When did Soapy Smith arrive in Skagway, Alaska?

uthor Cathy Spude shared some of her husbands (Bob Spude) research while the couple lived in Skagway. This first piece indicates Soapy Smith was possibly in Skagway a few earlier that originally thought. Great stuff!





Cathy writes,

Jeff:

      You may have already addressed this on your website somewhere, so pardon me if you already know about it. I am currently reading the articles that Sylvester Scovel wrote for the New York World in the late summer and early fall of 1897. Bob made copies years ago when he was the historian for Klondike Gold Rush NHP. Scovel wrote the following in an article published on August 27, 1897:

      There will be a big town here [Skaguay] all winter at least. Celebrities are coming in daily. They each think the Klondike rush to be the biggest on record. Men are here who have followed the scent of gold since the forties. Smith, known all over the West as “Soupy” [sic] Smith, has felt the pulse of the rushes to Virginia, Nevada Cripple Creek, Randsburg, Butte, Mont., and Crede [sic] with a dozen others. He is regarded as the king of prognosticators, and he says:

      “This thing eclipses all previous gold excitements. The best men are here, the big mine experts, the big mine owners, and the biggest gamblers. You can tell a gold strike from the number of men who gamble and what they play for. In Dawson City faro is going twenty-four hours a day with a $1,000 limit. Poker runs along without any limit and a thousand men are playing day and night. There are not more than 2,500 men digging gold in the region and that tells the story. It’s all right in the Klondike” (The New York World, August 27, 1897, p. 2).

      I notice in Alias Soapy, that you estimate Soapy was in Skagway by August 22. This article is datelined August 20, although it was published on August 27. Scovel had been in Skagway since late July, and would not have had a chance to interview Soapy earlier than that, so I am assuming he talked to Soapy in Skagway on or before August 20 in Skagway. This article may provide evidence that Soapy was in Skagway a little earlier than August 22.

      Like I said, you may have already addressed this.

Cathy

My response.

      Cathy, I am not familiar with this article. Good find! It could very well be that Soapy was in Skagway a couple of days, or more, than I originally published in Alias Soapy Smith. At the time, previous to 2009, I had Soapy's partners talking about that first trip to Skagway, and ship's records to go by, but perhaps strong winds prevailed? If your newspaper was datelined August 20th then I would have to agree that Soapy was in Skagway on or before August 20, 1897. 

      Thank you for sharing it with us.

Jeff Smith

 

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ALIAS SOAPY SMITH
BOOK SALE

(Click image to enlarge)

Link to purchase
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Soapy's first arrival in Skagway: page 435.

"... historians are forever chasing shadows, painfully aware of their inability ever to reconstruct a dead world in its completeness, however thorough or revealing their documentation. Of course they make do with other work: the business of formulating problems, of supplying explanations about cause and effect. But the certainty of such answers always remains contingent on their unavoidable remoteness from their subjects. We are doomed to be forever hailing someone who has just gone around the corner and out of earshot."

— Simon Schama, Dead Certainties [Unwarranted Speculations]

MAY 10

1773: The English Parliament passes the Tea Act which taxes all tea in the U.S. colonies.

1775: Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold lead an attack capturing the British Fort Ticonderoga.

1840: Mormon leader Joseph Smith moves his band of followers to Illinois to escape the hostilities they had experienced in Missouri.

1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops in Georgia.

1868: A horse arrives at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas from St. Louis, Missouri. After receiving the “US” brand it is purchased by Captain Myles Keogh for $90 and he names the horse “Comanche.” Comanche is to become the only survivor at Custer's Massacre in 1876.

1869: The Transcontinental railroad is completed when two trains of the Central Pacific and The Union Pacific Railroads meet in Promontory, Utah. A golden spike is driven into the last rail combining the rails of the eastern and western United States.

1872: Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for the U.S. presidency.

1873: Isham Seely and Gibson Ishtanubbee murderer their hosts, a farmer by the name of "Squirrel" Funny, and his black housekeeper, who let the two killers stay the night in their home in the Chickasaw Nation. While the farmers slept they were murdered in their beds, and then their house was looted. The two were eventually captured, tried, and hung for the murder by Judge Isaac Parker on April 21, 1876.

