Did Soapy Smith take refuge in Phoenix, Az?

Arizona Republic
Phoenix, Arizona
Fri. July 22, 1898
page 4

(Click image to enlarge)

he confidence man sometimes took refuge in Phoenix.

      A news story published in the Arizona Republic (Phoenix Arizona) on July 22, 1898 [seen HERE] begs more answers to new questions than reveals reliable information.

The confidence man sometimes took refuge in Phoenix.

      An article in the Republican a few days ago regarding "Soapy" Smith, the confidence man killed at Dawson City not long ago, has called out many reminiscences of that unique character by men who knew him. He was a comparatively frequent visitor of Phoenix as of all the more important towns and mining camps of this territory. He last visited this city about 18 months ago.

      He was not as he has often been described, a gambler. He was once arrested for gambling and pleaded in his defense the definition of the word gambler as one who plays for a stake taking a chance of losing it. "I take no chances at all." Said Mr. Smith. This suggests that the expression a "sure thing gambler," is erroneous, a contradiction in terms. Smith was a man of imposing front, smooth voice, persuasive language and undoubted courage. He had killed many men generally those who had interfered with his "business." His operations were usually conducted with the aid of a gang to whom there was a standing instruction to never kill if it could be avoided.

      He had one weakness, playing on the outside of a faro game, at which he was so uniformly successful that in the course of his career he lost several fortunes. He played with astonishing recklessness and his roll soon disappeared. He always left the table and went on the street to work is famous "soap" scheme or one of his other various confidence games, and invariably returned with a sum sufficient to renew the excitement at faro. He was as charitable as a prince and as indiscriminate in his giving. He distributed thousands among the worthy and the unworthy.

      When he was last in Phoenix he told an acquaintance that he was ashamed and wary of his performances and resolved to abandon his manner of living. His resolutions were always broken, not because he cheated his dupes for money, but the attendant excitement without which he lived. It is said that he never followed his occupation in Phoenix. He always ran in here because he had turned a trick somewhere else and found it advisable to drop out of sight for a time. It was during his last visit to Phoenix under the name of Williams that the vault of the Western investment bank was broken. Some of those who knew him, but did not know him very well, suspected that Smith had engineered the job. But those who did know him knew better. Burglary was a species of criminality as distinctly out of his line a Sunday school teaching was.

____________

A mistake:

• Soapy Smith was not killed in Dawson City (Canada). He was killed in Skagway, Alaska.

A Few possibilities:

• Did Soapy Smith go to Phoenix, Arizona in October 1896? ("18 months ago.") Did he use the name "Williams?"

• Did Soapy engineer the robbery of the Western Investment bank?

"On the 11th instant, I informed you of a shooting affray which occurred in Skaguay. “Soapy Smith” attempted to murder a Mr. Reed [sic] who was organizing a party to recover money for a returning Klondiker named J. D. Stewart who had been robbed of same by some of Smith’s gang. In the struggle, etc., “Soapy Smith” was shot and killed from his own gun by a man named “Murphy.” Mr. Reed [sic] (who received two bullets from Smith’s gun) died a few days afterwards."

— Major Sam Steele, NWMP, Alias Soapy Smith, p. 547.

DECEMBER 22

1775: The Continental naval fleet is organized in the American colonies under the command of Ezek Hopkins.

1807: The U.S. Congress passes the Embargo Act, designed to force peace between Britain and France by cutting off all trade with Europe.

1856: Captain Richard W. Johnson and Company F, 2nd Cavalry, from Camp Colorado attacks a Comanche Indian camp along the Concho River in Texas. Two soldiers are killed and two wounded. Three Indians are killed and three wounded. Thirty-four horses are captured and a Mexican captive is recovered.

1864: During the Civil War Union General William T. Sherman sends a message to President Lincoln from Georgia, which reads, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."

1872: Texas Jack Omohundro, who is appearing with Buffalo Bill in a stage show, The Scouts of the Prairie, in Chicago, Illinois, falls in love with Giuseppina Morlacchi, an Italian dancer in the show.

1877: The American Bicycling Journal is published.

1877: The Sam Bass gang robs a stagecoach heading towards Fort Worth, Texas. Soapy Smith would later witness the shooting death of Sam Bass in Round Rock, Texas.

1878: Outlaw Billy the Kid surrenders to sheriff George Kimball in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, but escapes a short time later and heads for Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory.

1887: “Big Ed” Burns is the defendant in the first recorded court case of the shell game in Los Angeles, California. He soon leaves for Colorado where he joins the Soapy Smith gang.

1888: Annie Oakley appears in the stage show Deadwood Dick: or the Sunbeam of the Sierras.

1888: The Denver crime boss “Soapy” Smith and his younger brother Bascomb donate $50 during subscription to aid orphans in Arapaho County, Colorado.

1890: 294 members of Sitting Bull's Indian tribe surrender in Cherry Creek, South Dakota.

1894: The U.S. Golf Association is formed in New York City.

