Frank Clancy: "Skaguay a terror for horses."

"SKAGUAY A TERROR FOR HORSES"
Seattle Daily News
Aug 22, 1897

(Click image to enlarge)

KAGUAY A TERROR FOR HORSES

      It was Frank W. Clancy's first trip to Skagway [spelled Skaguay], Alaska, and now he was back in his home town of Seattle, Washington, where he reports on the conditions there. What he leaves out of his report is information meant only for the ears of his brothers. The Clancy's are well-known and politically powerful saloon and gambling proprietors in Seattle, and they plan to open a saloon in Skaguay and the neighboring camp of Dyea.

____________________________

SKAGUAY A TERROR FOR HORSES

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Frank Clancy Comes Home and Tells About Alaska.

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      Frank Clancy, the well-known Seattle sporting man, who has been in Skaguay for several weeks returned this morning on the steamer Rosalie. As soon as it was noised about that he had returned he was the most sought–after man in town. A large crowd captured him on the corner of first Avenue and Cherry Street, and to them he detailed some of his experiences and told of the sites he had witnessed.

      “You can have some idea of things at Skaguay,” he said, “when you think of the fact that the miners are paying from 35 to 50 cents a pound for packing over the Summit. Good packers are getting $8 a day. That is what John G. Scurry is paying his men today. The trail is simply awful. Very few of the thousands at Skaguay will get over this winter. George Rice of this city started out with a pack train the day before I left Skaguay, and had not returned when I left. Think of that, will you? The country is a holy terror on horses. Scores of them have been killed and lots of them ruined. One of Harry Struve’s horses stepped in a crack in the rocks and literally twisted his leg off. Skaguay is a lively town, and people in business there will make a good thing this winter. A good many of the boys up there will come home after they see how impossible it is for them to cross the Summit this winter.”[1]

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      On August 10, 1897, before leaving Skagway, Frank he purchased lot 1 on block 6, on Runnals and Shoup Streets, the future southwest corner of what would become Seventh and State Avenues.[2] It is here that Frank and John E. Clancy would open Clancy and Company Music Hall and Club Rooms [gambling] in January 1898.

Clancy and Company
Music Hall and Club Rooms

 (Click image to enlarge)

      Frank and John Clancy align with "Soapy" Smith, and in the spring of 1898 they go in 1/2 ownership of Jeff Smith's Parlor (Soapy's saloon), where John Clancy works as a bartender.

      With the aid of Soapy, who has a detailed background in manipulating elections, Frank Clancy wins a seat on the Skaguay City Council.[3]

      In the last hours of Soapy's empire, as well as his life, John Clancy appears to double-cross Soapy as he is the only gang member completely exonerated from punishment by the vigilante's although the Clancy's were definite crime partners. Stranger still is that John is made executor of Soapy's estate.

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TRIVIA: In 1902 outlaw Harry Tracy talked about robbing the Clancy saloon in Seattle. Tracy said that he was going to hold up a policeman for his gun, and then go down to Seattle by Pike Street to hold up Clancy’s Saloon, because “I hear they have got some dough down there.”

FOOTNOTES:
[1]. Seattle Daily News, August 22, 1897.
[2]. Skagway Historical Records, lot locations, Vol 19.
[3]. Skaguay News, June 17, 1898.









Frank Clancy: April 16, 2011, December 27, 2010, June 24, 2010, April 14, 2010, August 20, 2009, July 4, 2009, June 7, 2009, October 5, 2008.

Clancy and Company: pages 481, 523, 595.
Frank Clancy: pages 455, 461, 471, 516, 521, 552-53.
John Clancy: pages 455, 461, 471, 481-82, 543-46, 552-55, 558, 585, 595.

