St. Louis Dispatch, 1897: Soapy Smith goes to St. Louis to check on his wife after leaving Skagway.

LOOK OUT FOR "SOAPY" SMITH
St. Louis Dispatch
September 23, 1897

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e reported himself in good health and money."   

New information showing that Soapy Smith did go to St. Louis to check up on his ailing wife, Mary, after leaving Skagway.

 

Below is the transcription of the article from the St. Louis Dispatch, September 23, 1897.

LOOK OUT FOR “SOAPY” SMITH
―
The Smooth Man Is Headed This Way, So Be Careful.
―

      ”Soapy" Smith is headed this way, and Chief Desmond and his men are ready on the anxious seat.
     "Soapy" is one of the slickest swindlers in the West. For the last two or three months he has been operating a shell game in Alaska. When he first struck Skagua [sic] he was referred to as "Mr. Smith, the genial and popular three-shell man."
     But the inhabitants got onto his curves. Now Mr. smith has come down to Seattle, Wash., with $20,000 winnings.
     Denver is the base of "Soapy's" operations. Years ago when he was a tyro in the confidence business he sold a brand of soap and as an inducement would put a 50 cent piece in one of the boxes. Then he would sell his soap at 25 cents a box, the lucky purchaser getting the 50 cent piece. Next he ran a shell game and from a small beginning he became one of the leading gamblers of Denver in its wide open days. He led one of the factions that marched on the State House in 1894.
     His one attempt to operate in St. Louis was futile. He came here accompanied by his wife and two children in the fall of 1894 and rented a house on Locust Street. He openly boasted of his ability to run a gambling house in St. Louis. Every time he appeared on the street one of Desmond's sleuths arrested him for vagrancy.
     One night in an Olive street saloon he ridiculed the St. Louis police and was overheard by Detective Tom Tracey. Tracey knocked Smith down and then arrested him. "Soapy" was given one hour to leave town, and hasn't been here since. It is said that his wife and children are still in St. Louis, but Chief Desmond says he does not know of their presence here.
     Jim Cronin is in receipt of a letter from "Soapy," dated Sept. 15. "Soapy" was then at skagua[sic], but was about to start over the White Pass for Dawson. He reported himself in good health and money.

―

     There are numerous accounts of Soapy Smith's first visit to Skagway, Alaska and his return to Seattle less than a month later. Some newspapers published accounts that he had been forced from Skagway by vigilantes, while other accounts said he left for personal reasons. The following comes from Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel.

     Jeff hated the Alaska winter and would have preferred to spend it down in the states. With business so good, though, he would endure the wind, rain, snow, and cold. Something else, though, made Jeff leave Skaguay while his operations were so successful, Mary. Receiving word that she was ill, on September 14, 1897, Jeff boarded the S.S. Queen and docked in Seattle eight days later. The Seattle Daily Times interviewed passengers returning from the Klondike, and Jeff was one of them. In his interview he claimed to have earned $18,000 to $20,000 during his short stay in Skaguay, amounts equivalent today to between about $562,320 and $624,800.
     US Attorney Bennett and US Marshal James McCain Shoup were also on board the Queen. They claimed that the residents of Skaguay had forced Jeff out of Alaska. In November 1897 “Bat” Masterson returned from Washington state and spoke to the Denver Evening Post about Jeff’s departure from Alaska.

I saw very few people from Denver. I heard of but did not see Soapy Smith. The report that he was driven out of Skaguay was erroneous. I met his partner Jerry Daily, at Spokane. He said they were in Skaguay twenty-three days and ‘worked’ nineteen days while there. During the nineteen days they captured $30,000, which was divided into four parts, over $7,000 each, but Soapy got the most of it ultimately. He received a telegram that his wife was sick in St. Louis and went to that city to be with her. They did not have time to bother with him at Skaguay, for everybody was too busy looking out for themselves.

      Jeff must have discovered that Mary was better, probably by telegraph, because nine days later he was still in Seattle, lodging in the business district called Pioneer Place, known today as Pioneer Square.