1900: The Sherman Tunnel in Wyoming, on the Union Pacific line is completed.

Artifact #59: Letter from Soapy Smith to his wife, Aug 28, 1897.

"Yours till death"
Page 1 of 2
Jeff Smith collection

(Click image to enlarge)

he first physical evidence of Jeff’s presence in Skaguay

is a letter to his wife Mary, dated August 28, 1897. Enclosed were receipts for $1,500 to her. Using an inflation calculator that $1,500 is the equivalent of about $55,832.52 in 2019 dollars.
      Following is the contents of the letter. Note that he spells Skagway as "Scagway." The name and spelling of the towns name went through several changes, and as Skagway was just a few weeks old at the time Soapy wrote his letter, no one was certain of the spelling. 

Scagway Aug 28, 1897

Dear wife

      I got Mrs. Scovell, the wife of elder Sylvester Scovell, the correspondent of the N.Y. World, to send you $500 as I did not know if [I] could send it myself or not. Since then I have had luck in a trade and send $1000 more, making $1500 on this boat the Queen. It will be shipped by express to you from Seattle, Wash. This makes $1600 all told. Take up that mortgage and cash yourself up. That is, keep the money yourself. And don’t go saying anything in St. Louis as you will never get a cent out of anything in St. Louis. Write to Juneau. Be sure and send $1000 to 1,300 at least to Brown and Bro Denver to pay mortgage.

Yours till death,
Jeff

"Yours till death"
Page 2 of 2
Jeff Smith collection

(Click image to enlarge)

You will find the letter, as well as the surrounding history, on page 436 of Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel.

Artifact #59: page 436.

"According to the information I received from the Deputy Marshal, a man named Murphy is credited with the killing of Smith and not Frank Reid as reported in the newspaper."

—Major Sam Steele, NWMP, Alias Soapy Smith, p. 547.

DECEMBER 21

1620: The Mayflower and its passengers, pilgrims from England, land at what would become Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.

1849: The first ice-skating club in the U.S. is formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1866: A relief party out of Ft. Kearney, Nebraska led by Captain William Fetterman is ordered to rescue the fort's woodcutting detail that is under attack by a small band of Indians. Fetterman is ordered not to leave sight of the post, but the Captain, who had supposedly boasted that very morning that if the fort would give him 80 men, he would ride through the whole Sioux Nation, ignores the orders and pursues the Sioux Indians well out of safe range of the fort. He and his men become fatalities of an ambush led by Crazy Horse.

1876: Marshal Charles Faber of Los Animas, Colorado is killed when he enters the Olympic Dance Hall to disarm bad brothers Clay and John Allison. Clay is released of the murder charge when no witnesses could be found to testify. John Allison was seriously wounded in the encounter but recovers.

1964 art rendition of the Soapy Smith ,Shootout on Juneau Wharf.

The King of the Klondike
Story by Paul Brock
Artist is unknown
Adam magazine
Volume 8, Number 10, 1964

(Click image to enlarge)

ewly "discovered" art rendition of  the Shootout on Juneau Company Wharf

      In 1975 my father, mother, and I attended the Harriet Pullen auction in Seattle, that sold off the entire holdings of the private museum that once graced the Pullen House (hotel) in Skagway, Alaska. My father bought quite a few artifacts that belonged to his grandfather, Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith, along with other collectibles. 

    One of the collectibles was an issue of True magazine (August 1958).  On page 58 is an article, Showdown for a Con Man. The article is a rehash of old books, but the artwork, by artist Stan Galli, was something my father and I treasured as it was one of the few accurate depictions of Soapy's demise.

Showdown for a Con Man
Story by J. P. Cahn
Art by Stan Galli
True magazine
August 1958

(Click image to enlarge)

  

      Six years later, an adult magazine called Adam, published a rehash article, with a new piece of art, obviously copied from Stan Galli's art. Needless to say I located a copy for my collection.
      The one defining difference between the two art pieces is that the Galli piece shows the moments just before the shootout began, with Soapy, rifle draped over his shoulder, approaching Frank Reid and the 101 vigilantes.  The second piece shows the shot fired into Frank Reid's groin. I like this one as it presents just how close Soapy and Reid were to one another. In fact, Reid was holding onto Soapy's rifle barrel with his left hand, trying to keep Soapy from shooting him. At least three shots had already been fired by the two combatants.    

A comparison between them

(Click image to enlarge)

"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.

DECEMBER 19

1732: Benjamin Franklin publishes his first Poor Richard's Almanac.

1776: Thomas Paine publishes his first American Crisis essay.

1777: General George Washington leads his army of 11,000 to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to camp for the winter.

1842: Hawaii's independence is recognized by the U.S.

1859: Denver, Colorado hires its first lawman, William Sisty. He had no jail and no deputies. He resigned after five months.

1863: George Ives is hung in Bannack, Montana Territory for the murder of Nicholas Thiebalt.