"The first night they slept near the lake and remained in hiding all the next day. Saturday night, almost famished with hunger, they hit the trail again and came down to the slaughterhouse with the hope of escaping by boat or of getting back to friendly cabins. It seemed too risky to attempt to pass the lines of armed patrolmen, however, and shortly after 2 o’clock they started back up the trail. Tripp, who is an old man, was tired out and refused to go back. His companions expostulated with him for an hour, but he stuck to his declaration that he “would rather be hung on a full stomach than die of starvation in the ____ ____ mountains.” So he was at length permitted to return."

— Daily Alaskan
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 564.

JANUARY 3

1777: George Washington defeats British forces led by Cornwallis at The Battle of Princeton during the American Revolutionary War.

1791: The first known law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty in U.S. history is Albany County Constable Darius Quimby. A posse in Stephentown, New York attempt to arrest Whiting Sweeting on a warrant for theft. Sweeting resists, and stabs Quimby who later dies of his wounds. Sweeting is convicted for the murder in July of 1791 and is executed the following month.

1823: Stephen F. Austin receives a grant from the Mexican government and begins colonization of the region of the Brazos River in Texas.

1844: The side-wheel steamship Shepherdess sinks fast in the Mississippi River 3-miles outside of St. Louis. Forty passengers perish.

1847: The town of Yerba Buena is renamed San Francisco.

1868: The Colorado Central and the Pacific Railroad hosts a groundbreaking ceremony at Golden City, Colorado Territory. 1871: Henry W. Bradley patents oleomargarine (margarine).

1879: The War Department orders Captain Wessells to return Dull Knife and his Cheyenne Indians to Fort Reno in Indian Territory. Dull Knife and his men refuse to leave and are kept in the barracks at Fort Robinson, Nebraska with no food or wood.

1884: Soapy Smith is arrested for the second time while in San Francisco for operating the prize package soap racket. The first arrest was on January 1.

1888: The drinking straw is patented by Marvin C. Stone.

1894: The outlaw Doolin Gang members, Charlie Pierce and Red Buck Waightman hold up the community store and post office in Clarkson, Oklahoma taking supplies, tobacco, cash, and registered mail.

1959: Alaska, “the last frontier” becomes the 49th state.

Soapy Smith, the notorious sure-thing gambler, arrives in Seattle, Sept 22, 1897.

THE ARGONAUTS’ RETURN
Seattle Daily Times
September 23, 1897

(Click image to enlarge)

opie Smith[sic], the famous St. Louis confidence operator, who has been running a three-shell game at Skaguay and along the trail, and who has been interested in several gambling games, came down yesterday on the Queen and there are those among the passengers who declare that he brought back with him from $18,000-$20,000, won from the tenderfeet about Skaguay.

Soapy Smith, Jerry J. Daly and Jack Jolly took their first trip to Skagway, Alaska, in August 1897. According to Daily, the three men worked 19 days of the 23 days they were in the new camp, netting about $30,000, which was split three ways. The stories, including from Soapy's friend, "Bat" Masterson, vary, but all of them speak of the great success the three con men had. After 23 days the trio boarded the steamer Queen and sailed to Seattle, Washington. The following account comes from the Seattle Daily Times, September 23, 1897

THE ARGONAUTS’ RETURN

———

The Skaguay Rush Is Now Headed This Way.

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WINTER WEATHER HAS BEGUN

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Steamer Queen Returns With 125 passengers in All, of Whom 80 Are Discouraged Would–Be Klondikers– Home Rush Commenced.

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      The steamer Queen arrived in Seattle yesterday afternoon, bringing down news from Skaguay that will tend to dishearten those who are still afflicted with the gold fever. Briefly summarized, the news would seem to amount to this: Winter has set in at Skaguay and from now on it will be practically impossible to cross the trail with anything like a sufficient amount of supplies, hence a considerable proportion of those who are now at Skagway will return here to spend the winter. The lawless element is in charge of Skaguay, and is making things decidedly interesting.