1876: Richard Wagner’s "Centennial Inaugural March" is heard for the first time at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1878: A murder warrant is issued for Billy the Kid in Mesilla, New Mexico Territory.

1881: $125,000 is taken in a holdup of the Canyon Diablo to Flagstaff, Arizona Territory stagecoach. A U.S. Cavalry detachment kills five suspected bandits near Veit Spring but the loot is never recovered.

1885: A gunfight in the Junction Saloon in Ashland, Kansas pitts “Mysterious Dave” Mather and his bartending brother, Josiah, against David Barnes. Barnes is killed and two bystanders are wounded. The Mather brothers are arrested and flee after posting a $3,000 bond.

1898: A vending machine law was enacted in Omaha, Nebraska. It cost $5,000 for a permit.

1908: The first Mother's Day is observed in Grafton, West Virginia.

Soapy Smith's Scheme: The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight.

P. Maher and R. Fitzsimmons prize fight 1896
It was Fitzsimmons (right) who was nearly set to fight in Skagway, Alaska

(Click image to enlarge)

lthough some historians figured it must of been some sort of a swindle, there is no evidence that Soapy Smith was planning to rob the town of Skagway out of $50,000.
      The plan involved bringing James Corbett and Robert Fitzsimmons to Skagway in the spring or summer of 1898 for a rematch of their controversial fight held on March 17, 1897. That fight was billed as the "Fight of the Century." It was the first boxing match filmed and shown around the world. The showing of the film was so popular that one attempt was made to reenact and film the fight, using actors, but the acting was so terrible that it closed down within days due to lack of paying customers.

According to the Denver Evening Post, quoting from a copy of The Skaguay News, Jeff had asked the citizens and the railroad to put up a purse of $50,000 to entice the fighters to the city. It would be an excellent investment. Smith showed the citizens, on paper, how the town would make a profit of $1,000,000…. He said there would be at least 50,000 strangers in attendance, and each one would be compelled to leave … $20, which would make $1,000,000 left in Skaguay. … [F]rom the tenor of the article it is inferred that the citizens do not take much stock in the scheme. Fitzsimmons and Corbett have not yet been consulted…, but if “Soapy” gets hold of them they will undoubtedly consent to the fight taking place in Skaguay.”

(Alias Soapy Smith, p.516)

      Soapy was not able to convince the White Pass and Yukon Railway and most Skaguay merchants to put up a guaranteed purse of $50,000. So the plan was added to the list of Jeff’s promising but missed opportunities. Soapy was never one to give in too quickly, so it is certain he sought other backers, and perhaps he tried to fund the project himself. Could this possibly be the reason the Soap Gang outright robbed John D. Stewart of his gold poke on July 8, 1898, rather than accept the little he had lost playing three-card monte?
      A mystery surrounds the fight offer. Back in Denver, Colorado in late 1891 Soapy and a few members of the Soap Gang relieved Fitzsimmons of cash and diamonds in a "friendly" big-mitt poker game (Alias Soapy Smith, pp. 194, 196-97). Soapy was implicated in the Denver newspapers as having been directly involved in the swindle so it is a wonder how Soapy planned to deal with the issue. Would he deny his presence in Denver, or would he own up to the shearing and make good to the famed boxer?

      The following is a newspaper clipping I recently dug up.

__________

"SOAPY" SMITH'S SCHEME.

__________

He Was Trying to Secure the Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight for Skaguay.

      At the time of his death "Soapy" Smith, the well-known sporting man and street faker; who amassed considerable of his fortune in St. Louis, was arranging to bring off a fight between Corbett and Fitzsimmons in Skaguay, in the Klondike. It is asserted that Smith and his friends in the enterprise had arranged for a purse of $50,000, and that preliminaries were rapidly taking shape when the former St. Louisan met his death.

      A copy of the Skaguay News of June 17 has been received here. From it the following was taken:

      "Of course, no one can tell whether the prize fighters will come, or even if the authorities will allow the fight if they agree to take the place and time. But those uncertainties have in no way diminished the enthusiasm or delayed the work of preparation on the part of the committee composed of Captain Jeff Smith, Frank Clancy and Saportas. They have gone into the finances sufficiently to be able to say definitely that the $50,000 can be put up as soon as the principals and their managers signify their willingness to negotiate. It is not necessary, nor would it be policy, to state the sources from which the committee expect, and have assurances of, financial backing. Suffice that the backing is to be had, and that as soon as an invitation be sent here to put up the money."