     The last hi-lighted section is incorrect, and today's newspaper clipping post proves this. At the time of publication (2009) it was believed that Soapy did not make his way immediately to St. Louis to check up on Mary, perhaps having heard from her that she was feeling better, postponing his trip there, staying in Seattle for a time. However, this newspaper article posted today shows that he indeed went immediately to Mary's side, staying there for up to a week, before returning to Seattle, where on October 12, 1897 he got into a violent brawl in the Horse Shoe Saloon.

Soapy in Seattle 1897

December 22, 2009

April 25, 2011

October 2, 2013

December 3, 2015

March 21, 2019

January 2, 2020

 

Jim (James) Cronin

September 4, 2012

 

Soapy's trouble with Detective Tracy

March 21, 2021

 


 

"On this evening my friend 'Soapy' seemed very depressed. He gave me a very interesting account of his life. He had never intended to be regarded as a bad man. He killed his first man in self defense. He just could not help it. It had to be done. He was terribly sorry and the next man also made it necessary for him to Snuff out his candle."

—Saunders Norvell, Forty Years of Hardware, 1924

More on the October 1, 1897 Soapy Smith saloon brawl in Seattle.

Horseshoe Saloon
circa 1900-1910

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LOODY FIGHT IN A SALOON
More details of the October 1, 1897 Horseshoe Saloon brawl.

      Up until this post, the details of this saloon free-for-all, what had actually occurred, and why, have been largely unknown. An article dated October 2, 1897 in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer gives a much better picture of the altercation from the previous day.

BLOODY FIGHT IN A SALOON.

——

Knives and Pistols Drawn and Fierce Oaths Used.

——

ELMER MAYBERRY BADLY CUT.

——

“Soapy” Smith said to Have Used the Knife – Eddie Gaffney Gets Mixed Up in It Accidentally and Whips Smith’s Partner, Dugan – Mayberry Had Just Returned From St. Michael on North Fork.

——

      The Horseshoe saloon was the scene of a bloody fight last night. Knives and pistols were drawn, glasses and spittoons thrown and fierce oaths used.

      It was a fight such as might be expected in a mining camp, and the wonder is that no lives were lost, as death lay in the deadly thrust of the knife which entered the arm of Elmer Mayberry, a well-known sporting man, and also tore open the coat of Eddie Gaffney, the well-known athlete.

Horseshoe saloon
March 14, 1899
note the large horseshoe sign
University Washington Digital collection

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      Only for the interference of Gaffney Mayberry would probably have been killed and either Jeff Smith, a Denver sporting man, or his companion, Jimmy Dugan, also of Denver, would now be in the city jail charged with murder.

      The role was divided into two acts. During the first Mayberry gave Smith a good beating and Gaffney saved Mayberry from being ripped open with a knife, alleged to have been carried by Dugan. The second act took place after everyone supposed the trouble was quieted, and ended in Dugan being whipped by Gaffney. A cut in Gaffney’s coat near the shoulder tells the story of why he used his athletic ability on Dugan, as Gaffney says he would have been a fit subject for a doctor if he had not seen Dugan’s uplifted hand with a long and murderous looking knife.

      The row started over a grudge Smith has for Mayberry, and was ushered in by a few oaths and a throwing of glasses. Smith claims that Mayberry was the aggressor, and Mayberry says that Smith insulted him and then threw the first glass, which he caught and threw back. The glass missed Smith and struck a young man named Foote, nephew of Judge Foote, of San Francisco, squarely in the back, but did not injure him.

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      Mayberry has been up the Yukon River as far as Fort Yukon. He left Seattle two months ago and returned last evening on the North Fork. After reaching the city Mayberry commenced renewing acquaintances with his friends in Seattle and eventually found himself in the horseshoe saloon, on pioneer place. While he was standing at the bar Jeff Smith and Jimmy Dugan came in. Smith is known all over the country as “Soapy” Smith, and has recently arrived in Seattle from Skaguay, where he has been recognized as the king pin gambler and “smooth man.” Dugan is especially well known in Denver, and is said to have been a deputy sheriff. Smith looks more like a farmer than a clever sport, and Dugan is an honest appearing fellow with black curly hair. Smith achieved notoriety as a “gun man” by killing the editor of the Denver newspaper. He always carries a “gun.”

