Soapy Smith and Deputy U.S. Marshal Sylvester S. Taylor, Skagway, Alaska

Sylvester Slade Taylor
Four months after Soapy's death
San Francisco Chronicle
November 3, 1898

(Click image to enlarge)

 

EPUTY U.S. MARSHAL SYLVESTER SLADE TAYLOR
(04/03/1867 – 05/12/1958)
 

The Latest On A Forgotten Lawman.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Sylvester Slade Taylor, known as "Vess" to his family, has a black mark upon his record as a lawman which appears to be one of the reasons he remains largely unknown. In Skagway, Alaska, 1898, he was under the pay of bad man Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith. After Soapy's death, via vigilantes, Deputy U.S. Marshal Taylor was "arrested" by the vigilantes along with members of the soap gang, charged with negligence of duty for his lack of performance after the robbery of miner John Douglas Stewart, and held until his boss, U.S. Marshal James McCain Shoup, arrived to relieve him of his duty. Historically, this is what Taylor is most famous for.

     Other than his involvement with Soapy Smith in Skagway, not much was known of Sylvester S. Taylor previous to 2010. In that year I had the pleasure of corresponding with a descendant of Taylor (second cousin twice removed) a family historian connected with the Ancestry.com profile for the Taylor family. This descendant wished to remain anonymous for privacy reasons and I still respect her wishes to this day. At the time, the Taylor family was not certain that their Sylvester Taylor was the same Deputy U.S. Marshal Taylor of Skagway, Alaska, fame. Even today the Ancestry profile mentions neither the lawman's profession nor his connection to Soapy Smith, however, there are solid links between the two that prove the two Taylors are one and the same.

     In every empire Soapy constructed, one of the first hurdles to jump was bounding the courts and the law under his control. Large graft payments were a common necessity in order for Soapy and his men to operate in newly arrived camps and towns. In Skagway, Alaska, 1898, one of the hurdles was 31-year old Deputy U.S. Marshal Sylvester Slade Taylor, who replaced Deputy U.S. Marshal James Rowan after he was killed on January 31, 1898. There are no details of how or when Taylor was lured into the criminal side of the law and placed on Soapy’s payroll as it was kept secret until early June 1898 when Mattie Silks publicly accused Taylor of being involved with the murder and robbery of Ella Wilson as well as being instrumental in a plan to murder of Silks. All of this was according to Silks herself and is questionable. Details of her accusations and story are equally interesting and can be found in my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel.

Sylvester Slade Taylor
Taylor and Maddox family reunion
Palo Alto, Texas, August 6, 1922
From Taylor and Bevers Pioneer Families of Palo Pinto County, Texas
by Bobbie Ross, 1996

 

     Taylor’s final fall occurred after three of the soap gang swindled some funds and then outright robbed miner John Stewart’s gold in Skagway, Alaska, on July 8, 1898, which directly led to Soapy's death at the shootout on the Juneau Company Wharf. With the collapse of soap gang rule in Skagway, the vigilantes rounded up the gang and accused Taylor of being directly involved with Soapy, of silencing the news of the robbery, and of failing to arrest the culprits in the case. Vigilantes went to the home of Taylor to arrest him, only to find him sitting in a chair holding a baby (probably Stephan Alaska Taylor, born two months prior). Taylor was ordered to stay inside his home or risk death. Later he was accused of offering the return $600 of Stewart’s gold to Alaska’s Governor Brady if allowed to leave Skagway a free man. This request was denied and Taylor was charged with “willful neglect of duty.” [1][2] 

     U.S. Marshal Shoup arrived on Thursday, July 14, and within hours fired Taylor from his position and appointed vigilante J. M. Tanner in his place. The Daily Alaskan reported “ex-Deputy Marshal Taylor” was charged with "attempted extortion from a stampeder," but as the complainant left Skaguay for the interior, that charge was set aside, leaving only the charge of “willful neglect of duty, laid by Mr. Stewart.” Taylor was brought before the Committee of Safety to answer to the charges against him on July 15, 1898. “He waived examination” and was ordered held pending posting of $5,000 bond until his trial at Sitka, Alaska. Deputy U.S. Marshal Tanner took Taylor into custody.[3] Marshal Shoup later defended his hiring of Taylor, stating that when he appointed the man, he came “with exceptionally strong recommendations, having served in a similar capacity in Idaho …, where his reputation as an officer was unassailable.”[4] From Taylor's hearing in Skagway, it was discovered that from 1891 to 1896, Taylor had been constable and deputy sheriff in Nanpa, Idaho, and during a portion of that time, he was a deputy US marshal, and from May 1896 to January 30, 1898, he had been city marshal of Nanpa.[5]

     Reverend R. M. Dickey wrote that he associated with Taylor in Skagway, had dinner with him “and his friendly wife in their snug home.” In the fictional account of his time in Skaguay, Dickey characterized Taylor as “Strange and puzzling…,” “clever,” acting “With great courage,” a man of feeling who “completely broke down” in telling of a little girl who had died some ten years before.