      It is supposed that the fight will not take place now, even had the principals consented to bring it off in the far away Klondike, as the death of "Soapy" Smith will no doubt put an end to the negotiations, he having been the head and shoulders of the undertaking.

St. Louis Republic, August 11, 1898

__________

      A rematch of the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight was never to be. Below is film footage of the first fight taken on March 17, 1897 in Carson City, Nevada. 

The following is by Ronald Emmis.

      Today the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight of March l7, 1897 at Carson City, Nevada is called a ring classic, but in 1897 it was the "Fight of the Century." Prizefighting was then illegal in California, but a few weeks after the fight, hundreds of local fans saw the action on a 10 by 10-foot screen.

The movie was made by Enoch J. Rector, formerly of Edison Labs, who designed a trio of unique motion cameras and paid $13,000 for film rights to the contest. Rector was more than an inventor, because he was also a sharp businessman. The fight matched "Handsome Jim" Corbett, the San Francisco-born world champion, against an up-and-coming British challenger, Bob Fitzsimmons, but the event was also Nevada's first legally-sanctioned boxing contest, and it fired the public's imagination.

      Can you imagine if Soapy Smith had been successful? Soapy already had a background history as a boxing referee in Denver and Creede, so surely he would have demanded a position in, or around, the ring. There is little doubt that this fight would have been filmed, so it is most likely I would be showing you moving film footage of Soapy Smith. Thomas Edison and his film company were very intuitive of their surroundings. Considering this was the moment of the great Klondike gold rush we today would probably have footage of Skagway's many attractions, such as Jeff Smith's Parlor and other assorted Skagway dens and characters. The imagination soars. 

 

Robert Fitzsimmons: pages 194, 196-97, 516.

"The origin of the term “bunco” (sometimes spelled bunko) comes from an old English game of chance in which a checkered cloth covered with numbers and stars is covered with a hood called a “bunco.” The game was to throw dice, which counted up to a certain concealed number. The man who knew the game was called the “bunco man,” or the banker, and later when this form of swindle became notorious the term was corrupted into “bunco.” To-day the word is used to denote almost any swindle where the victim is made to believe he is to receive a large sum of money or valuables, and then gets nothing at all."

— Harry Houdini, The Right Way to do Wrong, 1906

MAY 8

1541: Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River. He calls it Rio de Espiritu Santo.

1794: The U.S. Postal Service is established.

1827: First known as Cantonment Leavenworth, Fort Leavenworth is established by Col. Henry Leavenworth on the Missouri River as an army post to protect travelers on the Santa Fe Trail.

1829: Sublette's pack-train, en route West by way of Independence, Missouri travels out the Santa Fe Trail some distance before turning northwest toward the Kansas River. This becomes the Oregon-California trail route.

1846: The first major battle of the Mexican War is fought in Palo Alto, Texas resulting in victory for General Zachary Taylor's forces.

1847: The rubber tire is patented by Robert W. Thompson.

1862: James and Granville Stuart erect the first sluice box for catching gold at Gold Creek, Montana Territory.

1879: George Selden applies for the first automobile patent.

1886: Pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton invents what would later be called "Coca-Cola."

1904: U.S. Marines land in Tangier, Morocco to protect the Belgian legation.

Jeff Smith's Parlor - Soapy Smith museum restoration, part 21

JEFF. SMITH'S PARLOR
Skagway, Alaska

(Click image to enlarge)

eff Smith's Parlor (Soapy Smith's saloon) is getting a new facelift. A temporary window will be installed this week while the original one is getting completely restored. check back for more photos later this week to see the finished "new" old look.
      The above information comes from Cindy Von Hale of the Skagway unit of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park.

