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
 (Click image to enlarge)

(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

(click image to enlarge)

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's model 1877 revolver?

Is this Soapy Smith's revolver?
Engraved "Soapy Smith" on the back-strap

Courtesy of Larry Zeug collection

(Click image to enlarge)

 new addition to the website
  The Zeug revolver.





      A new edition has been added to the Alias Soapy Smith website, on the page Soapy's Weapons. This Colt model 1877 double-action .38 caliber revolver (serial #93432) was manufactured in 1893 and is owned by personal friend and gun collector Larry Zeug.

"SOAPY SMITH DENVER"
Engraving on the back-strap

Courtesy of Larry Zeug collection

(Click image to enlarge)

      It is engraved "Soapy Smith Denver" on the back-strap. When Larry described the engraving to me on the phone I had some misgiving. The first natural assumption is that Soapy purchased the gun himself and had it engraved. My first reaction is that it couldn't have belonged to Soapy as his widow, my great-grandmother, always said that he hated the alias "Soapy." It represented the criminal side of his life, while "Jefferson R. Smith" represented the successful businessman and loving family man. Soapy did his best to not mix them together as it tainted the reputation he so desperately maintained. 
      Larry's figured that perhaps a friend of Soapy's had it engraved and given to Soapy as a gift. While this is plausible, most who knew Soapy, knew never to call him that. Acquaintances and business clients called him "Mr. Smith." Friends called him "Jeff." His enemies, the newspapers and the police called him "Soapy." Most likely, no one who knew Soapy, gave him that pistol, at least not engraved with "Soapy Smith." So could the engraving have been done at a later time?
      There is a single action revolver in Skagway, Alaska. It can be referenced on the Soapy's Weapons link I listed earlier. That revolver is also engraved "Soapy Smith." The pistol was in possession of Deputy U.S. Marshal Josias M. "Si" Tanner, engraved "J. M. Tanner" onto the pistol. The gun was later acquired by Harriet Pullen, who engraved her own name onto the pistol and showcased in the famed Harriet Pullen Collection. None of these engravings were on the revolver when (if) Soapy owned it. Perhaps the same can be said of Larry Zeug's revolver? Could someone have obtained one of Soapy's guns, perhaps as a gift from him, or perhaps a pawned or left behind item during a gambling binge in Denver? There are several newspaper accounts in which Soapy pawned his watch during a wild faro game, later to buy it back from the dealer. In one story the dealer asked Soapy to purchase his watch back and Soapy refused, ending in him slicing up the layout felt with a folding knife he carried. Could this revolver have come from one such gambling pawn, never to be bought back? Could this dealer have kept the memento of Denver's wild days, later to have it engraved?

"JEFF"
Penciled name inside grip

Courtesy of Larry Zeug

(Click image to enlarge)

      On the inside of the ivory grip is the faint pencil name "Jeff." Gunsmiths were known to write the name of their customers on the inside grips in order to make sure the right grips were placed on the right gun. It is improbable that Soapy himself would have written his name on the inside grip.

Is this Soapy Smith's revolver?
Courtesy of Larry Zeug

(Click image to enlarge)

The other side
Courtesy of Larry Zeug collection

(Click image to enlarge)

      Other than the engraving and name inside there is no provenance that this revolver actually belonged to bad man Soapy Smith.

Mrs. Smith, Dear Friend, yours to hand and glad to hear from you. I know they will say that Jeff had nothing when you went up but I think the Saloon must be a part his [—] only way it looks like he would have paid for something and the 2,100 that they claim that they found in his trunk must belong to him for they claimed that the man lost 3,200 so I think you can get that. Did you get Jeff’s personal effects? I suppose they stole everything. I will be here for a week, so write to me here as I will get it. Let me hear all the news. Yours as Ever Bascom Smith, Care of Tom Sanders Saloon 

—Alias Soapy Smith, p. 554.

NOVEMBER 30

1782: The U.S. and Britain sign preliminary peace articles in Paris, France, ending the American Revolution.

1803: Spain completes the process of ceding Louisiana to France.

1804: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase goes on trial accused of political bias. He is later acquitted by the U.S. Senate.

1835: America’s most famous literary icon, Samuel Langhorne Clemens is born in Florida, Missouri. Best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876 and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885, both written under the moniker “Mark Twain.”