And yet some people in Skaguay suspected that he was in fraternity with Soapy Smith and his league of cutthroats. We never believed that. And yet…. … Our conclusion was that he was a big-hearted man who fully determined to do right but who had in some way come under the power of Soapy and that he writhed under it. … There was something there, but whatever power Soapy had over him we never knew. It may be that he found himself powerless to enforce the law strictly and decided to follow a mediating path with the law breakers to amend their effect as best he could. Having submitted to appeasement once, perhaps he was in Soapy’s power.[6]

     On November 3, 1898, while awaiting the final results of his trial, a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle had Taylor's likeness published (see top picture). On December 10, 1898, Taylor was acquitted of negligence. Evidence of his wrongdoing as a lawman was ample, but none of it was evidenced in court.[7] Though acquitted of negligence, Taylor’s career as a lawman was over. His name was now manacled to the legendary Soapy Smith, and no key could unlock it.

     Once able to leave Skagway, Taylor took his wife, Maud Ellen Stewart, and their five young children, including Stephen Alaska "Lou" Taylor, born in Skagway on May, 13, 1898, back to Idaho. In 1900, with the help of family member Pleasant John Taylor and an older brother or cousin, who was a "showman" and “movey projectionist,” Sylvester became manager of the show. In 1910 his occupation was still listed as “showman, vaudeville and movey projectionist." In 1919 Taylor's occupation is listed as working at the Isis Theater in Idaho.

      In the following from a Texas newspaper article from August 1922, Sylvester reminisces his early days in Texas, which includes a strong link to a career in law enforcement, considering his three older brothers were Texas Rangers.

      Early settlers will remember the three brothers of this family, who were Texas Rangers, known from border to border of the state of Texas as Ham [Hannibal Giddings Taylor], Eph [Ephraim Kelly Taylor] and Pleas [Pleasant John Taylor] (Doctor Stephen Slade Taylor’s sons). They lived in the days of Indians, and became Rangers to protect their homes, according to Sylvester Slade Taylor, of Reno, Nevada, who is in Fort Worth, visiting his son, S. J. Taylor, 1312 College Avenue. This is the second visit to Texas in thirty-five (35) years and the first time he had seen his sister, Mrs. Sarah Susan Taylor Click for thirty (30) years.
     "I went back home and went swimmin’ in the old swimming’ hole, in the nature way,’ the Texan said. ‘But the most exciting of the whole trip was when we went out to the Hart Ranch and saw a oil well brought in. They seem to bring ‘em in while you wait out there. It was the first one I’ve ever seen brought in and believe me it was some sight to these old Nevada eyes." He recounted many interesting things about the early days and the Indian raids. Remember the killing of the elder Dalton, father of Robert Dalton, owner of the Dalton Oil Tract. He saw his first train in Fort Worth, Texas.[8]

     In 1930, at age 63, Taylor is listed as a cigar salesman in Reno, Nevada. At age 73 in 1940 he is listed as an attendant at a local college in Spokane, Washington. Eighteen years later, on May 12, 1958, Sylvester Slade "Vess" Taylor passed away at age 91.

     At the time I published Alias Soapy Smith in 2009 I depended on the Taylor family tree on Ancestry.com complete with the inevitable mistakes that come with creating such a tree, for the pre and post-Skagway history of Sylvester Taylor. Thus, I was made to believe that Taylor "died comparatively young, though, in 1916 at age 49.” Since then, the information found on Ancestry.com has been updated and his actual death date, as shown in the death certificate below, is May 12, 1958, in Portland, Oregon.[9]

 

Death Certificate
Sylvester Slade Taylor
Courtesy of Ancestry.com

(Click image to enlarge)

 

 

NOTES:

1. US v. Sylvester S. Taylor. Whiting wrote that Taylor was found "with a baby on each knee, for protection and also, sympathy." 
2. Distant Justice: Policing the Alaskan Frontier, by William Hunt, 1987, p. 64. 
3. Daily Alaskan 07/15/1898, p. 1. 
4. Skaguay News, 07/15/1898. 
5. Criminal case 1028-US v. Sylvester S. Taylor. Record Group 21 – US District Courts. Box 16 – 01/01/05 (2). National Archives and Records Administration, Pacific Alaska Region, Anchorage, Alaska. 
6. Gold Fever: A Narrative of the Great Klondike Gold Rush, 1897-1899, by R. M. Dickey, Ed, Art Petersen, Klondike Research. pp. 84-85. 
7. Distant Justice: Policing the Alaskan Frontier, by William Hunt, 1987, p. 65. 
8. 1880, 1900, 1910 US Census, Taylor/Holloway Family Tree, accessed through Ancestry.com. 
9. 1880, 1900, 1910 US Census, Taylor/Holloway Family Tree, accessed through Ancestry.com.