 










Jeff. Smith's Parlor museum restoration

February 4, 2009 (Part 1)
February 19, 2009 (Part 2)  
March 31, 2010 (Part 3)  
August 7, 2010 (Part 4) 
February 11, 2011 (Part 5) 
April 5, 2011 (Part 6)
May 8, 2011 (Part 7)
May 17, 2011 (Part 8)
November 20, 2011 (Part 9)
March 21, 2012 (Part 10)
March 30, 2012 (Part 11)
June 20, 2012 (Part 12)
August 8, 2012 (Part 13)
August 29, 2012 (Part 14)
September 1, 2012 (Part 15)
September 26, 2012 (Part 16)
October 4, 2012 (Part 17)
December 6, 2012 (Part 18)
December 16, 2012 (Part 19)
March 11, 2013 (Part 20)

"A lie told often enough becomes the truth."

— Vladimir Lenin

MAY 6

1835: James Gordon Bennett publishes the New York Herald for the first time.

1851: The mechanical refrigerator is patented by Dr. John Gorrie.

1851: Linus Yale patents the clock-type lock.

1856: The Army from Fort Tejon and Fort Miller ride out to protect Keyesville, California from attacks by Yokut Indians.

1859: John Gregory finds gold at what later is known as Gregory's Gulch, “the richest square mile on earth,” near the city of Denver.

1861: Arkansas becomes the ninth state to secede from the Union at the start of the Civil War.

1868: The U.S. government begins paying annuities to the Crow Indian tribes of Montana Territory.

1877: After defeating General Custer and the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Indian Chief Crazy Horse surrenders 900 warriors, women, and children to U.S. troops at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, whereas, Sioux Chief Sitting Bull leads 1,500 of his followers into Saskatchewan, Canada to ask protection from the Queen.

1882: The U.S. Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act. The act bars Chinese immigrants from the U.S. for 10 years.

1948 color film footage of gold-rush town, Skagway, Alaska

onderful color film footage of the old gold rush town of Skagway, Alaska, taken in 1948! The footage was transferred to YouTube from a 16mm home movie.

      Besides fantastic viewing of the town in its rustic state, here are a few moments in the footage I personally found very interesting.

At minute 2:26 - Martin Itjen's "streetcar." Note the sign "Soapy Smith's Museum." Owners, Geroge Rapuzzi is in the drivers seat while Jack Greisbach stands outside the bus.

At minute 2:39 - Jeff Smith's Parlor.

At minute 2:41 - Soapy Smith's Skull.

 

"Keep an open mind…and people will throw a lot of garbage into it."

— Keith C. Cobb, Exceptions to the Rules

MAY 3

1568: French forces in Florida kill hundreds of Spanish soldiers and civilians.

1802: Washington, the District of Columbia, is incorporated.

1855: Macon Allen is the first black-American to be admitted to the Bar in Massachusetts.

1873: Manuel Fernandez is the first in Arizona territory to be legally executed, for the murder of Mike McCartney, a Yuma store keeper.

1882: President Chester Arthur threatens martial law due to the lawlessness in Cochise County, Arizona Territory.

1888: Florence, Arizona Sheriff Peter Gabriel, shoots and kills Joe Phy, an ex-deputy. Both men had been drinking in a saloon previous to the fight. Although wounded in the groin and chest, Gabriel recovers and is exonerated on grounds of self-defense.

1888: Thomas Edison organizes the Edison Phonograph Works. 

Is this "Jeff Smith," Soapy Smith?

A fantasy piece showing Soapy Smith running the
prize package soap sell racket on a city street
(created by Jeff Smith)

(Click image to enlarge)

ne might think that a common name like Jeff Smith would be a researchers nightmare. In using the newspaper archives I do run into numerous Jeff Smith's but seemingly few criminal ones. That does make my search a little easier but none-the-less there are many instances in which I have no provenance that a Jeff Smith mentioned in a newspaper article is our Smith. I give you two examples.

__________

Jeff and Charles Smith were fined yesterday for carrying concealed weapons, the former $25 and the latter $20.

 Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho), May 13, 1896

__________

This first one is not really the best example but I decided to keep it in my files along with a clear note that it may not be Soapy Smith. There has been a previous clue that Soapy went to Boise several times, including July 3, 1895 when the Statesman reported a Jeff Smith being arrested, but still, the Jeff Smith mentioned may very well be another bad man of the same name. The name Charles Smith caught my eye. It is simply a guess that this could be Soapy's younger brother, Bascomb Smith, or even gang member, John Bowers, who some historians believe went by the name of Charles at times.