      One of the officers on the Queen is authority for the statement that it is getting to be unsafe for any steamboat employee on any vessel to go on shore at either Dyea or Skaguay. This is owning to the fact that the miners are disgusted with the way in which freight is landed at both of these places. Ever since the present rush to Alaska started this subject has been one of chronic complaint, but of late it has seemed to grow unbearable and threatens to cause an open outbreak.

     Among the passengers on the Queen was United States District Attorney Bennett, who came down from Juneau. He admitted that active measures had been taken to suppress gamblers and liquor dealers at Skaguay, and said that the grand jury had been called to sit at Juneau October 9, when all cases of gambling and selling liquor would be dealt with. He said that he believed there were not over 2500 men at Skaguay now, and that as soon as snow commenced to fly in earnest nearly all of them would either cross over the divide and camp along the lakes or go to Juneau for the winter.

Steamer Queen
(taken from a postcard)
Jeff Smith collection

(Click image to enlarge)

      “There are many reckless men at Skaguay,” said the attorney, “but beyond gambling and whiskey selling there has been no trouble. All these reports of lynchings are untrue. Only one shot has been fired at Skaguay at any man, and the man who fired that shot is now in jail at Juneau. He did not hit his man and he says he did not intend to shoot to kill, or even wound: that his revolver went off accidentally. Excepting two or three drownings, and one death from heart failure, there has not been a casualty on the Skaguay trail.”
     “Sopie” [sic] Smith, the famous St. Louis confidence operator, who has been running a three-shell game at Skaguay and along the trail, and who has been interested in several gambling games, came down yesterday on the Queen and there are those among the passengers who declare that he brought back with him from $18,000-$20,000, won from the tenderfeet about Skaguay. He did not like the aspect of the authorities, who exhibit an intention to deal firmly with his element, and so he came out of the country. The Queen brought down 128 passengers, 80 of whom are disgusted returning Yukon-bound prospectors. Nearly all still have the fever, and say they will return in the spring and make another attempt to reach the land of gold and ice.
     Sherwood Gillespie, state manager of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, with headquarters at Seattle, returned from Skaguay on the Queen. He went north with the intention of looking into the condition of the Skaguay trail, and has some interesting information.

The Steamer Queen going back to Skagway after arriving in Seattle

      “Skaguay is a complete mixup,” said Mr. Gillespie. “You can’t imagine anything like it. All of the eighty disgusted prospectors who came back are ‘damning’ everybody and everything connected with the trail. It seems absolutely impossible to get across and if one does, boats cannot be purchased for love or money. Skaguay is in the hands of a lot of tough gamblers and saloon keepers. They are making all kinds of money and are counting on staying all winter. They are running the town to suit themselves. The correspondent of the Chicago Times–Harold was almost lynched the day we left, September 12, for sending out a letter calculated to keep people from coming to Skaguay. The saloon element held and indignation meeting and it was voted to hang the correspondent on the charge of ‘sending out lying statements calculated to injure the trade of the business men of the city.’ He had not been found up to the time the Queen sailed. There was nothing in his letter but what was absolutely true. Among the passengers was ‘Sopie’ [sic] Smith, the notorious sure-thing gambler. He has between $15,000 and $20,000, all made from his shell game. He would not take a bet for less than $20, and has been busy all the time for two months. During that time he did not lose a bet. I understood at Juneau that a force of marshals had been sent to Skaguay with warrants for the most notorious of the gamblers, confidence men and saloon keepers. The authorities proposed to keep Skaguay closed down. They were shooting horses the day we left Skaguay. They were good horses, but it did not pay to feed them, for they were absolutely no use. Hay is cheaper than it is in Seattle, and provisions can be secured for almost nothing from the returning prospectors.”
     United States Marshal James M. Shoup of Sitka was one of the passengers on the Queen. He is in charge of all the deputy marshals in Alaska, and is very well posting on criminal matters in the territory. Regarding crime and gambling at Skaguay he said:
     “Gambling at Skagway will have to stop just as soon as my deputies can arrest the gamblers. There are a great many of them, and they have been doing a big business, but it is against the laws of the territory and they must leave. I have a deputy at Skagway, McGinnis, who is keeping me posted, and who has all of the gamblers spotted. I cannot say just when the arrests will be, but the District Attorney has signified his intention of commencing at once. The saloon-keepers are also violating the law, and although they are in control at Skaguay, they too will have to shut up shop. They will find that Alaska is not a state, and that there is no use bucking the United States marshals. Outside of gambling and liquor selling there has been very little of a criminal nature at Skaguay. A little stealing perhaps, but no serious fighting or breaches of the peace.”
     Following is the passenger list of the Queen for Seattle:
     E. W. Gurney, P. I. Packard, G. S. Lansing, A. H. Taylor, L. Millen, Emma Williams, Miss Rose Williams, Mrs. F. Nichols and two children, Emil Free, F. A. White, Fred Lysons, J. H. Bristow, Geo. Laing, J. Sales, Mrs. O. C. Starck, G. Koxen, J. J. Carscadden, F. R. Pingree, D. M. Duncan, O. R. Murray, W. Appleby, Mr. and Mrs. B. E. Bennett and son, F. P. Kendall, Jeff R. Smith, J. J. Daly, J. M. Shoup, H. G. Bryant, T. McCauley, Wm. Montgomery, and forty-seven second-class.