 

 

Visit the Soapy Smith Soap Box blog

 

Sylvester Slade Taylor
Dec 24, 2010
Mar 23, 2014
Aug 13, 2017
Aug 18, 2017
Aug 24, 2017
Jan 14, 2020
 

Taylor, Sylvester S.: pages 508-12, 520, 527, 562, 575-78, 580-81.

"The Reverand Porter was fascinated with the game and firm in his belief that he could pick out the shell under which nestled the little black ball, but when the shell was lifted up the little black ball had mysteriously disappeared, as had also $52 of his hard earned wealth."

—Boulder Daily Camera, June 29, 1893

Did Soapy Smith donate money to the Union Church?

UNION CHURCH
Skagway, Alaska January 1898
Reverend John Dickey (left)

(Click image to enlarge)

ID SOAPY SMITH DONATE TO THE

CONSTRUCTION OF THE UNION 

CHURCH IN SKAGWAY, ALASKA?

      The photograph above shows the Union Church, with Reverend Robert M. Dickey (far left) and Reverend Grant (next to Dickey) preparing to head into the Klondike, January 1898. The photo was taken by photographer Eric A. Hegg.

      We know by his recorded history that Soapy was very generous with his money when it came to charity and civic projects. Although there are various accounts that Soapy donated funds towards the construction of Skagway's first church, there is no provenance. One big favorable piece of information is that the church was created as a non-denominational church, and these were exactly the ones Soapy is known to have preferred, as they did the most to aid the poor, not caring which denomination the poor catered too. The probable reason there is no proof of Soapy's donation is that there was likely no hoopla made over it. In those early days of Skagway camp, Soapy did not announce who he was. Even when arrested in Juneau, he did so under the name John Rudolph, as he no doubt wished his nefarious activities and criminal record of Colorado, to stay in Colorado, not following him to Alaska. At the time, few knew who he was, and he preferred to keep it that way for as long as he could.

      Dickey is well-known in Alaska and Canadian history for the churches he built. If you would like to learn more about this fascinating old west man of the cloth, you will enjoy Art Petersen's book Gold Fever: A Narrative of the Great Klondike Gold Rush, 1897-1899, The Reverend R. M. Dickey. You can find the book at KlondikeResearch.com

Photograph courtesy of the University of Washington.

 










(be sure to scroll down after clicking the link)
Rev. Robert Dickey

Rev. Robert Dickey: pages 13, 451-60, 462-63, 513-14, 580.

You see, nobody would touch Soapy after he was shot. … They were just scared to touch him. This woman came down … and she offered one hundred dollars a piece if they’d carry him off, and they did. They took him down to the morgue. Cost her four hundred bucks according to the story…. That was the story that went around. I don’t know how much they got.

— Royal Pullen
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 537.

OCTOBER 25

1812: The frigate United States captures the British vessel Macedonian during the War of 1812.

1853: Paiute Indians attack and kill U.S. Army Captain John W. Gunnison and 7 other men in Utah, Territory. The men and 37 soldiers were a part of a transcontinental railroad survey near Sevier Lake, Utah.

1860: Adventurer Frank “Pistol Pete” Eaton is born in Hartford, Connecticut.

1864: The Battle at Mine Creek takes place. The only major battle fought in Kansas occurs at Mine Creek in Linn County, Kansas. The Union Army defeats the Confederate Army, ending the threat of a Confederate takeover in Kansas.

1870: The first U.S. trademark is given. The recipient is the Averill Chemical Paint Company of New York City.

1873: A detachment of Sixth Cavalry from the Indian Territory attack a party of Indian raiders near Little Cabin Creek, Texas, recovering 70 stolen horses and 200 heads of cattle.

1877: Famed Lincoln County War combatant, Dick Brewer, and posse, catch up with Tunstall's stolen cattle in New Mexico Territory, 10 miles from the Texas border.

1878: Cheyenne Indian Chief Dull Knife and 150 of his tribe reach Fort Robinson accompanied by 75 soldiers. The soldiers provide the Indians food, medicine, and blankets.