1864: Nicholas Earp and family, including son Wyatt Stapp Earp, and six other children arrive by wagon-train in San Bernardino, California from Iowa.

1871: Albert L. Jones wins a patent for corrugated paper.

1880: Outlaws Billy the Kid, David Anderson alias Billy Wilson, Dave Rudabaugh, Charlie Bowdre, Tom O'Folliard, and Tom Pickett are ambushed in New Mexico Territory by Lincoln county Sheriff Pat Garrett and several deputies who fire on the outlaws. Pickett and O'Folliard are shot dead from their saddles. Rudabaugh's horse is shot and collapses, but Rudabaugh manages to mount Anderson’s horse and escapes with the Kid and Bowdre.

1887: Jake Kilrain and Jim Smith fight a bare knuckle boxing match fight which lasts a seemingly impossible 106 rounds. The fight is halted due to darkness and Kilrain is given the win.

1893: Soapy Smith files a $5,000 damage suit in Denver against Charles G. Chever and William B. Palmer at whose property at 1705 Larimer had a coal-delivery hole which was left open and he fell in. Outcome of the suit is unknown.

1903: The Williamsburg Bridge opens in New York City. It is the largest suspension bridge in the world 1924. It is the first major suspension bridge to use steel towers to support the main cables.

1905: Outlaws Robert Leroy “Butch Cassidy” Parker and Harry A. “The Sundance Kid” Longabaugh are positively identified by witnesses as having robbed the Banco de la Nacion in Villa Mercedes, Argentina of 12,000 to 14,000 pesos. Although not identified, two others were seen at the bank, which may have been Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan and the fourth person, some claimed was a woman, which may have been Etta Place.

1907: A coalmine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania kills 239 workers.

Soapy Smith shootout mural found behind a wall in Skagway, Alaska.

Photo by Andrew Cremata, Skagway News
Painting by Bea O’Daniel

(Click image to enlarge)

hootout on Juneau Wharf mural found hidden behind a wall.

This is a post from my original blog, dated December 31, 2007. 

"Restoration of a gold rush era building recently sold uncovered a mural this last October [2007]. After paneling was removed from the walls of Moe’s Frontier Bar, a mural by Bea O’Daniel (now Lingle) completed in May 1951 was revealed. The painting stretches around the perimeter of the main bar room and includes a detailed panoramic scene of Skagway in 1900 and separate pieces showing gold seekers ascending the Chilkoot Trail’s Golden Staircase and a Canadian Mountie on horseback atop a mountain. The above portion shows the Soapy Smith/Frank Reid gunfight. The mural was covered up in the late 1960s or early 1970s. There are currently no plans to salvage it."

It is not known if the mural was saved, but the image above has found a good home on the Gunfight Art page of the Alias Soapy Smith website.

"He was sprawled out with his Stetson lying there, but nobody dared put his feet together or place his hands over his heart. They didn’t dare show sympathy for fear somebody would pull out a gun."

—Bobby Sheldon, Alias Soapy Smith, p. 537.

DECEMBER 18

1787: New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1796: The Monitor of Baltimore, Maryland is published as the first Sunday newspaper.

1856: Lieutenant James Witherell of Company C, 2nd Cavalry, and two officers from the 8th Infantry, battle with a party of Apache Indians while scouting by the Rio Grande from Ft. Clark, Texas.

1862: The first orthopedic hospital, the Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled, is organized in New York City.

1865: Slavery is abolished in the United States with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

1894: Soapy Smith and John Bowers are arrested in Denver on complaint from Thomas Moody. Soapy pays a $300 bond to get them out of jail.

1898: A new automobile speed record is set at 39 mph.

1899: President McKinley commutes the sentence of Soap Gang member “Slim Jim” Foster in the robbery of John D. Stewart in Skagway, Alaska, after one year due to his having contracted consumption.

1903: The Panama Canal Zone is acquired 'in perpetuity' by the U.S. for an annual rent.

1912: The discovery of the Piltdown man in East Sussex is announced. It will be proved a hoax in 1953. Bad man Soapy Smith had a petrified man found in 1892. It was not proven to be a hoax until 2012, when it was determined that the corpse was intentionally mummified.

Another Soapy Smith - Fitzhugh Lee story version

  SOAPY SMITH'S EAGLE
July 4, 1898 Skagway, Alaska
Fitzhugh Lee float

(Click image to enlarge)

 

nother Fitzhuge Lee version

      During the first annual July Fourth parade in Skagway, Alaska, "Soapy" Smith entered a float, carrying a wire cage with a live bald eagle, Soapy had name Fitzhugh Lee, in honor of the Spanish-American War general of the same name.