1875: A. J. Ehrichson patents the oat-crushing machine.

1878: The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe lay railroad tracks crossing Colorado's southern border into New Mexico Territory, the first tracks into New Mexico.

1879: Outlaw Billy the Kid meets with rancher John Chisum, at Bob Hargrove's saloon in New Mexico Territory, to talk about recent rustlings.

1881: Judge Wells Spicer of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, officially states that the Earp’s and Doc Holiday were justified in their actions, which led to, and include the gunfight behind the OK Corral. In another matter bad man “cow-boy” Johnny Ringo is arrested for having robbed a poker game in August 1881.

1884: At nineteen-years-old, Elfego Baca, arrests a cowboy in New Mexico Territory for disturbing the peace. When the cowboys friends attempt to “teach Baca a lesson,” he shoots and kills the foreman.

1887: Outlaws Robert Leroy “Butch Cassidy” Parker and the McCarty brothers, stop, but fail their attempt to rob the Denver and Rio Grande express near Grand Junction, Colorado. The stubborn express guard refuses to open the safe in the mail car and rather than kill him, the gang allows the train to continue on their way, leaving the bandits empty-handed.

1892: Bank robber Oliver “Ol” Yantis, a member of the infamous Doolin Dalton Gang, succumbs to his wounds after a gunfight with Deputy US Marshal Tom Hueston near Orlando, Oklahoma, the previous day. the lawmen trailed Yantis to his sister’s home outside of Orlando. The two lawmen demanded his surrender. Yantis walked out as if giving up but drew a revolver and fired. The lawmen returned fire, hitting Yantis in the leg and stomach. The lawmen took the wounded Yantis to a hotel in Orlando, where he died on this day. Yantis is the first of the Doolin Dalton gang members to fall. Hueston would later be killed during another shootout with the Doolin Dalton gang members in Ingalls, Oklahoma, during the Battle of Ingalls. It is believed that Soapy Smith’s wife Mary was a cousin of the outlaw Dalton’s.

1897: Thomas Edison's motion picture projector has its first commercial exhibition.

1897: The Rocky Mountain News reports that bad man Soapy Smith is “in New York organizing a Klondyke expedition to start from the East in February (1898).”

The Granite House, Central City, where Soapy Smith stayed in July 1880.

HE GRANITE HOTEL
Central City, Colorado

      Bad man Soapy Smith was in Leadville, Colorado in July 1880. He had his picture taken, with ex-President U. Grant in the background, and fifteen days later he was sixty miles away, checking into the Granite Hotel in Central City on August 7. In the ledger he wrote that he was a resident of Atlanta, Georgia. There are no records of what Soapy was doing in Central City, but there is little doubt that he was swindling dupes of their ready cash utilizing the prize package soap sell racket.

      Below is a stereoview card I had purchased for my Soapy collection. I posted about it on Facebook, including the photo below, with the yellow line marking what I thought was the Granite House. It turned out to be the Masons Lodge. Good friend, Colorado-based historian Paul Marquez, knew that the building I was pointing to was the Mason's Lodge, and he thought that I must be pointing to the building to the right of the Lodge. He posted some great photographs of that building as it looks today (a modern casino). I was very surprised to see that the building and those around it were still standing! Years ago I had contacted the Central City Historical Society and the person I spoke with had me believing that the Granite House building no longer existed. Immediately seeing that the Mason's Lodge was still standing, but not the Granite House, I logged onto Yahoo "street view images" to do a little touring around Central City. I was still under the impression that the Granite House structure was gone, so I hoped to at least find the location and see what I could learn.

Stereoview card, Central City, Colorado
Yellow line points to the Mason's Lodge
The Granite House is five buildings to the far right.
Jeff Smith collection

(Click photo to enlarge)

"I toured the street, hoping that perhaps some of the surrounding buildings were still standing. Not only did I find all of the buildings still standing, but the Granite Hotel, at 110 Lawrence Street, as well!"

The Granite House
As it looks today

(Click photo to enlarge)

Central City
The Granite House is seen on the middle right
circa 1920s

(Click photo to enlarge)

Central City
The Granite House is seen on the lower right
circa 1940s

(Click photo to enlarge)

 

Central City as it looks today
The Granite House is seen on the lower right

(Click Photo to enlarge)

Central City, Colorado: pages 34-35, 37, 57.
Granite House: page 37.