      Mayberry, who used to live in Denver and is well acquainted with Smith, asked him to step up and take a drink. Mayberry says that Smith refused, adding an insulting remark. Mayberry supposed that Smith was joking and did not give the matter any attention. Smith and Dugan passed along to the other end of the bar, and a moment later Eddie Gaffney and a friend walked into the saloon. Mayberry greeted Gaffney and asked him to take a drink. Gaffney said he was only drinking “light stuff.”

      “Everybody come up and have a drink,” said Mayberry. “It is Klondike money.”

      Smith stood at the bar and a glass of beer was placed in front of him. According to Mayberry’s account, Smith suddenly picked up his glass and threw it at Mayberry, who caught it and threw it back. Smith dodged and the class struck a young fellow named Foote in the back. No sooner had he thrown the glass than Mayberry let go his right at Smith’s face and caught him under the eye. Smith was not slow in getting to work, and in a minute there was a hot fight in progress. The saloon was in an uproar and business was suspended. Mayberry was giving Smith more than the law allowed and Dugan rushed in to help out his friend. Mayberry realized that something had happened when he felt the point of a cold steel inter his left arm, on a level with his heart. Again the knife ripped his clothes over his bowels.

The entrance to the Horseshoe

 
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      Gaffney saw that Mayberry’s wife was in danger and went at Dugan. He grabbed him with all the strength he has acquired in bicycle riding and wrestling, forcing his heavier antagonist back and away from Mayberry and Smith. Mayberry being left alone with the notorious “Soapy,” got him down on the floor and, according to the best obtainable version, made him give up. Mayberry allowed Smith to get up and Gaffney released Dugan. The men were bloody and in places the floor was sprinkled with red stuff. Broken glass was sprinkled around, and one of the big glass doors on the side of the room opposite the bar was smashed into splinters.

      Mayberry’s friends Saw that blood was trickling from his left arm, and a casual investigation showed that he had been stabbed. Someone looked at his trousers near the waistband and found that the cloth was ripped open in three or four places. While the crowd was discussing the merits of the “scrap,” and one was telling the other. “Well, you see it was this way.” Gaffney walked into the toilet room to wash himself. Something told him that a person was behind him and he glanced up just in time, he says, to see a man at his back with his hand upraised. In that hand was a long, dangerous and knife. The man who held the knife had curly hair. It was Dugan. Quick as a flash Gaffney turned, and as he did so the knife came down. Gaffney thought it was all day with him, but he dodged as best he could, and the murderous blade only ripped open his coat from the back of the shoulder downward a short distance.

      Before Dugan could recover Gaffney hit him in the face and knocked him against the wall. Following up his advantage Gaffney got a half Nelson, and held Dugan so he could not use the knife. About this time Mayberry showed up on the scene and seeing Gaffney in trouble let a spittoon fly at Dugan’s head. It missed the mark and smashed up against the wall. According to Gaffney he and Dugan worked out of the toilet room during their struggle and were in front of the entrance to the café when Gaffney caught sight of a man with a “gun” in his hand.

      “Get into the room for your life,” said Gaffney to Dugan, forcing him back. Dugan, who had been forced to let the knife drop, allowed himself to be pushed through the door. Mayberry was with them and refused to allow the man with the revolver to enter. The man with the gun was Jack Thompson, and for a moment it looked as if there would be a wholesale shooting. One man who sold the trouble said that three guns were in sight when he came to the conclusion that it was time to step out.

      But climax lasted for five seconds and closed by good judgment getting the better of hot temper. Gaffney let go of Dugan and left the saloon with friends. Mayberry was finally coaxed away and taken to Dr. H. D. Klein’s office in the Bailey building, where his wounds were dressed. They were not dangerous. Smith and Dugan remained at the saloon a while nursing the big bumps on their faces. Smith claimed that Mayberry started the row by throwing a glass at him and Dugan said he was washing his head when someone hit him with a spittoon.

      The real cause of the trouble is said to be a dispute about money matters between Mayberry and Smith.

      Mayberry refused to make any complaint, so detectives Cudihee and Meredith, who did not see any part of the trouble, did not make any arrests.

