in crime? Note that this time he lists his residence as "New York," and each time he registers he changes his "resident" city. Likely this is for self-protection purposes ("I'm from Denver, I've never been to San Francisco before.").
The Steamship Queen of the Pacific is a very interesting story in itself. Construction of the 336-foot, iron hulled, commercial passenger cargo steamer was built in Philadelphia for The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company and the Pacific Coast Steamship Company in 1882. She had three decks, two masts, and could carry 300 passengers.
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| Queen of the Pacific San Francisco Chronicle October 15, 1882 |
As Soapy noted, he arrived in San Francisco on October 18, 1882, which matched the mention in the San Francisco Chronicle, October 19, 1882. Interesting to note that the trip from Portland, Oregon to San Francisco took 52 hours (four days, four hours).
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| 52 hours from Portland San Francisco Chronicle October 19, 1882 |
The day following Soapy's arrival in San Francisco the captain of the Queen of the Pacific was arrested.
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| AN ANGRY CAPTAIN San Francisco Chronicle October 20, 1882 |
Below is the contents of the newspaper story.
AN ANGRY CAPTAIN
His Arrest Caused by a Hotel Runner.
E. Alexander, Captain of the Queen of the Pacific, was arrested yesterday by Officer Eagan on a warrant sworn out by C. M. Barnes on a charge of using vulgar language. It seems from the complaint that Barnes was a passenger on the Queen of the Pacific on he down trip, and that while he was soliciting among the cabin passengers he was attacked by the first mate, who handled him very roughly, tearing his coat nearly off of him, the mate claiming that he had no right to solicit in the cabin, as he had only a third-class ticket. Barnes had the first mate arrested on the arrival of the steamer, and in attempting to go on board of the steamer yesterday the Captain called him a dirty loafer, and told him that if he ever came on board the steamer again he would smash his head. Barnes, the complaining witness, is a runner for the Brooklyn Hotel.
Is it a coincidence that Soapy was staying at the Brooklyn Hotel?
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
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| THE STEAMSHIP QUEEN |
The steamship name, Queen of the Pacific was shortened to Queen in 1890. The same steamship that carried Soapy Smith and his gang back and forth between Skagway, Alaska and Seattle, Washington during the Klondike gold rush (1896-1898), 15-years after he traveled from Portland to Seattle in 1882.
The Queen played a key role in the founding of Skagway, Alaska, where Soapy would soon control the criminal underworld. On July 26, 1897, just nine days after the steamship Portland arrived in Seattle with its “Stacks of Yellow Metal,” the Queen anchored in deep water near Mooresville (Skagway, Alaska) and asked Captain Moore, the owner of the land, for permission to unload passengers and supplies. The Queen’s Captain Carroll did not know whether his passengers were entering the United States or Canada as the area was claimed by both countries.
Soapy Smith's second voyage on the Queen [of the Pacific] was in September 1897. Soapy, Jerry J. Daly and Jack Jolly arrived in Skagway, Alaska just a few weeks after it was founded as a trail-route to the gold fields in the Klondike, Canada. The three men worked swindles on the stampeders with great success. Working 19-days of the 23 that they were there, they made about $30,000 dollars. On the 23rd day they boarded the Queen for Seattle.
STAR NOTEBOOK
April 24, 2017
Part #1
Part #2
Part #3
Part #4
Part #5
Part #6
Part #7
Part #8
Part #9
Part #10
Part #11
Part #12
Part #14
Part #15
Part #16
"If, after the first twenty minutes, you don't know
who the sucker at the table is, it's you."
—Author Unknown