      The standard version used in my book, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, states that

An immense American eagle, as full of fight as a cocoanut is of meat, and with an armament that would put the Vesuvius to shame. His beak is a variable [veritable] “iron virgin” for ferocity, his talons are an inch and a half long and sharp as a dagger. He is as large as a large gobbler, measuring 9 feet from tip to tip.
      The great bird was caught … about thirty miles down the canal by Frank Howard and three companions … on a prospecting tour. He was found wedged in between two rock walls…. When they saw him, he showed fight instantly, and they were obliged to lasso him first, then throw a heavy blanket over him. Yesterday the boys arrived in Skaguay with the bird in a big dry goods box, heavily grated, and with a large rope fastening his legs together. Even then he … was open to any engagement to fight.
      The boys took him to Capt. Jeff Smith as a present, a big wire screen cage has been built for him … behind the saloon, where he now is monarch of all … within his reach. Yesterday a full grown hen was put in the cage, and with one stroke he tore her head off, and scattered her limbs and feathers all about him. He had half eaten her before her heart had ceased to quiver. [Unknown Skaguay newspaper clipping. 7/1/1898, author's collection]

      Recently, I came across a new version published in The Klondike Nugget (Dawson, Yukon Territory) on July 4, 1900, two years, three days, after the original story's publication. Which is more accurate will likely remain a mystery to the ages.  

The Klondike Nugget,
Dawson, Y. T.
July 4, 1900

An Eagle With a History.

      Those who were just in Skagway on the fourth of July two years ago have not forgotten the fine specimen of the proud bird, emblematic of freedom, an American eagle, that traveled in a large wire cage in the procession.

      A Week Previous to the Fourth two Indians were out in a canoe fishing in Lynn Canal near the mouth of the Chilkat River. They had a number of fish in the boat and were intently watching their lines in the water when – swoop, hugh – they felt their canoe shiver from end to end, it upset their canoe and the Indians found themselves struggling in the chilly water. But they were not alone; with them was a large bird, and eagle which had came down like a shot from heaven, having been attracted by the fish in the boat. The eagle had struck the boat with such force as to upset it and, at the same time stun itself to such a degree as to render it incapable of flying away until the Indians had time to recover themselves and right their canoe, when they proceeded to capture the author of their fright and sudden immersion.

      The eagle fought desperately, but was finally tied by the feet, muzzled and rendered harmless. The captors brought it to Skagway and sold it to “Soapy” Smith for $15. Four days after the Fourth, and while gazing on the same eagle which was in a cage in the rear of “Jeff’s Parlor,” the man Stewart was held up and robbed of $2800, which robbery led up to “Soapy’s” death and the final scattering of his crowd, a number of whom are still in San Quentin penitentiary, while for others are about to do to be discharged from the U. S. jail at Sitka after having served two years.

      Three months later the eagle, having been kept in captivity all the time, was set free, and when last seen it was upwards of 1000 feet high and sailing in a direct line from Mount St. Elias.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH: The photograph above was taken by Reverend John Sinclair on July 4, 1898. It depicts the moments previous to the big scheduled parade. The float, a freight wagon, holds a large wire cage containing the live American bald eagle given to Soapy Smith a short time earlier. Behind the wagon a man holding a large American flag will be followed by Soapy's private volunteer army, the Skaguay Military Company, in which Soapy is Captain. The small boy dressed as "Uncle Sam" is the 9-year-old son of Soapy's business partner John Clancy. The wagon rests in front of Soapy's saloon, Jeff Smith's Parlor (far right). The white and grey horse between the Parlor and the wagon is Soapy's. He will be riding the same as (officially) the fourth division marshal of the parade, but Soapy manages to force his way to the front of the parade, becoming the unofficial grand marshal.

Fitzhugh Lee: July 4, 2009 

Fitzhugh Lee: pages 520-22, 525, 595.

"Reid carted an old Smith and Wesson six-shooter, an ancient gun he had used in the rip-roaring days of the west and which he considered the best gun in Skagway. He said it never failed him but its failure finally cost his life."

—Matthew M. Sundeen, Alias Soapy Smith, p. 533."

DECEMBER 17

1777: France recognizes American independence.

1791: A traffic regulation in New York City establishes the first street to go "One Way."

1860: Cavalry and Texas Rangers attack the camp of Peta Nocona's Indian Comanche’s on the Pease River in Texas. Ranger Lawrence Ross and his men join a detachment of Cavalry from Camp Cooper and Fort Belknap for the attack. Fourteen Indians are killed, two are taken prisoner, along with a white female, Cynthia Parker, who had been kidnapped as a child in 1839. She is the wife of Peta Nocona and the mother of baby daughter, Quanah Parker.

1866: General Patrick Connors commands that Indians living north of the Platte River “must be hunted like wolves.”

1872: “Scouts of the Plains” written by Ned Buntline played to a packed house staring Bill Cody and Texas Jack Omohundro. Despite not being good actors Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack are a hit.

1882: “The soap fiend with his little tricks is again in town, taking in the four bits and the dollars of the unsuspecting verdants. The game is to roll up little bits of soap in paper with an occasional bank note enclosed, and then mixing all together sells the privilege of choice for the figures named. In nineteen cases out of twenty the buyer gets his nubbin of soap and blue paper, but the bank notes, like hen’s teeth, are too scarce for him to find.” (Arizona Weekly Citizen, Tucson)

1886: Sam Belle is shot and killed by Frank West at a Christmas party.