——

MY THOUGHTS AND NOTES.

      I knew "knives" were used, but this is the first account that specifically names "Soapy" as having a knife in his hands. The grudge between Soapy and Elmer Mayberry, a sporting man from Denver who apparently knew Soapy. That both Soapy and Jimmy Dugan were "whipped," losing this fight. The intensive details of the action as it took place, from start to finish. The details of the wounds obtained by each of the combatants. The details of Dugan's attempt to stab Gaffney in the restroom were especially interesting. Jack Thompson, the man who drew a gun on Gaffney as he was exiting the restroom, is very probably, James Thompson, a member of the Soap Gang from Denver.
      Note that Soapy "achieved notoriety as a 'gun man' by killing the editor of the Denver newspaper." This is not accurate, as they speak of the 1889 beating Soapy gave John Arkins of the Rocky Mountain News (Denver).

Original clipping

Click image to enlarge

December 22, 2009
April 25, 2011 
December 3, 2015

Horse Shoe Saloon: page 443, 502.
Jimmy Dugan: page 443.
James Thompson (Jack Thompson): page 365.

"I don’t mind a man cheatin' at poker as long as he ain't cheatin' me."

—Unknown

MARCH 21

1788: Most of New Orleans, Louisiana is destroyed by fire.

1790: Thomas Jefferson reports to U.S. President George Washington as the new secretary of state.

1826: The Rensselaer School in Troy, New York is incorporated. The school later becomes known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is the first engineering college in the U.S.

1851: Yosemite Valley is discovered in California.

1859: The first Zoological Society is incorporated in Philadelphia.

1868: The Sorosos club for professional women is formed in New York City by Jennie June.

1879: Per the agreement with New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace, outlaws, Billy the Kid and Josiah "Doc" Skurlock surrender to Lincoln County Sheriff George Kimball.

1882: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Warren Earp ambush and kill Frank Stilwell, member of the Clanton gang at Tucson, Arizona. Soapy Smith knew Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Members of the Earp gang later join the Soap Gang.

1883: Four settlers are reported killed in an Apache Indian raid led by Chato, Chihvahua, and Bonito, 12 miles southwest of Fort Huachuca, Arizona Territory.

1890: General George Crook dies of heart failure at age 61 while lifting weights. General William Sherman called him "the greatest Indian fighter and manager the Army of the United States ever had." Indian Chief, Red Cloud said, "He, at least, never lied to us." Crook had spent his last years campaigning for Indian rights.

1890: Bob and Emmett Dalton are arrested for selling liquor to the Indians of the Osage Nation at Pawhuska, Indian Territory. This is the first known criminal act of the outlaw Dalton Gang.

1891: A Hatfield marries a McCoy, ending the 20-year long family feud in West Virginia.

1898: A U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry finds that the battleship Maine was destroyed by a submarine mine. This is the cause of the Spanish-American War and the reason Soapy Smith created the Skaguay Military Company, his private militia. It’s real reason for creation is thought to be used as a legal force against Soapy’s enemies.

1902: Three Park Avenue mansions are destroyed when a New York subway tunnel roof caves in.

1905: Sterilization legislation is passed in Pennsylvania, but is vetoed by the governor.

1906: Ohio passes a law prohibiting hazing by fraternities after two fatalities.

1906: Creede, Colorado madame, Lillis Lovell dies, with an estate worth $40,500.

1907: U.S. Marines land in Honduras to protect American interests during a war with Nicaragua.

1910: The U.S. Senate grants ex-President Teddy Roosevelt a yearly pension of $10,000.

1916: Cole Younger, the last of the outlaw James-Younger gang, dies of a heart attack.

Did Soapy Smith know John Bull?

id Soapy know gambler John Bull?
Crooked gambler, steerer, gunman.

      In July 1898, after Soapy Smith was killed in Skagway, Alaska, J. M. Tanner, the vigilante turned deputy U.S. Marshal, took possession of Soapy's letters found in his personal trunk. These letters were published in Alaska-Yukon Magazine, December 1907 and January 1908. The letters disappeared afterwards. Text of one of those letters (from the January 1908 issue) follows.