1881: In the early morning hours, Tombstone, Arizona Territory residents John “Doc” Holliday and Ike Clanton spew threats at one another while in the Alhambra saloon. The following day both face one another in the famed gunfight behind the OK Corral.

1886: the Texas State Fair opens on a section of John Cole's farm in north Dallas. A rival organization, the Dallas Exposition, opens its first fair the following day. Both fairs are successful and eventually merge to form the Texas State Fair and Dallas Exposition, which eventually becomes the State Fair of Texas.

1891: Jacob Walzer, of the "Lost Dutchman Mine" dies without revealing the secret location. People have been hunting for the mine ever since.

1921: Bat Masterson, famed lawman and gambling figure, dies at his desk while writing a column for the Morning Telegraph where he was sports editor in New York City, New York. Masterson was a good friend of Soapy Smith.

Soapy Smith's grave marker was stolen in 1908.

Soapy Smith's final resting place
The first of five grave markers
placed over the grave
(courtesy of  Dickey Family Collection)

arl Gurcke published a post entitled, A Very Brief History of Skagway Tourism, on Golden Nuggets, the official blog for the Klondike gold rush National Historic Park. It is a brief history of Skagway tourism.
      Included in the story is the contents of the newspaper article which most likely explains what happened to the first marker on Soapy Smith's grave, and the date it went missing. 

The following is from The Daily Alaskan, July 20, 1908

The headstone over the grave of "Soapy" Smith has been carried away—stolen. Jack Keller visited the grave yesterday and only a hole in the ground remained where he had seen the headstone at a visit on Wednesday last... The head piece was a simple wooden slab bearing the inscription: Jefferson R. Smith, aged 38. Died July 8, 1898. The grave is at the south edge of the Skagway burying ground and is largely overgrown with shrubbery. There has been a constant stream of visitors to the place all spring and summer evidencing the interest felt in the outlaw and the tragedy of his taking off. That there should be a vandal so foolish as to steal a gravestone that could not be shown to another without stamping the owner as a ghoulish vandal—that is to say thief—is one of the queer things we hear of as we travel the trail.

      The marker was stolen sometime between July 15-20, 1908. Key to the story is that the marker removal left a hole (left there when pulling the marker out of the ground).  The second grave marker (in my possession) is very roughly broken up along the bottom, meaning that it did not come out of the ground very easily. I am betting the bottom portion of the 2nd marker was left in the ground, not leaving "a hole" as the one reported in the newspaper article did. It is possible that the marker still exists, somewhere in someone's private collection, probably by a collector who has no idea who Jefferson Randolph Smith is.
      All of Soapy's grave markers, and their known histories can be viewed on the main website (which is currently being revamped) here.

 










Soapy Smith's grave markersNovember 21, 2008
June 20, 2009
September 3, 2009
May 21, 2011
May 28, 2011
May 6, 2012
October 9, 2012
March 6, 2013

"There are four kinds of Homicide: felonious,
excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy."

—— Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

MAY 23

1785: Benjamin Franklin writes in a letter that he has invented bifocals.

1788: South Carolina becomes the eighth state to ratify U.S. Constitution.

1827: The first nursery school in the U.S. is established in New York City.

1846: Arabella Mansfield (Belle Aurelia Babb) is born. She is the first woman in the U.S. to pass the bar exam, though she never used her law degree.

1867: The outlaw James Gang robs the Hughs and Mason Bank in Richmond, Missouri of $4,000 in gold. The town’s mayor, the jailer and his son are killed in the process as other men are broken out of jail.

1868: Kit Carson dies during an operation in Fort Lyon, Colorado Territory, at age 59.

1872: The outlaw James-Younger gang robs a bank in Genevieve, Missouri of $4,000.

1873: The Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, Ontario passes a bill creating the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP); a military police like Royal Irish Constabulary, to patrol the border and to keep peace between Indians and traders. In 1920 they are merged with the Dominion Police to form the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). During the Klondike gold Rush they did their best to keep Soapy Smith and the Soap Gang out of Canada.

1876: Boston’s Joe Borden pitches the first no-hitter in the history of the National League.

1879: The first U.S. veterinary school is established by Iowa State University.

1882: Convicted murderer, Jesse Evans, of Lincoln County War fame escapes while on a prison work exchange program and is never heard from again.

1895: The New York Public Library is created.

1900: Civil War hero Sergeant William Carney becomes the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, 37 years after the Battle of Fort Wagner.

1901: American forces capture Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo.

Bishop Rowe Hospital: Skagway, Alaska.