James McCain Shoup
US Marshal, District of Alaska
(taken from a postcard)
Jeff Smith collection

(Click image to enlarge)

      When the Queen left Juneau the Al-Ki was there, and her boilers were leaking. It would probably take three or four days to repair them and in the meantime the Al-Ki will not be heard from. The Queen also spoke the City of Topeka near Juneau. Two of the Topeka’s propeller blades were broken and her crank shaft bent. The cause of the accident was not learned.

February 17, 2011,

Steamer Queen: page 442.
Jerry J. Daly: pages 435, 443, 497.
James McCain Shoup: pages 442, 562, 575-76, 580-81. 

"It was not generally known how many were included in Smith’s gang. Dr. Whiting and Keelar, the “Money King,” later compiled a list of the roughnecks who were supposed to have belonged, and both those men were in a position to judge fairly well. There were 192 names on their list, all of them suggestive of the underworld and many of them unprintable. The sobriquets range from “Soapy” Smith and the “Lamb” to “Moon Face Kid,” “Slim Jim,” “Blackjack Doctor,” “The Queen,” “B. S. Jack….”"

— Clarence Andrews, Alias Soapy Smith, p. 564.

JANUARY 2

1788: Georgia is the 4th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1867: Fourteen Arizona Rangers led by Tom Hodges attack Apache Indians at Rock Springs, killing 21.

1871: Golden, Colorado is incorporated.

1872: Brigham Young, the 71-year-old leader of the Mormon Church, is arrested on a charge of bigamy. He has 25 wives.

1877: Gambler Langford “Farmer” Peel becomes the gambling kingpin of Virginia City, Nevada when another gambler, Dick Paddock challenged Peel to a duel. Paddock was wounded, but survived while Peel was unscathed.

1878: Dick Paddock is killed in the Delta saloon in Virginia City, Nevada during a brawl in which he was trying to stop. Gambler Tom Hughes struck police officer Robert McDonald over the head with his pistol. In doing so, the pistol discharged and the bullet was sent into Paddock’s left temple. Hughes was then shot and killed by the police officer Paddock died 3-days later.

1879: Thomas Edison begins construction on his first generator.

1883: Augusta Tabor files her suit for divorce from Horace Austin Warner Tabor. She had only recently discovered that her husband had already secretly divorced her and married “Baby” Doe, in 1880. Horace’s divorce and following marriage to Doe were found to be non-binding.