1895: George Brownell obtains a patent for his paper-twine machine.

1903: Orville and Wilbur Wright succeed on their second attempt at engine powered flight. The aviation age is born when their flying-machine stays aloft for 12 seconds traveling a distance of 102 feet at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Joe Simmons funeral in the Creede Candle newspaper April 9, 1892

Jeff and Joe
Soapy Smith buries Joe Simmons
The Illustrated Police News
April 9, 1892

(Click image to enlarge)

oe Simmons
 

was a tall, slender gambler known to many as “Gambler Joe” Simmons, a member of the Soap Gang who managed Soapy Smith's Tivoli Club in Denver, 1890, and Soapy's Orleans Club in Creede, 1892. According to William Devere’s poem "Two Little Busted Shoes," Simmons also dealt faro for Soapy in Creede. Simmons and Soapy had worked together in Denver from Soapy's earliest times there, and they were the best of friends.
      When a friend of Soapy's died, a proper send off was provided. The closer the friend, the more lavish the send off. So when pneumonia, the scourge of the camps, fell upon Joe and he died of it on March 18, 1892, Soapy took it hard, openly displaying his emotion. Only a hint of that emotion made the pages of the Creede Candle, March 25, 1892.

——————————————————————

Buried by friends

————

Joe Simmons, an old–time friend of Jeff Smith, died Friday night. On Sunday afternoon he was buried in Sunnyside Cemetery.

      At 3 o’clock the funeral procession of twelve carriages, containing friends, old and new, formed, and in a heavy snowstorm proceeded to the burial place. There, by the open grave, Jeff Smith poured out a tender, touching and manly tribute over the remains of his old friend, two bottles of champagne were drunk to the memory of the dead and the grave closed up.

      It was such a burial as only strong men can give, and all who were there felt the scene and words said bravened them for the day when in the last bite they shall be the vanquished and death the Victor.

 ——————————————————————

Original article
Creede Candle
March 25, 1892

(Click image to enlarge)

_______

Tintype
My father stated that this was (l to R) Joe Palmer and Joe Simmons
possibly taken in Denver or Creede

 
(Click image to enlarge)

      Heading up the steep, snowy hill to Sunnyside Cemetery, Simmons’ granddaughter, Beth Jackson, claimed that Joe’s casket slid out of the wagon and had to be lifted back in. Then half way up the hill, the horses could no longer pull their loads through the accumulated snow, so the mourners walked the rest of the way, carrying Joe’s casket and a case of Pomeroy champagne.

October 17, 2008
April 20, 2010
April 7, 2011
April 21, 2011
August 23, 2013
December 22, 2015 

Joe Simmons: pages 33, 89, 131, 210, 214, 225-29, 273, 594.

"Card sharping has been reduced to a science. It is no longer a haphazard affair, involving merely primitive manipulations, but it has developed into a profession in which there is as much to learn as in most occupations."

—John Maskelyne, 1894

MARCH 25

1634: Lord Baltimore creates the Catholic colony of Maryland.

1655: Catholic forces win a military victory over the colony of Maryland. The Puritans jail their Governor Stone.

1668: The first recorded horse race in America takes place.

1774: English Parliament passes the Boston Port Bill.

1776: The Continental Congress authorizes a medal for General George Washington.

1813: The frigate USS Essex flies the first U.S. flag in battle in the Pacific.

1856: A. E. Burnside patents the Burnside carbine.

1857: Frederick Laggenheim takes the first photo of a solar eclipse.

1865: The steamship General Lyon catches fire and sinks at Cape Hatteras, killing 400 people.

1865: Confederate forces capture Fort Stedman in Virginia, during the American Civil War.

1877: John Slaughter, a Cheyenne and Black Hills stagecoach driver, is shot and killed by Robert McKimie, of the outlaw Sam Bass Gang as they rob the stage outside of Deadwood, South Dakota. Also there is Sam Bass, Joel Collins, James “Frank” Towle, and either Bill Potts or James Berry. This is the first robbery of the Bass Gang. 17 months later bad man Soapy Smith would later witness the shootout that ended the life of Sam Bass in Round Rock, Texas.

1879: New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace orders the arrest of John Slaughter on suspicion of cattle rustling.

1879: Royal Gorge War in Canon City, Colorado, which had started in the court room, now begins physical violence between the rival railroads of the Rio Grande of Colorado and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe of Kansas. The fight was over ownership and use of the Royal Gorge pass. Bat Masterson was hired to defend the Kansas line, and he did so with 33 armed men, which included Ben Thompson and Doc Holiday. There were a few skirmishes but no causalities in March.

1879: The Army captures Cheyenne Indian Chief Little Wolf and 113 followers at Box Elder Creek, Montana Territory.