Seattle, Wash.

May 9, 1898

Friend Jeff:

    I understand ["Reverend" John L.] Bowers has gone to Skagway. I wrote him in Victoria and Vancouver, but have rec'd no answer. I was in good shape here to get on my feet but old Bull had me pinched on a deal that Bowers and I was in, and because I didn't turn the proceeds over to him, he had Durff swear his life against me, and c., which caused me some trouble. Bull has lost many friends and is not in it. I will have things all right in a few days. Jeff, it makes no difference what people say for or against you, I am always your friend and I hope you are doing well. I will make some money here, but it won't be through the Bull click. Write me soon as you get this. I have two letters for Bowers. One from Skagway and I think it is from you. As soon as I know where Bowers is I will forward them to him.

    Write by return mail. Ever your friend,

Jno. W. Murphy.

Care, Horse Shoe Saloon [Seattle]

      The letter was written by John W. Murphy, mistakenly referred to as being the fictitious "Ice Box" Murphy in several books, but who is actually the same John W. Murphy, proprietor of Denver's famed gambling den, Murphy's Exchange (The Exchange), known as "the slaughter house" for all the blood spilled upon its floors. It was here where Soapy is accused of shooting and killing Clifton Sparks in 1892. Note that Mr. Murphy ends his letter with "Care, Horse Shoe Saloon." It is believed that John W. Murphy is the same "John Murphy," a partner in the Horse Shoe Saloon, frequented by Soapy when in Seattle, whom in October 1897 got into a violent fight in said saloon.

      John Edwin Bull was born in England in 1836. Little is known of his life, or when he came to the United States. He first appears, in historical texts, in 1861, as a professional gambler making his way around the mining camps of the western states, managing to make a name and place for himself in the sporting hierarchy.

John Bull and cohorts playing joke on "Mark Twain"
Pretending to rob Samuel Clemens
From Roughing It

(Click image to enlarge)

      For a few years in the early to mid 1870s Bull worked as a steerer for the notorious three-card monte bunko gang led by "Canada Bill" Jones. Others in the gang included Gerorge Devol, Charles "Doc" Baggs, Ben Marks, and Jim Bush. In 1880 Bull was in Denver as a partner in the Oyster Ocean saloon, restaurant and gaming house with gambler John E. Wilcoxon, alias "Jim Moon."

      In 1881 John Bull opened the Turf Exchange, a gambling house and hotel, on Larimer Street. In January 1882, gambler and old associate, Jim Bush, and Bull got into an argument in Bull's establishment, in which Bush drew a revolver and shot Bull in the foot. Shortly afterward Bull left Denver for the north-west and Washington. In 1898, he was in Spokane, Washington, when John Murphy wrote to Soapy Smith about Bull. Sometime later that year Bull got into a shootout with friend Fisky Barnett. One of Bull's shots hit a woman, another took off one of Barnett's fingers. Bull had been shot four times, in the neck, groin, chin, and left arm. Bull was forced to have the arm amputated. He lived to the age of 93 before passing away in 1929.

For more on John Bull pick up a copy of Deadly Dozen: Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West, Volume 1 (2010) by Robert K. DeArment.

"He was strikingly generous, giving a good percentage of his ill-gotten riches to those less fortunate, preferring the limelight of notoriety and popularity to the accumulation of wealth."

—Alias Soapy Smith, p. 16

APRIL 21

1789: John Adams is sworn in as the first U.S. Vice President.

1836: General Sam Houston defeats Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. This battle decides the independence of Texas.

1856: The Mississippi River is crossed by a rail train for the first time (between Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois).

1862: Congress establishes the U.S. Mint in Denver, Colorado.

1865: President Abraham Lincoln's funeral train leaves Washington.

1876: five men are hung in Fort Smith, each separate and for murder. They are William Leach, Orpheus McGee, Aaron Wilson, Isham Seeley, and George Ishtonubbee. It is estimated that up to 5,000 people witnessed the execution.

1876: Murderer William F. “Persimmon Bill” Chambers the “Scourge of the Black Hills Trail,” attacks and kills H. E. Brown, manager of the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Company, as he rode a freight wagon with two employees towards Hat Creek Station, Wyoming.