1889: In a fight over which town will be the seat of Gray County, Kansas, the town of Ingalls hires Dodge City men, including Jim Masterson and Bill Tilghman, to raid the Cimarron courthouse for the county records. Residents of Cimarron open fire and capture four of the raiders including Masterson. His brother “Bat” Masterson sends a telegram asking Cimarron to free his brother or else he will “hire a train and come in with enough men to blow Cimarron off the face of Kansas.” The four are freed, and later tried and acquitted for the death of J. W. English.

1890: Alice Sanger became the first female White House staffer. 1893: The first commemorative postage stamps are issued.

1904: Amy Bassett, famed Denver brothel madame, dies in a gasoline explosion.

John Henry "The Kid" Foster, arrested in 1925

John H. "The Kid" Foster
Fort Collins Courier
(Fort Collins, Colorado)
May 18, 1923

(Click image to enlarge)

he "Kid" Foster

In the past I mistook "John Henry Foster" and "W. E. Foster," as being one and the same. Both were members of the Soap Gang, and so many of the confidence men used alias,' some having numerous, some whose real names have yet to be discovered. Luckily, I figured out the puzzle before Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel was published. [1]
      John Henry Foster, alias "the Kid" (later using the alias of "J. W. Reed"), did belong to the Soap Gang, but his history previous to 1898 in Skagway, Alaska is not known. Was he a member of the Denver bunco brotherhood? Time may reveal the answer.
      In Skagway, Foster ran the Grotto Saloon, one of four saloons opened by August 1898.^[2] Soapy Smith arrived in Skagway on August 20, 1897 and naturally gravitated towards the saloons, so it is likely that if the two men did not know each other previously, then they would have met on or around August 20th. It is known that Soapy, with the help of Frank Clancy, aided Foster's election to become a city counsel member, assisting Soapy's reign in Skagway.

The Grotto Saloon
Holly Street
Skagway, Alaska
(circled in red)
Pre-spring 1898
Courtesy of KGNHP

(Click image to enlarge)

      The above photo shows Holly Street (later changed to 6th Avenue). If Cathy Spude's location map in Archeological Investigations in Skagway, Alaska: Mascot Saloon is correct, then Foster's Grotto Saloon was located in the approximate location shown within the red circle. It is not known if this was the original location from August 1897 when it was opened. Soapy's saloon, Jeff Smith's Parlor, will occupy the First Bank of Skaguay shown in the blue circle, opening in the spring of 1898. In the meantime, Soapy and the gang worked out of numerous saloons, including the Grotto.

The Grotto Saloon
6th Avenue
Skagway, Alaska
Post-spring 1898
Courtesy of University of Washington Library

(Click image to enlarge)

      The above photo shows 6th Avenue (previously Holly Street). Foster's Grotto Saloon, the approximate location, is pointed out, as is Jeff Smith's Parlor (Clancy's in this photo).
      After Soapy was killed, it was first revealed to the town that Foster and others were actually working with the bunco men. Some either fled or were arrested by the vigilantes that took Soapy's empire down.

... two thirds of the city council of six was also under Jeff’s control. At a special meeting, tendered were the resignations of J. H. Foster, Frank E. Burns, and W. F. Lokowitz. Council member J. Allen Hornsby was not there because he was being fired from his position as editor of the Daily Alaskan for complicity with Jeff Smith and was being “asked” to leave town. As Counsel member Spencer could not attend the meeting, the single remaining “member, Chairman Sperry,” had by himself “to make, second, put before the house and vote on a motion to adjourn.” Even “The new school board” that day reported it was “now ‘shy’ a member.” The Citizens’ Committee soon replaced the four counsel members with men of its own and then had control of the city.^[3]