1882: Two men raid a mining office in Arizona Territory, killing a mining engineer, but leaving empty-handed. Less than a day later, Deputy Sheriff Billy Breakenridge and three deputies tracked them to a ranch where a gun battle kills one deputy and the two others wounded.

1886: Apache Indian Chief Geronimo meets with General Crook at Canon de los Embudos, Mexico to agree on terms of surrender.

1894: Jacob Coxey and his Army of the Commonweal begin their famous march to Washington. It is bad man Soapy Smith’s poem that is believed to be the suggestion idea for the march.

1898: The Intercollegiate Trapshooting Association is formed in New York City.

1900: The American Socialist Party is formed in Indianapolis.

1901: Cuba discloses a fear of annexation by the U.S.

1902: Irving W. Colburn patents the sheet glass drawing machine.

1905: Confederate battle flags captured during the American Civil War are returned to the Southern states where they came from.

2014: A question involving Soapy Smith appears on the TV game show Jeopardy. The category was “con men.” No one got the correct answer about where he hid a little ball--under a shell.

Skagway's Bad Men.

Getting robbed

(Click image to enlarge)

hich of them to hills do you thinks the highest?
Getting robbed of $700 in Skagway, Alaska

Newspaper clipping from the Victoria Daily Colonist, March 11, 1898 telling of the robbery of S. F. Jones and others, upon arrival in Skagway, Alaska.

————————————————————

SKAGWAY‘S BAD MEN.

—————

Passengers by the “Pakshan” tell of wholesale and scientific robbery.

—————

Bad Water Alleged to Be the Chief Cause of the Spinal Meningitis Epidemic.

—————

     It takes a very short time for the enterprising subject of Soapy Smith to separate from his money the luckless sojourner within the precincts of Skagway. Half a dozen of the passengers on the Pakshan discovered this to their cost, and three who returned in disgust with the steamer that had taken them North, unfold a tale of woe which graphically pictures the modus operandi.

     S. F. Jones of Chicago is one of these. He remembers the city at the gateway of the White Pass just $250 worth, while the others are losers to the extent of $700 and $150 respectively. From their reports the bunco man flourishes in Skagway like a green bay tree, and can give the longest kind of odds to his Metropolitan contemporary in the fleecing of the innocent.

     The Pakshan passenger who unwittingly contributed the $700 to the Smith campaign fund was such a lamb as Skagway is glad to welcome. He had barely landed from the steamer when he ran against a very verdant looking party who, open-mouth and gawky, was gazing at the distant hills. This landscape-inspector apologized for getting in the way, and introduced conversation by inquiring:

     “Which of them to hills do you thinks the highest?”

     As the relative altitudes of the mountains in question compared on somewhat the same basis as the new COLONIST and the old post office buildings, the Pakshan passenger replied at once:

     “Why, the one on the right” – the new COLONIST size.

     “Well now, I think you’re wrong,” insisted the interested one. “What’ll you bet that’s the highest?”

     The Pakshan man did not regard it as a betting proposition.

      “It’s nonsense to talk that way,” he said. “It would be betting on a sure thing.”

     “You think so” – the mountain gazer became even more interested. “I’ll just bet you $500 you’re wrong–and will leave it to this man–he seems to know the town–“indicating one who was apparently a resident.

     The new arrival in the city agreed with a laugh, still treating the matter as something of a joke, and imagining that he had run across a decidedly unique but harmless specimen of humanity.

     Of course the citizen agreed with a stranger as to the relative heights of the two mountains, and immediately the proposer of the wage forced $500 notes into the hand of the surprised new-comer. The latter was still looking at the money and trying to collect his senses, when his profitable new acquaintance asked:

     “Now if you have lost, would you have paid up as quick as that. Did you have the money with you to make good, when we made the bet?”

     “Of course I had,” said the unsuspecting lamb.

     An almost before the words had left his lips he found himself looking into the muzzle of an ugly revolver, while the man he has thought so green and comical was demanding in a gruff voice:

     “Well, fork over all you’ve got, and be quick about it. I don’t think you know enough to take care of so much money.”

     This refinement of detail was lacking in the other cases. The victims were simply held up in broad daylight, and gave up their money to escape being murdered. Jones, who was thus relieved of $300, went to Deputy Marshall Rankin and asked for the arrest of the highwayman, whom he knew where to find and could easily and positively identify. The official looked wise, and said it was a very peculiar case, in which he could not possibly act without first writing to Washington and receiving explicit instructions. Then he seemed to see a way out of the difficulty, and suggested that there was a good attorney in town to whom he would introduce the Chicagoan.

     This was how Mr. Jones became acquainted with Mr. Smith, of Skagway, head of the lawless combine and prospective mayor. Soapy’s advice was “not to squeal, but get out as quickly as possible.” Jones replied that he had not been left enough to get out on, whereupon Soapy produced a fifty dollar bill and suggested that the Chicagoan was in great luck to get this much back–following with the admonition that if he remained ten hours in the town he would never have opportunity to move anywhere. Jones says that robbery is conducted on a scientific wholesale principles in Skagway, and that for this reason, as much as because both the trails are blocked, the bulk of the pilgrims are now turning back to go in by the way of the Wrangle. This town he, as well as all the others on the Pakshan, describes as the most orderly as well as most promising place on the northern coast.