__________

Alleged White Cappers Acquitted.

Special to the Kansas City Times.
Marshall, Mo., Feb. 9.—Jeff Smith, Hary [probably Harry] Hight, Hardin Baily, John Dickerson, John Harbolt and John Simms were tried today for white-capping the McGinnis brothers of this county ten nights since, but were turned loose on account of insufficient evidence. The men who did the deed were masked.

Kansas City Times, February 10, 1895

__________

Once again I want to make sure you understand that this may not be Soapy. Times were tough for him in 1895 but would he have turned to outright masked robbery if he and the boys were desperate? Another interesting "maybe" for the files.

 








Soapy possibly in Boise, Idaho: April 3, 2013

"The day I stop making mistakes is the day I stop learning."

—Miley Cyrus

MAY 2

1776: France and Spain agree to donate arms to American rebels fighting against the British during the American Revolution.

1853: Franconi’s Hippodrome opens at Broadway and 23rd Street in New York City.

1863: Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson is wounded by his own men in the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia. He dies 8 days later.

1865: President Andrew Johnson offers a $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

1873: The first legal hanging takes place across from the schoolhouse in Yuma, Arizona Territory.

1875: Isaac “Hanging Judge” Parker arrives in Fort Smith, Arkansas as the new judge.

1885: Good Housekeeping magazine begins publication.

1887: Hannibal W. Goodwin applies for the patent for celluloid photographic film, which later will be used for making movies.

1890: The territory of Oklahoma is created.

1902: A Trip to the Moon, the first science fiction film is released. It was created by magician, George Melies.

Why Soapy Smith went to his death?

SOAPY SMITH'S SKULL
3-D looking photograph of the
natural skull formation rock in Skagway, Alaska
Photo courtesy of Mark Larsen

(Click image to enlarge)

he following article was published in the Tacoma Daily News in Washington, August 3, 1898. It appears to be a logical possibility as to why Soapy Smith faced the entire vigilante organization with only eight men behind him. But, is this story real?

WHY SOAPY WENT TO DEATH.

      According to information from Alaska there was a desperate method in the madness which prompted "Soapy" Smith to defy the citizens' meeting that outnumbered himself and the yellow streak gang that followed him on the eventful evening when he fell dead pierced by a bullet fired by the man whom he attacked.

      The Skagway News tells the story as follows:

      While we have not been able to see it, nevertheless it is a fact that three days before Jeff Smith met his death on the evening of the 8th inst., a paper was received here containing an account of the murder of a man named Kneady, which occurred in Colorado several years ago, and which implicated Smith. It seemed that Smith and a pal killed Kneady and that the pal recently weakened and gave the secret away. Extradition papers were issued for Jeff Smith by the governor of Colorado, and the news having been telegraphed ahead reached here in an Astoria, Oregon, paper before an officer could arrive and just three days before Smith was shot. The paper was received by a well known and responsible business man of this city, who, in the presence of another business man, equally responsible, handed it to Smith, calling attention to the article. Smith read it and turned deathly pale, his only remark being:

      "It is only one more of the many lies circulated about me."

      From that hour, it is said, "Soapy" Smith was a changed man, and it was doubtless the knowledge that he might soon be encompassed by the strong minions of the law that prompted him to attempt the strong play that ended in his death. Realizing that his days of freedom were numbered he risked all on a big bluff and failed to win.

      Although the article quotes the Skagway News, no such article is known to exist. In fact, no such death report of a man named Kneady, at the hands of Soapy, appears to exist anywhere else but in this issue of the Tacoma Daily News. This is not the first time I have found this newspaper publishing apparently false stories that had no sources.

 

A thousand probabilities do not make one fact.

— Italian Proverb

MAY 1

1751: The first cricket tournament in the U.S. is held in New York City.

1805: Virginia State passes a law requiring all freed slaves to leave or risk imprisonment or deportation.

1852: Martha Jane “Calamity” Canary is born in Princeton, Missouri. She served as a muleskinner for the U.S. Army. She is said to have married Wild Bill Hickok in 1870. In 1893 she joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. She died August 1, 1903 and was buried next to Hickok in Deadwood, South Dakota.