      It is not known if Foster fled, or was detained and forced to leave. Foster went (returned?) to Denver, Colorado where at some point between 1898 and 1922 he became a member of the Blonger Gang, the successors of Soapy's reign in Denver.
      Foster was working with con men, J. K. Ross and Arthur Cooper in extracting $50,000 from C. H. Hubbell, who was arranging to hand over the entire sum when the three con men were arrested [4] on August 24, 1922, Foster was arrested during a monumental raid that netted 33 of the main Blonger gangsters, shutting down Blonger's empire permanently. In 1923, during one of the most publicized trials to that time, the Lou Blonger and his cohorts were convicted and sentenced to prison at Cañon City Penitentiary. Lou Blonger died there just six months after he arrived.
      Foster was released on a $5,000 bond, dropped down from $11,000. He returned to the court on time, one month later (October 28, 1922) and had his trial. Upon being found guilty, Foster attempted to escape hiding in a locker. That information is included in a story on Foster published seven months later, on May 17, 1923 when it was feared that Foster might once again attempt to escape prison by gaining access to a dentist, outside the prison wall. The Fort Collins Courier published the story the following day.

―

Bunko Man, Heavily Guarded, to Visit Dentist-Teeth Hurt

―

DENVER. May 17.—False teeth and jail victuals, according to the officials of the district attorney’s office, are the responsible for a court order issued today permitting J. H. Foster, convicted bunko man, to leave his cell at the county jail.

      Foster is to start visiting a dentist to have a new plate made. He will be the first of the twenty convicted men to appear on the city’s streets since the trial.

      “I’ve got to have a better fit, if I’m going to chew this jail grub,” is Foster’s complaint.

      Foster, alias the Kid, according to Deputy Sheriff Jim Marshall, will be accompanied to the office of a dental specialist in the Metropolis building by an armed guard.

      Special precautions are necessary, according to Marshall, because it was Foster who hid in a small closet the day the twenty bunko men were being led to their cells after the jury verdict had been returned.

      Foster was missed from the line and a search was made for him immediately. He was found hiding in the locker, possibly intending to make a break for freedom before he was missed. Marshall declares that he is determined to keep close watch on the man to prevent any possible attempts at escape in the future.[5]

      On September 15, 1925 Foster was released from the Colorado state prison at Cañon City. He walked right into the hands of federal officers waiting to arrest him for another crime he had committed, and surely believed he had gotten away with. The Ogden Standard Examiner reported the event the following day.

―

BUNCO MAN FACES MAIL FRAUD CHARGE

―

CANON CITY. Colo., Sept 16.
– (AP) – As he stepped from the state penitentiary here Tuesday at the completion of a sentence imposed following his conviction as a member of the Denver “bunco ring.” John H. Foster was arrested by federal officers on a warrant charging him with using the males to defraud, issued at Jacksonville, Fla.
      He will be taken to Denver to await officials from Jacksonville. New, foster entered the prison in June, 1923. To serve a sentence of from three to 10 years.^[6]

John Henry Foster arrested again
Ogden Standard Examiner
September 16, 1925

(Click image to enlarge)

Footnotes
<sup>1. Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel can be purchased HERE.
2. Archeological Investigations in Skagway, Alaska: Mascot Saloon, by Catherine Holder Spude, p. 18.
3. Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, p. 563.
4. Denver Post, September 6, 1922.
5. Fort Collins Courier (Fort Collins, Colorado) May 18, 1923.
6. Ogden Standard Examiner, September 16, 1925.</sup>


For information regarding John H. Foster's time and trial with the Blonger Brothers: Visit Blongerbros.com











December 22, 2014,

John H. Foster: page 80, 518, 563.

"They shot all night. You could hear the shooting and see the flashes in the hills when they were shooting. They weren’t shooting at anything, they were just shooting. The gang was hiding in the hills. One guy hid under our house, until dark, and then he tore out. Mother wouldn’t tell on him. We didn’t want the guy to get shot. He stayed under there until it got dark and then he beat it."

—Royal Pullen, Alias Soapy Smith, p. 563.

DECEMBER 31

1775: The British repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec. Montgomery is killed in the battle.

1841: The state of Alabama enacts the first dental legislation in the U.S.

1852: The richest year of the California gold rush produces $81.3 million in gold.