"He was a character the like of which will probably never be seen again in the history of the country. He left a few friends who will regret his death, but the majority of people who knew him were relieved when they heard that he had been killed. The evil which he did will live a long time after him, and his bunco record will be a monument which will last all ages."

—Rocky Mountain News
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 582.

November 29

1864: The Sand Creek Massacre occurs in Colorado when the 3rd Colorado Cavalry led by Colonel John Chivington, kills at least 400 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, who had surrendered and had been given permission to camp where they were.

1872: Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune, dies. In May of 1872 Greeley was nominated for President but lost at the polls to Ulysses S. Grant. He is most famous for his phrase, “Go west young man.”

1872: A Modoc Indian, called Captain Jack, was a leader in the Modoc War in Oregon Territory, 1872-73. T. B. Odeneal, with forty soldiers, tracked the Indians to Lost River with the intent of disarming them. A fight ensued and several troopers and Indians were shot and killed.

1874: During the Red River War, Captain Charles Hartwell and detachments of Companies C, H, K, and I, 8th Infantry attack a Cheyenne Indian camp on the Canadian River. Two Indians are killed and two wounded.

1877: Captain Samuel Young and Companies A and K, 8th Cavalry; Company C, 10th Cavalry; with a detachment of Seminole-Negro scouts, were on a scout into Mexico when they attack a camp of Mescalero Apache Indians. Two Indians are killed, Lieutenant Frederick Phelps is wounded, as are three Indians. Thirty horses are captured.

1879: famed gambler, lawman, Wyatt Earp arrives in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.

1881: Legal hearings in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, regarding the gunfight behind the O.K. Corral end. In another matter a grand jury indicts Billy “the Kid” Claiborne for murder.

1881: Before joining the Soapy Smith Gang, gunman Joe Palmer is arrested for robbing a telegraph operator at gunpoint for “only a few dollars.”

1886: The first Kansas, Pacific and Western Railroad train arrives in Pratt, Kansas.

1890: Navy defeats Army by a score of 24-0 in the first Army-Navy football game, played at West Point, New York.

1892: A patent is issued to Almon Strowger for the rotary dial.

1892: Wild Bunch outlaw member Harry “The Sundance Kid” Lonabaugh, Bill Madden and Harry Bass rob the Great Northern Railway near Malta, Montana. They found $64, mostly in checks and then make a toast to the crew before leaving.

1892: Bank robber Oliver “Ol” Yantis, a member of the infamous Doolin Dalton Gang, is shot and fatally wounded by lawman Tom Hueston. Hueston, accompanied by Chris Madsen and Heck Thomas, tried to apprehend Yantis in Orlando, Oklahoma Territory, at his sister's farm, but Yantis would not give up without a fight. Yantis walked out, and as he acted as if he was putting his hands up, he drew a revolver and fired on the officers, who both returned fire, hitting Yantis in the leg and stomach. The lawmen took him to a hotel in Orlando, where he died the next day. Yantis is the first of the Doolin Dalton gang members to fall. Hueston would later be killed during another shootout with the Doolin Dalton gang members in Ingalls, Oklahoma, during the Battle of Ingalls. It is believed that Soapy Smith’s wife Mary was a cousin of the outlaw Dalton’s.

1977: Jefferson J. Smith a grandson of bad man Soapy Smith passes away.

Soapy Smith's safe? (1/6 scale)

Soapy deposits the days take

(Click image to enlarge)

ne of my Soapy Smith related sub-hobbies
 

has become the building and customization of a Soapy Smith action figure collection. I have been a Soapy reenactor since 1985, so it seem a logical step (up or down?) to move into the huge field of 1/6 scale action figures. This allows me to tell stories of Soapy's adventures through figures.


      The photograph at top is actually show-casing the safe I purchased and customized. That project can be viewed HERE on my blog for the "fun accessories" I have created and purchased to go along with my new hobby. My other blogs relating to this same hobby are as follows...

• My Soapy Smith Figure Collection: This is my personal collection of Soapy and other related characters I have built, such as gang members (John Bowers, etc.) and friends (Bat Masterson, etc.). 
• Soapy Smith Action Figure: The customized Soapy figure for sale.