1861: Union soldiers surrender Fort Washita, Present day Oklahoma to Confederate troops without one shot being fired.

1863: The Civil War Battle of Chancellorsville (Virginia) begins. General Lee's forces fight the Union forces under General Joseph Hooker. Confederate General Stonewall Jackson is mortally wounded by his own soldiers during the battle (May 1-4).

1867: Reconstruction in the South begins with black voter registration.

1877: President Rutherford B. Hayes ends southern Reconstruction.

1877: James Dolan, shoots and kills employee Heraldo Jaramillo, in Lincoln, New Mexico Territory, for pulling a gun on him. Dolan is acquitted.

1878: Jim Murphy and his father are arrested in Texas for harboring the outlaw Sam Bass Gang. Jim makes a deal with the Texas Rangers to join the gang in order to keep the Rangers informed about where the gang is hiding.

1880: The first issue of the Tombstone Epitaph, Tombstone, Arizona Territory is published. The proprietor is John Clum, who writes, “every tombstone should have its epitaph.”

1883: William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody performs his first Wild West Show.

1883: Captain Emmett Crawford leads a force of 100 troops and 93 Indian scouts into Mexico, searching for Chato's Apache Indians.

1884: The construction of the first U.S. 10-story building begins in Chicago, Illinois.

1889: Asa Candler publishes the first ad for Coca-Cola in the Atlanta Journal, proclaiming it “Delicious, refreshing, exhilarating, and invigorating."

1895: Members of Bill Doolin's outlaw gang; Bitter Creek Newcomb and Charlie Pierce are shot to death while they slept in the beds owned by the Dunn Brothers. The Dunn’s took the bodies to Guthrie and turned them over to the marshal for the $5,000 reward.

1898: Soapy Smith is mistakenly reported as being arrested in Tacoma, Washington. The real Soapy was in Skaguay leading a parade as captain of his Skaguay Military Company.

1898: The U.S. navy under the command of Commodore George Dewey defeats the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay, in the Philippines.

1901: Soap Gang member, Van B. “Old Man” Triplett dies in poverty at age 60.

1905: In New York, radium is tested as a cure for cancer.

Three possible buildings of Soapy Smith in Skagway, Alaska

Three dark shaded building in the foreground
Drawing by Brenda Wilbee

(Click image to enlarge)

renda Wilbee is a friend of mine who lives in Skagway, Alaska during the summer season and spends the rest of the year in British Columbia, Canada. She penciled the above drawing from a photograph showing 3 black buildings that supposedly belong to Soapy Smith while he was there. “It's inscribed on the photograph itself, 'Soapy Smith's Black Buildings.' I'm going to show some of my images to Phyllis Brown, whose family have been here since the Gold Rush. (She's related to the Rapuzzi's and owns their estate.) She's been helpful with some of the research I'm doing and perhaps can fill me in with more detail about 'what used to be.'"
      Brenda apologized for not being able to help me any more than she could, but there is no other known information on these buildings. One day I may come across more information but for now we can only use our imagination. For instance, how many of you imagined that Soapy's fake telegraph office might have been located in one of these 3 buildings?

 

Fake telegraph office: page 480.

"We falsely interpret the world around us. We ignore evidence that doesn't support our prior beliefs and we convince ourselves we know things we don't. We think we know things we don't know."

— Errol Morris

APRIL 29

1813: Rubber is patented by J. F. Hummel.

1852: The first edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus is published.

1861: Maryland votes against seceding from Union.

1862: New Orleans falls to Union forces during the Civil War.

1879: In Cleveland, Ohio electric arc lights are used for the first time.

1859: The Army's Division of the Pacific establishes its headquarters in San Francisco, California.

1866: A wagon from Confederate Gulch arrives at Fort Benton, Montana Territory with 2.5 tons of gold dust.

1867: The first train arrives in Salinas, Kansas.

1872: Five members of the James-Younger outlaw gang take at least $600 from the Bank of Columbia in Columbia, Kentucky. Bank teller R. A. Martin is shot and killed by both Jesse and Cole, while a customer takes a bullet in the hand that later has to be amputated. All the members of the gang escape without injury.

1878: Texas outlaw, Sam Bass and his gang are found hiding at the home of Jim Murphy near Cove Hollow in Texas and a four-day running gunfight ensures.