     “The United States soldiery are no protection whatever,” says Mr. Jones, “for they are camped three miles up the trail, and are blind and deaf to the lawlessness of the town. Their excuse is that the town is too unhealthy for a place of residence, which is in a measure true. …

————————————————————

Original clipping
Victoria Daily Colonist,
March 11, 1898

(Click image to enlarge)

My thoughts and notes.

• I found no information on the steamship Pakshan. 
• It is amazing that six of it's passengers were swindled or outright robbed, and even more amazing that none of them got justice. Then again, they sought "justice" from those in the pay of Soapy Smith.
• The common histories written about Soapy in Skagway mention Deputy Marshall Sylvester Taylor as the lawman working for Soapy, but this news clipping mentions Deputy Marshall Rankin as also being in Soapy's pay.
• Very interesting and so common for the Soapy to pretend to be a Skagway attorney, handing out free advice, suggesting that the victim leave Skagway while he's ahead. Then turning into a charitable benefactor by handing $50 travel money to the unfortunate dupe. $50 coming out of the $700 the gang had robbed from the new comer.  

"Anyone who gambles today, not only bucks the laws of chance but is likely as well to meet the chicanery of science-using crooks."

—Modern Mechanix, 1933

MARCH 24

1629: The first game law is passed in Virginia.

1664: A charter to colonize Rhode Island is granted to Roger Williams of London.

1765: Britain passes the Quartering Act that requires the American colonies to house British troops in public and private buildings.

1828: The Philadelphia and Columbia Railway is the first state owned railway.

1832: A mob in Hiram, Ohio tar and feathers Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Jr.

1834: John W. Powell is born. He achieves recognition while conducting an expedition in the plateau country of southern Utah and Arizona north and west of the Colorado River in 1869. A second trip down the Colorado was conducted by him in 1871 and in 1873.

1855: Manhattan, Kansas is founded as New Boston, Kansas.

1868: Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is formed.

1872: Four accused outlaws are lynched in Tucson, Arizona Territory.

1880: The first "hail insurance company" is incorporated in Connecticut, known as the Tobacco Growers’ Mutual Insurance Company.

1882: Vigilantes in Las Vegas, New Mexico post handbills ordering “thieves, thugs, fakirs and bunko-steerers,” to leave town. It is signed “100 substantial citizens.”

1882: Horace Austin Warner Tabor, knowing that his wife would not agree to a divorce, spends a small fortune to obtain a secret decree of divorce, so that he could then marry “Baby” Doe. Tabor marries Doe, only to find out the divorce is not binding, thus his marriage was not either.

1882: The battle of Iron Springs, a shootout between cowboys and the Wyatt Earp vendetta riders, takes place in the Whetstone Mountains in Arizona Territory. Earp makes the claim that he killed cowboy leader Curly Bill Brocius. With Earp is John O. “Texas Jack” Vermillion, who later becomes a member of the Soapy Smith gang in Denver, Colorado, becoming known as “Shoot-Your-Eye-Out-Jack.”

1883: The first telephone call between New York and Chicago is made.

1884: Soapy Smith’s brother-in-law, William S. Light, rides with a legal posse that tracks and kills local Texas outlaw, William Northcott.

1898: The first automobile is sold.

1900: Mayor Van Wyck of New York breaks ground for the New York subway tunnel that will link Manhattan and Brooklyn.

1900: The Carnegie Steel Corporation is formed in New Jersey.

Soapy Smith's brother, Bascomb, shoots a man in Seattle, December 4, 1899.

Believed to be Bascomb Smith
Drawing of Bascomb upper right
No provenance for photo
Jeff Smith collection

(Click image to enlarge)

here art thou Bascomb?

The following newspaper clipping is copied from the Seattle Post-intelligencer, December 4, 1899.

———

BASCOM SMITH IN JAIL.

———

Accused of Shooting at an Enemy on the Public Street.

      Bascom Smith, a brother of “Soapy” Smith, the former Skagway bandit, is in the city jail on the charge of shooting at a man named Sam Allen, who stays at the Northern hotel. The alleged shooting took place early Sunday morning on First Avenue, south.

      No one seems to know the cause of the trouble between the two men, though it was stated yesterday that the feud between them originated at Skagway some months ago. Smith is said by the police to be an opium fiend, and an opium pipe was found in his possession at the time of his arrest. He has served a term for vagrancy.