I believe the two childhood interests that led to this hobby are as follows...

• G.I. Joe: This 1/6 scale action figure came out when I was a kid. It was all we had and I had my fair share of dolls and accessories. My dad even bought me a small suitcase with my name stenciled on, in which to store my collection. Today's 1/6 figures and accessories are far more detailed and interested to look at. Most come with an assortment of hands in various positions.
• Mott's Miniatures: A museum inside Knott's Berry Farm (Buena Park, California) of 1/12 scale decoramas showing very detailed rooms, houses and scenes, one complete with a working black and white TV, advertised as the smallest working TV in the world, at the time. I loved going through that museum every time I went to Knott's.    

 

"We put armed guards on all the wharves," Graves continued, with orders to shoot on sight if anyone tried to escape in a boat. Thus escape by land or water was cut off…. Some tried to get away in boats and were caught by our guards. Some tried the Pass, and Heney and Hawkins got them, and the rest we got by an organized search of the town…, except a few who took to the mountains where we shall starve them out. But we got more than we could find jail room for, so we selected thirty-one of the leaders, and let the rest go with a warning to get out of town, and keep out. Now our job is to save the men we have in jail from the infuriated mob, which is clamoring for their blood.

—Samuel H. Graves, president of the White Pass and Yukon Railway
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 562.

OCTOBER 26

1774: The First Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia.

1825: The Erie Canal opens in upstate New York. The 363-mile canal connects Lake Erie and the Hudson River at a cost of $7,602,000.

1849: Camp Gates, Texas, the predecessor of Fort Gates, is established by Capt. William Montgomery on the bank of the Leon River. The installation is named for Bvt. Maj. Collinson Gates, who won distinction in the Mexican War. The fort is the first of posts to be abandoned, closing in 1852.

1854: Charles William Post, the inventor of Grape Nuts, Postum and Post Toasties is born.

1858: H. E. Smith patents the rotary-motion washing machine.

1881: The Gunfight behind the OK Corral takes place in Tombstone, Arizona, between the Earp brothers, John “Doc” Holliday and members of the Ike Clanton Gang. Billy Clanton, Frank & Tom McLaury are shot to death. Sometime after the fight, the Earp’s fortify themselves inside that Cosmopolitan Hotel, and during this period, Soapy Smith arrives in Tombstone and stays at the hotel. It is believed he and friends were there to help protect the families.

1882: The bombardment of a Tlingit Indian village in Angoon, Alaska by the U.S. Navy, began on October 22, when a Northwest Trading Company whaling ship harpoon gun exploded, killing Tith Klane, a medicine man from Angoon. The Angoon natives demanded a customary payment of 200 blankets for the life of Klane. When the offer was refused, the Indians took over the whaling station at Killisnoo and took two white employees hostage. If reparations were not met the Indians threatened to kill the white prisoners, as well as burn the company's store, its buildings, and destroy its boats. The Navy Cutter Corwin arrived, obtained the release of the two prisoners, and arrested the ring leaders. Seeking to punish the Indians, the Natives were demanded to give 400 blankets. The villagers offered 82 blankets and the Navy responded by bombarding the village and destroying forty canoes.

Token from Soapy Smith's Saloon in Mesa, Arizona?

Token from Soapy Smith's Saloon?
Photo courtesy of Holabird Auctions

upposed Soapy Smith token sells for $6,000!

October 4, 2015 Holabirds Autions announces that lot 6008, a token from Soapy Smith's Saloon sold for a final bid of $6,000.00.

Following is the auction description.

Original Soapy Smith saloon token. We wrote a story on it for our American Saloon book a number of years ago. It is the finest known, as far as we know, of the two or three known. Soapy Smith was a saloon operator and a rouffian. He moved to Alaska, where he ran roughshod over the miners in Skagway, and was ultimately killed. He was known as a gangster, and operated in Denver, Creede, and Skagway Alaska. This is unarguably one of the great Arizona tokens and great western saloon tokens.

City: Mesa
State: Arizona
Date: HWAC# 33204
Seller's Estimate: USD 7,000 - 11,000

On September 20, 2015 I saw the auction advertised online. I wrote to them, partly because I have a personal interest in Soapy's history, and partly because I did not wish to see a buyer purchase something they though was related to THE Soapy Smith, and I also didn't wish to see the auction house of Holabird's get a bad reputation. Holabird's did not respond.