1879: In Cleveland, OH, electric arc lights are turned on for the first time.

1913: Gideon Sundback patents an all-purpose zipper. 

Author Richard Huston's photos of Skagway, Alaska in 1947.

"Soapy Smith" poses for photographs with tourists
Skagway, Alaska
August 1947
Photo by Richard Huston

(Click image to enlarge)

n March 24, 2013 I posted on author Richard Huston's book, A Silver Camp Called Creede: A Century of Mining (2005). Since then, I was able to track down Mr. Huston and had a few very interesting conversations with him. His book of the Creede mines is very thorough so I was unable to obtain any additional  information, minus where I might go to investigate more about the mines Soapy Smith held interests in. However, in speaking with Mr. Huston he offered to copy and sent me the Soapy related pages of the book, Creede, by Nolie Mumey. In finding out that I am related to Soapy he mentioned that he had visited Skagway in August 1948. Along with the xeroxed book pages he sent along the four photographs you see here.

Soapy and members of his gang face down the vigilantes
Skagway, Alaska
August 1947
Photo by Richard Huston

(Click image to enlarge)

Broadway, looking north
Skagway, Alaska
August 1947
Photo by Richard Huston

(Click image to enlarge)

East of Broadway, looking north
Skagway, Alaska
August 1947
Photo by Richard Huston

(Click image to enlarge)

Thank you very much Mr. Huston, for sharing!

 

"The criminal element had the advantage of being thoroughly organized and armed, and skillfully led by a man named “Soapy” Smith, who was the uncrowned King of Skaguay. He was not a constitutional monarch, but his word was all the law there was. [Thus,] the criminal element … had things all their own way, until the railroad builders began to oppose them on behalf of decency and order, and to form a nucleus round which the law-abiding element could rally."

— Samuel H. Graves, president of the White Pass and Yukon Railway
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 524.

APRIL 28

1635: Virginia Governor John Harvey is removed from office for treason.

1788: Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the Constitution.

1818: President James Monroe proclaims naval disarmament on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain.

1868: Negotiations to end the war with Indian chief Red Cloud at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. As agreed troops in the Powder River region are removed, in return for cessation of Indian raids.

1876: The gold camp of Deadwood, Dakota Territory is founded.

1878: During the Lincoln County War of New Mexico Territory, Marion Turner and John Jones organize the Seven Rivers gang to fight John Chisum. On a ride into Lincoln they shoot Frank McNab and Ab Sanders, and capture Frank Coe.

1880: Cooney, New Mexico Territory is raided by Apache chief Victorio. Apache raids in the territory have claimed the lives of twelve settlers since April 20.

1881: Court guards, Robert Ollinger and James Bell are shot dead in the Lincoln County courthouse, New Mexico Territory by Billy the Kid during a successful jailbreak.

1896: The Addressograph was patented by J. S. Duncan.

That Fiend in Hell: "Jeff Smith fails to mention," except that he did "mention"..., and a lot more about the murderer of Soapy Smith.

THE END OF SOAPY SMITH
The Shootout on Juneau Wharf
Smith and Reid shoot one another as Jesse Murphy (left)
rushes in to aid Reid. Murphy kills Smith with Smith's rifle.
Artist Andy Thomas worked closely with Jeff Smith to get the details precise.
(Courtesy of Andy Thomas)

    

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elow is the latest post from my blog, Examining "That Fiend in Hell": Soapy Smith in Legend. Please let me know what you think.

     On pages 192-93 of "That Fiend in Hell," author Cathy Spude offers an example of how I make an "effort to convince … readers that Jesse Murphy 'murdered Soapy'…." She points to a news report that I cite in the July 19, 1898, issue of the Portland Morning Oregonian and asserts that I cite only the portion of the sentence that serves my point (that Murphy claimed to have killed Soapy Smith) and that I purposely left out the rest because it disputes my point. To make her case about the omission from the Portland paper, she uses phrases like "Jeff Smith fails to mention" and "he fails to point out."

      This is indeed a very strange quibble because I did quote the entire sentence. In fact, I quote not just the entire sentence but the entire paragraph in which the sentence appears. The matter is made even stranger because to document her accusation, she cites the numbers of three surrounding pages on which discussion of the matter appears, but she fails to list the page on which appears the entire sentence and paragraph from the Portland Morning Oregonian. Here for clarity is that paragraph as it appears on page 548 of Alias Soapy Smith.