1877: Emile Berliner invents the microphone.

1888: Soap Gang member Frank “Blue-Jay” Brown attempts to shoot the man his wife had been seeing in Denver, Colorado, but his gun misfires and the man returns fire striking Brown in the face. Brown survives, following Soapy Smith to Alaska in 1898.

1892: The first Buffalo is born in Golden Gate Park.

1894: All gambling houses in Denver, Colorado are ordered closed. Just one of the many attempts to close down gambling in Denver.

1895: Soapy Smith and brother Bascomb go on a rampage assaulting numerous people in Denver, Colorado, including the chief of police and saloon manager John Hughes, the latter bringing charges that puts Bascomb in prison for one year, and has Soapy fleeing the state as a fugitive.

1897: Wild Bunch gang leader Robert Leroy “Butch Cassidy” Parker and Elzy Lay rob the Pleasant Valley Coal Corporation payroll at Castle Gate, Utah. They escape with $9,860.

1898: Spain breaks diplomatic ties with the United States.

1898: U.S. declares war on Spain, April 25, but backdates the declaration to this date, April 21, so that it appears as if the U.S. declared war first.

Horse shoe Saloon, Seattle, Washington 1897.

Inside the Horse Shoe Saloon
circa 1900-1910

(Click image to enlarge)

he Horse Shoe was THE place for Klondikers to socialize and drink in Seattle.

(The follow comes from Alias Soapy Smith p. 443)

"Gold rush Seattle had become notorious for wide-open gambling and prostitution. Like the old clunker ships that were given new life and sent to Alaska, old buildings and warehouses were remodeled into saloons and gambling dens. By day, Seattle bustled with activities associated with outfitting and transportation. By night, according to one newspaper headline, it became 'a hot town' that catered to the needs of a largely transient population. One of the amusement houses in which Jeff spent his nights was the Horse Shoe Grill Room and saloon located at 914 Front Street [located in Pioneer Place, known today as Pioneer Square]. This place was to Seattle what the Arcade was to Denver, making it a popular destination among Seattle’s leading gamblers and underworld figures. On October 1, 1897, a sizable affray erupted between two groups of men, one of whom was Jeff. Denver’s Rocky Mountain News reported what was known of the confrontation."

Latest information on the fight, March 21, 2019

The newspaper story
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(The above clipping is translated below)

_________________________________________________________

ROUGH AND TUMBLE FIGHT

Jeff Smith and Jimmy Dugan Badly Beaten Up in a Saloon Row.

Special to The News. SEATTLE, Wash., Oct. 1. —Jeff Smith, Jimmy Dugan and Elmer Maybury, formerly a Denver sport, engaged in a fight to-night in the Horse’s Shoe saloon, during which Maybury was stabbed once in the arm and his clothes cut several times. Ed. Gaffney, a local athlete, who took Maybury’s part, narrowly escaped a deadly thrust from Dugan’s knife. Smith and Dugan were badly beaten up. An old grudge on the part of Smith toward Maybury was the cause of the row. The saloon floor was covered with blood. A plate glass mirror was broken and guns were in sight all around.

_________________________________________________________

The following day, October 2, 1897 the evening edition of the Seattle Daily Times had obtained and published a little more information.

_________________________________________________________

A HOT BARROOM FIGHT.

Alaska Gamblers Have a Lively Scrap in the Horseshoe Saloon.

Some broken plate glass mirrors at the Horseshoe saloon, on Front Street, tell of one of the warmest and most exciting barroom fights Seattle has seen for some time. Last night blood was sprinkled freely over the floor and broken beer and wine glasses were scattered around. No shots were fired, but it was not the fault of one of the participants. Knives were drawn and freely used, but beyond a few slashes in the clothing of one of the participants and a slight stab in Elmer Mayberry’s arm no damage was done.