Early photo of the Skaguay Hospital
February 1898
Later renamed the (Bishop) Rowe Hospital
(W. L. Whitaker Collection, Alaska State Library)

The Rowe Hospital has been a footnote in the history of Soapy Smith, being the place where Frank H. Reid was taken and where he died after the shootout on Juneau Wharf where he was shot by Soapy. Besides what little information was published in The Skaguay News and The Daily Alaskan, my first education about the hospital came from Martin Itjen's book, The Story of the Tour On the Skagway, Alaska Street Car (1934) in which Martin wrote,

This was Bishop Rowe Hospital, which by the way, is the place where they took Reid when he was shot by "Soapy'' Smith. It was our hospital for a number of years, but after the people quit getting sick he had to close the place on March 31st, 1905.

The Bishop Rowe Hospital
1898-1900

The history of the once Bishop Rowe Hospital in Skagway is almost coincident with that of the town itself. The same was founded by a group of townspeople on Feb. 19th, 1898 to meet the emergency of the great epidemic of spinal meningitis which then swept the region. The largest log cabin in town — 16 by 24 was purchased with funds raised by subscription, a nurse secured. So great was the emergency that not even beds were provided, and patients were cared for lying side by side on the floor. Men died unknown and uncured for in their tents and cabins.

Primitive as the hospital arrangements were, it proved an incalculable good in that time of scourge. April 16th 1898 Bishop Rowe was asked to assume charge and ownership. They made over to him the cabin and lot on which it stood, stipulating that he should make an immediate outlay of $1000 in building. The old books show that he laid out $3000. The two story frame building on the south was added.

The ground that was once tilled by the patients, now yields gorgeous tulip poppies and luscious red raspberries, and is the home of Mrs. Stanton Yeomans.

Hospital patient Frank Reid
July 9 - July 22, 1898

From Glenda J. Choate's book, Skagway, Alaska Gold Rush Cemetery we read that the,

first hospital in Skagway opened in February 1898, when the spinal meningitis epidemic ravaged the local community. Money was raised to rent and furnish a hospital building on the corner of McBride Avenue and Ivy Street. On February 23, 1898 the Morning Alaskan reported that "the lot is 50'x100', house is 1.5 story log, 18'x24', with a cellar, stable and a large quantity of wood for $600.'' The paper also reported the following admissions to the hospital that week. Ten patients were cared for with these ailments:

1- frozen toes amputated 2 - cerebral spinal meningitis
2 - pneumonia
2 - grippe
1 - bronchitis
1 - influenza
1 - inflammation of the bowel
1 - death

In April [1898] the hospital became the Bishop Rowe Hospital, named for Episcopal Bishop Peter Trimble Rowe, its benefactor, who made frequent trips to Skagway. Women of Skagway decided the hospital needed a women's ward, and funds were soon raised for the ward. The Bishop Rowe Hospital advertised on April 15, 1899 that "its location was high and healthy, accommodations for 30 patients, clean, well ventilated, with own dispensary with full stock of medicines and three doctors on staff ."

 

Our neighbor, Skagway Folklore posted (April 6, 2010) the text of a letter dated April 15, 1898 from the Right Reverend Peter Rowe, Bishop of Alaska in which "he described the desperate situation in Skagway and the need for the hospital."

"...the people of Skaguay have been forced to start an emergency hospital. The need of it beggars description. It has relieved many cases of great distress. The people have responded to appeals to their humanity nobly. Impressed with the importance of the institution, representatives of the public have asked me to take charge of it, and I have done so. They have transferred it all into our hands.

"The emergency hospital is a low cabin 30 feet long and 18 feet wide. One room on the ground floor answers for kitchen and cots; one room above is but half-story or attic. In this room I found 12 cots, and 10 of them were occupied with men in all stages of pneumonia and meningitis. Yesterday while visiting it a young man was brought in from the summit, 18 miles, on a sled, tied on to keep him from falling off, having been dragged over rocks and through mud all that distance.

"Last night I was with a young man who died in my arms, from New Brunswick, telling me what to say to his father and mother and sisters. It was most sad, most pitiful. Sickness is ging to increase. The appeals to our humanity cannot be ignored. The sick are absolutely friendless, helpless, and without the hospital would simply die by the wayside. We have one woman nurse, two men, and a cook. Skaguay doctors are attending for little or nothing as expenses permit. We must build an addition if only of an inexpensive and temporary character.

"I am going to begin this immediately. Present accommodations are totally inadequate and unsuitable. We have assumed great responsibility."

White Pass and Yukon Railway hospital
(Probably similar to the inside of Rowe Hospital)

It is known that Soapy was one of the first contributors to the hospital. The following is from my book (Alias Soapy Smith).