The shooting, Dr. Cornelius says, is the best thing that ever happened to Skagway next to the new railroad. Dr. Cornelius performed the autopsy on Smith’s body for the coroner’s jury. A man named Murphy claimed after the first autopsy that it was his bullet that killed the gambler, and it was necessary to perform a second [autopsy] to determine that Reed’s [sic] bullet did the work.

      I would like to think that the author of "That Fiend in Hell" just made a mistake. Mistakes happen. I even made one once … perhaps two. But Cathy Spude takes such a heavy handed approach that it seems there is much more than a mistake at work in her thinking. In writing that "Jeff Smith fails to mention" and "fails to point out," she does not imply but rather outright accuses me of intentionally leaving out text in order to "justify" a conclusion. I cannot know what was in Cathy Spude's mind, but the stern, accusatory tone of her language does make itself known and felt as she apparently intended. Then in light of how her example is in complete error, revealed is not just a mistake or careless inattention to detail but a deep and determined bias against my biography of Soapy Smith. I am at a loss for any other way to explain such a focused indictment based on an error of her own making.

      Cathy Spude in her criticism of my treatment of Soapy's death and the cover up that followed would have a reader believe my conclusion is based on half a sentence rather than the 23 pages of evidence and interpretation that appear in chapters 25 and 26 of Alias Soapy Smith (pages 538-561). I took much time and care in laying out the evidence, evaluating it, and drawing reasoned conclusions about it. To my knowledge, nothing has been omitted or obscured.

      The story of the murder of Soapy Smith has just appeared in a feature-length article I was invited to write for Wild West magazine (April 2013, pages 44-51). It's a nice spread, with many illustrations. Though a feature piece, its space requirements called for compression, so only the most pertinent facts and the overall conclusion appear. For the full story, my book is the ultimate source for a survey of all known evidence and an even-handed examination of it.

      Cathy Spude on page 193 of her book also claims that Jeff Smith lacks "understanding of [the] historic context" of Skagway in 1898. Probably no one will be surprised to learn that Jeff Smith disagrees. For three decades I have studied the players of this period and the details of their doings. I know this context extremely well; I just don't follow Cathy Spude's interpretations of people or events. Each of these disagreements, as well as correction of errors—one at a time—will make good reading for other days.

 

"She told lies so well a man would be a fool not to believe them."

— Unknown

APRIL 12

1782: The British navy wins its only naval engagement against the colonial navy at the Battle of Saints, off Dominica, during the American Revolution.

1799: Phineas Pratt patents the comb cutting machine.

1811: The first colonists arrived at what would later be named Cape Disappointment, in the future state of Washington.

1833: Charles Gaylor patents the fireproof safe.

1861: Confederate forces fire on the U.S. at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, starting the Civil War.

1864: Confederate General Nathan Forrest captures Fort Pillow, in Tennessee and murders the black Union troops there.

1867: From Fort Larned in Kansas, General Hancock tells Cheyenne Indians to abide by the treaty of 1865 and stay on their lands south of the Arkansas River, or risk starting a war.

1872: The outlaw Jesse James gang robs a bank in Columbia, Kentucky of $1,500 and killing one person.

1877: A catcher's mask is used in a baseball game for the first time.

1883: Charles “Black Bart” Bolton robs the Lakeport-Cloverdale stage a second time, this time about 5 miles from Cloverdale, California.

1888: John Billee and Thomas Willis rob and murder W. P. Williams and bury his body in a ravine in the Kiamichi Mountains, Oklahoma Territory. They would eventually hang for the crime on January 16, 1890.

1889: Buffalo Bill's Wild West leaves New York for a tour of France.

1892: Voters in Lockport, New York became the first in the U.S. to use voting machines.

1898: Soap Gang member Harry Green signs his name as “Jeff Smith” on the register of the Hotel Northern in Seattle, causing newspaper there to falsely report that Soapy Smith was in their city. The real Jeff Smith, aka “Soapy,” was in Skagway, Alaska.

1905: The Hippodrome opens in New York City.