There were five men in the fight, according to the most reliable account. “Soapy” Smith, Jimmie Dugan and Jack Thompson were lined up against Elmer Mayberry and Eddie Gaffney. Smith returned a few days ago from Skagway with considerable money made at gambling. Mayberry was formerly his partner and returned with Dugan from St. Michaels last night on the North Fork. The trouble was over some money matters and the fight started when Smith threw a beer glass at Mayberry. They mixed up, with Mayberry getting the better of it. Dugan started in to stab Smith and Gaffney then took a hand in the game. After the first fight was over Dugan tried to stab Gaffney and Thompson drew his gun. They were finally separated by friends. The police arrived after the fight, but as Mayberry made no complaint no arrests were made.

_________________________________________________________

The latter news clipping appears to contain some errors. No record of arrests or other details could be found. As no known grudge existed between Jeff and Maybury, the fight might have been over “turf,” in which a local gang did not appreciate Jeff’s presence. What is certain is that Jeff now had enemies in Seattle.

Except for Soapy, little is known of the combatants

• Jimmy Dugan: A "James Dugan" was arrested in Tacoma, Washington for robbing a tenant of the Windsor House in March 1898.
• Jack Thompson: Could this be James Thompson, a member of the Soap Gang in Denver? There is a Jack H. H. Thompson mentioned in Alaska Adventures: Wyatt Earp and Friends, by Howard Clifford, 2000. The book states that he was active in Alaska and Klondike development. He sent his regards to Wyatt via a letter to Soapy. No such letter has yet to be located. Thompson publicly countered reports of starvation in Dawson and Fort Yukon in the pages of the Seattle Daily Times (February 1898).
• Elmer (Maybury) Mayberry: N/A
• Eddie Gaffney: A Seattle athlete. I found nine articles on this sport from September 1896 to January 1898, ranging in competitions from horse racing to bicycle racing and wrestling.

Horse Shoe Saloon token

Horse Shoe Saloon token and 1896 ad

Pioneer Place (known as Pioneer Square today)
The Horse Shoe Saloon is located on the right
A delivery wagon (beer?) is parked at the front entrance
Postcard, circa 1903
Jeff Smith collection

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The Horse Shoe saloon
Postcard, circa 1903
Jeff Smith collection

Close up
Note the horse shoe shaped sign over the entrance
Postcard, circa 1903
Jeff Smith collection

Pioneer Place, March 14, 1899
The Horse Shoe can be seen to the right
copyright University Washington Digital collection

(Click image to enlarge)

Close up
Arrow points to the Horse Shoe entrance.
The horse shoe shaped sign shows that it was lit by electric light bulbs
copyright University Washington Digital collection

(Click image to enlarge)

Horse Shoe Saloon
Eddie Gaffney
 

Horse Shoe Saloon: page 443, 502.
Jimmy Dugan: page 443.
James Thompson (Jack Thompson): page 365.

"Soapy Smith had his faults but there are many men in Denver who were at one time hungry and looking for a dime, who will remember that his heart and purse were always open to the poor. Perhaps the good lord will remember all those little kindnesses as well as will the beneficiaries."

—Denver Times
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 591.

DECEMBER 3

1818: Illinois becomes the 21st state.

1828: Andrew Jackson is elected the seventh President of the U.S.

1833: Oberlin College in Ohio opens as the first coeducational school of higher learning.

1835: In Rhode Island, the Manufacturer Mutual Fire Insurance Company issues the first fire insurance policy.

1864: Gold is discovered near Confederate Gulch, Montana Territory.

1866: Completing the first Texas to Montana cattle drive Nelson Story, his cowboys, and herd arrive in the Gallatin Valley near Bozeman. The drive covered 2,500 miles.

1881: Dave Rudabaugh escapes jail and a death sentence by tunneling out of the San Miguel County, Colorado jail.

1881: John “Doc” Holliday is arrested, but acquitted, for firing a pistol inside the city limits of Tombstone, Arizona Territory.

1883: Outlaw William E. “Mormon Bill” Delaney rode into Bisbee, Arizona Territory with John Heath, Daniel Kelly, and others, where they rob a store killing four people, including a woman. Delaney stationed himself outside the store and was witnessed shooting down two men and may have killed the woman.