The Daily Alaskan published another subscription list, this time of those who had contributed to the community hospital site and building that had been purchased from Packer Joe Brooks. “Jeff R. Smith” was fourth from the top with a $25 donation. Previously, when the Union Church adopted the idea, as reported in Sinclair’s Mission: Klondike, “a board of three trustees was named with Reverend R. M. Dickey as chairman.” A committee was formed to canvass Skaguay for contributions, and one night as canvassing lists were being reviewed, Dickey’s Gold Fever narrator, Quebec, tells of coming “to one entry that read, “Jefferson Smith $25.” The person who collected that donation said,

“…I was passing Jeff’s place, and he came to the sidewalk and said, ‘I understand you’re collecting money to build a hospital. That’s something any of us may need sometime—I’d like to help.’ And he handed me $25.”

After a debate about not accepting tainted money, Rev. Dickey (named “Dominie” in Gold Fever) said, “If Soapy wants to contribute to a good cause, we have no right to prevent him.” When asked what was thought “of the stories being circulated about Soapy’s benevolences,” Dickey replied, “I believe some of them are true….”

Soapy's involvement with the hospital did not end there, again from my book:

Dr. W. T. Barrett wrote of his having observed Jeff look after some of his men when they were afflicted by disease.

I met Soapy Smith many times during our ten days stay in and near Skagway through D. Moore, a resident physician who was attending dozens of cerebrospinal meningitis cases, many of whom were associated with Soapy in gouging the public. Soapy often accompanied us on our daily rounds and seemed rather a delightful fellow to meet, one that would pass in any ordinary community as a successful business man—mild mannered and much interested in the humanities. His record, however, as an outlaw leader was well known to both American and Canadian authorities.

Sept. 16, 2009

Bishop Rowe Hospital: page 537.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ADDITIONAL NEWS!
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our friends over at Rocky Mountain Profiles have some photographs of how Sunrise, Alaska looks today. Hope is one of the camps Soapy visited on his first trip to Alaska in 1896. A diary notation confirms that he swindled miners with the prize package soap sell racket.

Jeff Smith

.

1898 John and Frank Clancy Skagway business card: Artifact #32

(Click image to enlarge)

All the artifacts listed with numbers, as the one above (artifact #32) came from the saved scrapbook files of Soapy himself. #32 is a large size business card from John and Frank Clancy, Soapy's partners in Skagway. Note that the card reads, "Clancy & Company" at the top. It is believed that this is in reference to Soapy. Soapy was a silent partner in their saloon and gambling businesses as exposing  his connection to any gambling could quickly ruin trade if his reputation were to follow him to Skagway, which it eventually did. Even on his own gaming halls and businesses Soapy did not advertise his name. The only business he boldly attached his name stay to was Jeff Smith's Parlor, and it was merely a saloon with no outright gambling inside. This was his parlor, much like a parlor in a persons home during the Victorian era, it was for the proprietor to shine in the eyes of his guests.   

(Click image to enlarge)

Note that the back of the business card has the mileage destinations from Skagway, which was certainly handy to the Alaskan and Klondike traveler and stampeder. This surely indicates that the card was made for the Skagway business over that of the Dyea establishment. Clancy's in Skagway opened sometime in January 1898.

John and Frank Clancy were well known saloon proprietors in Seattle. They decided to join the gold rush. It is not known exactly when or where Soapy, John, and Frank met but it very well could have been in Seattle as Soapy gained many associates and established many new friends while going back and forth between Seattle, Tacoma, and Alaska. Once in Skagway the brothers Clancy quickly made friends with the business community and the Skaguay News, which wrote of their new enterprise;

Of all the places of resort in Skaguay that known by the above name is one of the best known and most popular. Located in the business center of the city, it is always to be found by the newcomer, and all old-time residents know Clancy’s.

All visitors to this place are treated with uniform courtesy. There is music and dancing every evening. Clubrooms are maintained in connection, and a first-class cafe is soon to be added. The management leave no stone unturned to make their visitor enjoy themselves.

Rev. Robert M. Dickey also wrote of the Clancy business, but only in his private diary where he wrote,

"Weary looking girls exerting their last strength to lead men astray. Gamblers stealing hard earned money from men who ought to have more sense.”

Frank Clancy was the manager of Clancy's while John Clancy partnered with Soapy in the opening of Jeff Smith's Parlor but with his name in large font across the front of the building it is obvious Soapy was in control. Within months Soapy aided Frank in winning a seat on the city council. Considering Soapy consistently worked fraudulent election schemes in Denver, Skagway was most surely an easy election process to manipulate and win. Thumbing through my book there are numerous business, social, and political events in Skagway in which Soapy and the Clancy brothers are listed together.