About a week later I saw the auction being advertise on eBay and wrote to Holabirds again via eBay. This time they responded with the following.

Sorry we didn't get back to you. Will resolve before it comes up for live auction next week.

They never changed the description wording of the auction.

The problem I had with the auction is that they identified it as being from a saloon of Jefferson Randolph Smith II. There are a few key reasons I do not believe it was related to Jefferson "Soapy" Smith.

• My great grandfather never called himself "Soapy," except as a threat. His wife, my great grandmother told her children that he did not like the alias of Soapy, used in attacks upon him by the Rocky Mountain News. He never would have named a business of his after his criminal persona.
• Although Soapy did travel through Arizona there are no records that he stopped in Mesa, a small suburb of Phoenix.
• There are no records that Soapy opened any businesses in Arizona.

 

      I found an Italian bootblack and made a contract with him to black my boots for twenty-five cents, which seems high unless you saw the boots. But he hardly got himself into action when I felt a light touch on my shoulder and saw Hislop apparently deprecating the performance.
     ‘It is hardly wise just now’ he said…. I thought he meant that it was a poor investment in view of the fact that the boots would soon be bad as ever. But he explained that the public feeling was very excited and ran high, and that while it did not necessarily follow course that a man was honest because he had dirty boots, on the other hand there was an irresistible presumption that if his boots shone, he must earn his living by questionable methods.

— Samuel H. Graves
president of the White Pass and Yukon Railway
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 556.

OCTOBER 19

1765: The Stamp Act: Congress meets and draws up a declaration of rights and liberties.

1781: British General Charles Lord Cornwallis surrenders to U.S. General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia. It is the last major battle of the American Revolution.

1859: Denver, Colorado’s first duel, between Richard Whitsett and Park McCure, the latter being shot in the stomach. The following year McClure becomes Denver’s first postmaster.

1869: Construction begins on the Sutro Tunnel, Virginia City, Nevada Territory, a four-mile-long tunnel through the solid rock of the Comstock Lode mining district. The purpose of this new tunnel was to drain water from the mines without need for pumping. The mining companies would also be able to use the tunnel to move men and ore in and out of the mines, greatly reducing transportation costs.

1881: Citizens of Tucson, Arizona Territory demand that the government move all Indians from Arizona to Indian Territory.

1890: The Bowie and Soloman stage in Arizona Territory is robbed.

1901: Outlaw Jim Younger commits suicide by shooting himself in St. Paul, Minnesota.

1928: Charles Siringo, noted cowboy, Texas Ranger, Pinkerton Agent and author dies Los Angeles, California.

Is this Soapy Smith and his brother Bascomb

(Click image to enlarge)

s this SOAPY AND BASCOMB?

Full card showing photograph

Jeff Smith collection

(Click image to enlarge)

I cannot find my source, but long ago I found an author who made the claim that this stereo-card shows bad man "Soapy" Smith and his younger brother Bascomb aboard a Northern Pacific train "heading to the Klondike." The train is most likely heading to Seattle, Washington where those heading to Alaska and then the Klondike, would board a steamer.

So is this Soapy and Bascomb? It could be. It sort of looks like it could be them, and Soapy did go to Washington numerous times, but unfortunately, there is no provenance.

A friend made the comment that the gentleman I think might be "Bascomb" actually looks a little like gang member John L. Bowers.
 

"It is popularly believed Reid killed Smith, but those claiming to know assert Murphy fired the fatal shots."

— Will Clayson
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 550.

SEPTEMBER 22

1789: U.S. Congress authorizes the office of Postmaster General.

1862: U.S. President Lincoln issues the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. It states that all slaves held within rebel states would be free as of January 1, 1863.

1886: Famed lawman Bat Masterson has an altercation with a man named Bagsby inside The Exchange saloon in Denver, Colorado. Masterson strikes Bagsby, who draws a pistol and shoots Masterson in the leg. Neither men wish to make a complaint and no one is arrested. Masterson is a friend of bad man “Soapy” Smith’s.

1891: Sak, Fox, and Potawatomi lands are open for settlement in Oklahoma Territory.