Soapy Smith at the Butler Hotel, Seattle, Washington, 1897

The Butler Hotel
Seattle, Washington
As it looked in 1913

(Click image to enlarge)

n June 2, 1896, after an absence of two months, the steamer Utopia docked in Seattle, Washington. Upon disembarking, Soapy Smith registered at the Butler hotel on Second and James streets, listing his residence as Denver, Colorado. For the next two months Jeff traveled between Seattle and Spokane Falls.
      Soapy was returning after his first trip to the District of Alaska to investigate the area and the rumors of gold in vast quantities, which for Soapy, meant gold camps and potential suckers in vast quantities. He found both, but not enough of either to stay just yet. He was in the process of getting back to the states when the ship, the Utopia, and its captain, John "Dynamite" O'brien, ran into financial and medical difficulties. It took Soapy two months to return to the states and he was surely happy to have big city amenities once again.

Butler Hotel
Courtesy of University of Washington

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The original Butler Hotel was a three story wooden structure erected in 1875 and razed in the great Seattle fire of 1889. Less than a month after the fire a new five-story Butler was constructed on the site, and soon became of of Seattle's finest.

The Butler was in the middle of the action

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By 1894 the Butler increased in size encompassing an entire block. When Soapy registered a room there, the hotel had its own electric plant and cold storage plant, as well as an open-front refrigerator in its grill room. The hotel was located just around the corner of the area known today as Pioneer Square. Here is where all the action took place during the Klondike gold rush. It was in Pioneer Square where Soapy got into a saloon brawl at the Horse Shoe Saloon on October 1, 1897.

The Grille
Butler Hotel restaurant

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The Hotel Butler Lobby

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Two more stories were added in 1903. By Prohibition the hotel had seen its better days pass, and it closed in 1933. All but the bottom two floors were then razed, and a multi-story parking lot was erected above, where the hotel had stood. The bottom two floors remain today.

The Butler as it looks today

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The original main entrance to the Butler Hotel

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Sources: Wikipedia
 

Butler Hotel: page 416.

"The city seems to be overrun with 'bunko men,' highway robbers, common thieves and cutthroats. Their tricks are seldom made known to the public, except in cases of a very glaring nature where secrecy cannot be maintained, and if anything, the boldness of their operators has become much greater and their scene of operations much extended. In nine cases out of ten the victim himself pleads for secrecy, for be it known, these are men caught in these nets who would rather die than be found out."

—Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 29, 1880

OCTOBER 2

1780: British Army Major John Andre is hung as a spy. He was carrying information about the actions of Benedict Arnold.

1835: The first battle of the Texas Revolution takes place near the Guadalupe River when American settlers defeat a Mexican cavalry unit.

1858: Navajo Indians kill a U.S. soldier at Launa Chusca, near Ft. Defiance, New Mexico Territory.

1858: The first Butterfield Overland stagecoach reaches Tucson, Arizona Territory.

1862: a vigilante court starts proceedings in what would later become known as the Great Hanging at Gainesville [Texas]. Forty suspected Unionists are hanged this month, two others being shot and killed as they tried to escape.

1874: Civilian prospectors with the Custer expedition into the Dakota Black Hills discover gold on French Creek.

1874: President Grant visits Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory.

1876: The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas opens. It is the state's first venture into public higher education.

1877: Chief Joseph refuses to surrender while being held prisoner in Montana Territory. Colonel Miles attacks the Nez Perce Indians. The Nez Perce Indians capture an Army officer and threaten to kill him if Chief Joseph is not released. Nelson releases Chief Joseph. General Howard arrives with reinforcements.

1878: Charles Earl Bowles, alias “Black Bart,” holds up a Wells Fargo stagecoach 12 miles outside of Ukiah, California.

1882: Fort Dodge in Kansas is abandoned.

1889: The first international Conference of American States begin in Washington, DC.
1918: Granville Stuart dies in Missoula, Montana. A prospector and cattleman, Stuart was one of the first white men to discover gold (1858) in the deer Lodge Valley of Oregon country. He was a member of the vigilante group that put an end to Henry Plummer and his band of "Innocents." In 1884 he formed a band of vigilantes called the "Stranglers" and cleared eastern Montana of rustlers and stock thieves.