One of the main events for the fourth of July festivities in 1898 was the ball, held at Clancy and Company's dance hall connected to the restaurant and gaming hall at the corner of Runnalls and Shoup streets (7th and State today). Admission was free so no doubt the gambling room was where the overhead for the ball would be recuperated.

Over in the neighboring camp of Dyea the newspaper there listed an ad for "Clancy and Company" located at River Street and Wilson. Soapy may have been a partner in their Dyea enterprises but he apparently was not able to control the newspapers there. The Dyea Press freely warned of Soap Gang activity. “Dyea has everything that every other town in Alaska has, except ‘Soapy’ Smith.” Located in the same issue was this warning: “Don’t play the shell & pea games in Wrangle and Skaguay or you will have to walk home.” The underworld of Dyea may have been under the control of Thomas "Troublesome Tom" Cady, a member of the Soap Gang.

In the ending days of Soapy's empire and his life, John Clancy appears to have double-crossed Soapy as he is the only gang member completely exonerated from punishment by the vigilante's although Clancy was a definite crime partner. Stranger still is that John is made executor of Soapy's estate.

Here are links to other posts on this blog pertaining to this topic:

December 27, 2010
June 24, 2010
April 14, 2010
August 20, 2009
July 4, 2009
June 7, 2009
October 5, 2008

Business card: page 456.

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.

Jeff Smith

.

Skagway's Deputy U.S. Marshal Sylvester S. Taylor

THE LATEST UPDATED INFORMATION ON SYLVESTER SLADE TAYLOR CAN BE SEEN AT THE FOLLOWING LINK.

JANUARY 25, 2023

     In every empire Soapy constructed one of the first hurdles to jump was roping the courts and the law under his control. Large graft payments were a common necessity in order for Soapy and his men to be able to operate in newly arrived camps and towns. In Skagway, Alaska 1898 one of the hurdles was 31-year old Deputy U.S. Marshal Sylvester Slade Taylor. There are no details of how or when he was lured into the criminal side of the law and placed on Soapy’s payroll as it was pretty much kept secret until early June 1898 when Mattie Silks publicly accused Taylor of being involved with the murder and robbery of Ella Wilson as well as being instrumental in the planned murder of Silks herself. All of this was according to Silks herself and is questionable. Details of her accusations and story are equally interesting and can be found in my book, Alias Soapy Smith.

     Taylor’s fall happened after the robbery of John Stewart’s gold on July 8, 1898 in which he was accused of silencing the news of the robbery and failed to arrest the culprits in the case.

     Not much has been known of Sylvester S. Taylor beyond his involvement with Soapy Smith, that is until about a year or so ago when I had the pleasure of corresponding with a descendant of Taylor (second cousin twice removed). This descendant wishes to remain anonymous for privacy reasons and I will respect that. At the time the Taylor family was not certain that their Sylvester Taylor was the same Taylor in Skagway. That link was recently confirmed during a renewed investigation and email exchanges between the family and various historians, including Marlene McCluskey at the Skagway Historical Society blog who did a superb job of assisting the descendant. Any questions or comments regarding Taylor and the family can be placed in the comment section and I will see to it that the family gets it.

     After Soapy’s death and the collapse of Soap Gang rule in Skagway, the vigilantes accused Taylor of being involved with Soapy. Vigilante’s went to the home of Taylor to arrest him, only to find Taylor sitting in a chair holding a baby (probably Stephan Alaska Taylor, born two months prior). Taylor was ordered to stay inside his home or risk death. Later he was accused of offering the return $600 of Stewart’s gold to Alaska’s Governor Brady if allowed to leave Skagway a free man. This request was denied and Taylor was charged with “willful neglect of duty,” in which he was acquitted.

Taylor took his wife Maud [Maud Ellen Stewart] and four young children back to Idaho, and with the help a person named Pleasant Taylor [Pleasant John Taylor, and older brother of Sylvester’s], perhaps a cousin, who was a Showman and “Movey Projectionist,” Sylvester became a “Manager of Show.” That profession must have worked out for him because in 1910, living with Maude and two more children in the family, Sylvester’s occupation was that of “Showman, Vaudeville and Movey Projectionist.  Alias Soapy Smith. 

In 1898 Taylor’s children were

• Stewart S. I. Taylor (1892 – unknown)

• John Elenor Taylor (1894 – 1971)

• Ruby Linda Taylor (1896 – 1943)

• Stephan Alaska “Lou” Taylor (May 13, 1898 – 1990)

It is known that Taylor had married several times, including once before Maud that included the birth of a child, and had three other children born after 1900. Those interested are welcome to continue researching the Taylor family with the sources listed at the end of this post.