———

Original clipping
The Seattle Post-intelligencer
December 4, 1899

 Click image to enlarge

My thoughts and notes

1. Early family records show that the spelling is "Bascomb," though it is often spelled "Bascom."
2. The shooting took place on Sunday morning December 3, 1899 on First Avenue, which passes by the Horseshoe Saloon and the Great Northern Hotel, likely "the Northern hotel" where Sam Allen was staying. Both buildings still stand, in what is known as Pioneer Square today.  
3. The article implies that the trouble between Smith and Allen started in Skagway, Alaska. This is interesting as it is one of a very few indication that Bascomb may have traveled to Skagway to work with his older brother, "Soapy.
4. Previously, there were newspaper articles that hinted that Bascomb was an "opium fiend" and this clipping states that the police confiscated an opium pipe in his possession when arrested. I think it can be said with enough certainty that Bascomb did indeed smoke opium.
5. The article states that Bascomb had "served a term for vagrancy." On October 25, 1899 Bascomb was arrested for vagrancy (see Seattle Daily Times news clipping below). This is approximately 39 days previous to the attempted shooting of Sam Allen. I do not know the average sentencing "term" for vagrancy in 1899, but can guess that it would not be more than the 40 days difference between the arrest for vagrancy and the shooting incident.





Seattle Daily Times
October 26, 1899



6. Three days after the attempted shooting of Sam Allen, Bascomb was brought before the municipal court, "with a number of minor crimes." Instead of being sentenced to prison he was given twenty-four hours to leave Seattle (see Seattle Daily Times news clipping below). There are no more newspaper accounts of Bascomb being in Seattle. It is believed that Bascomb obeyed the court order to leave the city. Bascomb disappeared from record. Did he leave Seattle? When did he die? Did he die unidentified? One day I hope to find out.

Seattle Daily Times
December 6, 1899

Click Image to enlarge

 

Bascomb Smith: pages 22, 41-42, 67, 75-76, 88-89, 92, 120-22, 139, 143, 162-63, 165, 167, 169, 176, 178, 182, 214, 247, 264, 273-75, 336, 340, 352, 355, 361, 363, 367, 370-77, 381-86, 391-99, 403-05, 408-09, 412, 420-23, 519, 554-55, 584, 588-89, 594. 

"The confidence man carefully evaluates every stroller or idler, whom he divides into two classes. First is the man whose loyal face or upright posture reveals a puritanical temperament disdaining involvement in any con game whatsoever. Second is the man, perhaps a farmer or industrial worker, who appears sophisticated enough to recognize an ordinary swindle yet ignorant enough to be fooled by a subtler, more involved swindle, a man whose face and air reveal a certain weakness of temperament, a certain latent unscrupulousness which the pitchman detects on sight."

—Eugene Villiod, Crooks, Con Men and Cheats, 1905.

MARCH 23

1792: The Humane Society of Massachusetts is incorporated.

1813: The first raw cotton-to-cloth mill is founded in Waltham, Massachusetts.

1821: The Philadelphia College of Apothecaries establishes the first pharmacy college.

1822: The city of Boston, Massachusetts is incorporated.

1836: The siege of the Alamo begins during the Texas Revolution, in San Antonio, Texas.

1839: The first express service in the U.S. is organized between Boston, Massachusetts and New York City by William F. Harnden.

1847: Mexican General Santa Anna is defeated at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico by U.S. troops under General Zachary Taylor.

1858: The U.S. Senate approves statehood for Kansas.

1861: President Lincoln secretly enters Washington D.C. to take his office after an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland.

1861: Texas is the 7th state to secede from the Union previous to the Civil War.

1870: The state of Mississippi is readmitted to the Union after the Civil War.

1874: Walter Winfield patents a game called sphairistike, later known as lawn tennis.

1875: J. Palisa discovers asteroid #143 (named “Adria”).

1877: Mormon Elder John Lee is executed by firing squad for his planning of masterminding the Utah Territory Mountain Meadow Massacre in 1857, which resulted in the murder of a 120 Arkansas emigrants bound for California. The Mormons persuaded the emigrants that they could freely pass unharmed if they surrendered their arms. Indians, hired by the Mormons, murdered all but 18 children.

1882: An illegal posse, led by Wyatt Earp out for revenge, has a shootout at Iron Spring, Arizona Territory, with men thought to be the “cowboy’s gang” of Curly Bill Brocius. Earp claims he shot and killed Brocius but later reports indicate the “cowboys” were actually miners, each party believing the other was bad. One of the posse members is John O. “Texas Jack” Vermillion, who later becomes a member of the Soapy Smith gang in Denver, Colorado, becoming known as “Shoot-Your-Eye-Out-Jack.”

1883: Two people are killed by Indians at Point of the Mountain, Arizona Territory.

1883: Alabama is the first state to enact an antitrust law.

1886: Charles Hall completes his invention of aluminum.

1889: President Harrison opens Oklahoma for colonization.

1896: The Tootsie Roll is introduced by Leo Hirshfield.

1904: The U.S. acquires control of the Panama Canal for $10,000,000.

1905: The Rotary Club is founded in Chicago, Illinois.

1910: The first radio contest is held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.