My Taylor descendant source writes,

     His occupation on all the census’ of his adult years is listed as having to do with the entertainment industry except the 1930 and then he was listed as a Cigar Salesman. If I remember correctly his years in Alaska were in between the census years of 1890 and 1900; therefore his occupation of US Marshal is not listed on a census. I have some info I received from the Idaho US Marshal Office but I did not follow up [yet]….
     (from NARA 30 June 2010 Textual Archives Services Division- WREjr) I searched Record Group 217, Records of the Accounting Officers of the Department of Treasury, Entry 316, Emolument Returns for district Attorneys, Clerks of Courts, and Marshals, July 1842 - March 1907, and located a S. F. Taylor as deputy marshal under Marshall J.I. Crutchen during the years 1891 - 1896. The documents do not mention the first and middle name of Taylor. There were no entries for Alaska. There are no files for Alaska in Entry 316.

I was able to find the following on Taylor’s past as a lawman.

     “Ex-Deputy US Marshal Taylor’s case was special. Marshal Shoup said that when he appointed the man, he came “with exceptionally strong recommendations, having served in a similar capacity in Idaho…, where his reputation as an officer was unassailable.” Skaguay News, 07/15/1898.
     When Rev. Dickey was in Skaguay (October 8, 1897 to April 1, 1898), he associated with Taylor, had dinner with him “and his friendly wife in their snug home.” In the fictional account of his time in Skaguay, Dickey characterized Taylor as “Strange and puzzling…,” “clever,” acting “With great courage,” a man of feeling who “completely broke down” in telling of a little girl who had died some ten years before.

And yet some people in Skaguay suspected that he was in fraternity with Soapy Smith and his league of cutthroats. We never believed that. And yet…. … Our conclusion was that he was a big-hearted man who fully determined to do right but who had in some way come under the power of Soapy and that he writhed under it. … There was something there, but whatever power Soapy had over him we never knew. It may be that he found himself powerless to enforce the law strictly and decided to follow a mediating path with the law breakers to amend their effect as best he could. Having submitted to appeasement once, perhaps he was in Soapy’s power…Alias Soapy Smith.

     In the following Texas newspaper article from August 1922 Sylvester reminisces his early days in Texas, which includes a strong link to a career in law enforcement, considering his three older brothers were Texas Rangers.

     Early settlers will remember the three brothers of this family, who were Texas Rangers, known from border to border of the state of Texas as Ham [Hannibal Giddings Taylor], Eph [Ephraim Kelly Taylor] and Pleas [Pleasant John Taylor] (Doctor Stephen Slade Taylor’s sons). They lived in the days of Indians, and became Rangers to protect their homes, according to Sylvester Slade Taylor, of Reno, Nevada, who is in Fort Worth, visiting his son, S. J. Taylor, 1312 College Avenue.
      This is the second visit to Texas in thirty-five (35) years and the first time he had seen his sister, Mrs. Sarah Susan Taylor Click for thirty (30) years.

"I went back home and went swimmin’ in the old swimming’ hole, in the nature way,’ the Texan said. ‘But the most exciting of the whole trip was when we went out to the Hart Ranch and saw a oil well brought in. They seem to bring ‘em in while you wait out there. It was the first one I’ve ever seen brought in and believe me it was some sight to these old Nevada eyes."

He recounted many interesting things about the early days and the Indian raids. Remember the killing of the elder Dalton, father of Robert Dalton, owner of the Dalton Oil Tract. He saw his first train in Fort Worth, Texas.

     New information is always forthcoming and welcome, such as the fact that Sylvester’s middle initial “S” stands for Slade. With new information also come the inevitable mistakes published in my book that need to be addressed. In my book I have “He died comparatively young, though, in 1916 at age 49.” This information was found on Ancestry.com but since publication the information has been updated and his actual death date is believed to possibly be May 23, 1931.

Sources:

• Photograph: Taylor and Maddox Reunion August 6, 1922 Palo Alto, Texas. Taylor and Bevers Pioneer Families of Palo Pinto County, Texas, by Bobbie Ross, 1996.

• Anonymous Taylor descendant.

• Taylor Family Tree on Ancestry.com

• Dickey, R. M. Gold Fever: A Narrative of the Great Klondike Gold Rush, 1897-1899. Ed, Art Petersen. Juneau: Klondike Research, 1997.

• Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel.

Taylor, Sylvester S.: pages 508-12, 520, 527, 562, 575-78, 580-81.

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Rev. Robert Dickey on Marshal Taylor, 1898.

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