1862: U.S. President Lincoln signs an act admitting West Virginia to the Union.

1873: Four soldiers of Company B, 25th Infantry are attacked by Indians at Eagle Spring Texas. One Indian is wounded.

1877: U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes is the first to celebrate his silver (25th) wedding anniversary in the White House.

1879: Thomas Edison gives his first public demonstration of incandescent lighting in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

1891: New York's new Immigration Depot is opened at Ellis Island, to provide improved facilities for the massive numbers of arrivals.

1897: The city of Brooklyn, New York, is absorbed by the city of New York.

Creede Colorado's first piano, 1892

THE FIRST PIANO IN THE NEW CAMP
The Illustrated Police News
April 9, 1892

(Click image to enlarge)

reed's first piano

Soapy Smith saved many newspaper articles, which still remain in the Smith family collections. In my personal collection is an issue of the Police Illustrated News, April 9, 1892. In that issue is a story on Creede, Colorado and their first piano. Obviously from the drawing above this was big news in the new camp.

      Below is the accompanying article.

CREEDE'S FIRST PIANO.

_______

      A piano came into the new Colorado boom city of Creede a fortnight ago, the "advance courier," as the Daily Crusher declared in a column article on the subject the next day, "of a long line of musical instruments which will make these mountain fastnesses ring with melody, and create a symphonous accompaniment to the everlasting music of the resonant steel discs of the saw mill up Poverty Gulch. The piano has come to stay. It is set up in a dance hall, where its tired strings are nightly hammered by a long-haired virtouso, who sweeps out the corks in the early dawn, places the ''dead drunks' tenderly under the wooden bunks in the retiring rooms, and acts as tout for his rendezvous when the stage whirls in in the afternoon."
      There is much of open violation of law in Creede, and as the Crusher's rival, the Prospector, stated in its issue, "the midnight air is rasped by the assassin's bullet. Shootings are common enough, and there is not much of police protection. There is, however, an association of bearded, reputable, determined men, who never fail to receive respect from desperadoes when they find themselves compelled to resort to the vigilantes' ultimatum. Invitations to leave the camp are promptly compelled with. 'you have twenty-four hours in which to leave town,' wrote a committee of this kind once in Cheyenne's active days. 'Gentlemen,' came the brief and scholarly response, in fine Italian hand, 'gentlemen, if my mule doesn't buck I'll not need more than tweenty-four minutes.' An intimation of a public desire here is sufficient to meet with prompt obedience."

_______

November 9, 2016,

Creede: pages 11, 63, 73, 75, 77, 79, 82-84, 87-89, 90, 94, 131, 137, 183, 197-235, 236-42.

"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 & Yukon Railway
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 562.

DECEMBER 29

1812: The USS Constitution wins a sea battle with the British HMS Java 30 miles off the coast of Brazil. Before Commodore William Bainbridge orders the sinking of the Java he had her wheel removed to replace the one the Constitution lost during the battle.

1813: The British burn Buffalo, New York during the War of 1812.

1837: Canadian militiamen destroyed the Caroline, a U.S. steamboat docked at Buffalo, New York.

1845: U.S. President James Polk signs legislation making Texas (comprised of the present state of Texas and part of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming) the 28th state of the Union, with the provision that the area (389,166 square miles) should be divided into no more than five states "of convenient size."

1848: U.S. President James Polk turns on the first gas light at the White House.

1851: The first American Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is organized, in Boston, Massachusetts.

1879: Charlie Parkhurst, a stage driver in the rough trails of the California Sierra Nevada Mountains, is found dead of natural causes. More astonishing to those who knew Charlie, is the after death discovery that Charley was a woman.

1883: Soapy Smith operates the prize package soap racket along Congress Street in Tucson, Arizona.

1890: The “Wounded Knee Creek massacre” takes place on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, when Colonel James Forsyth of the U.S. 7th Cavalry attempts to disarm Chief Big Foot and his followers. At least 128 men, women, and children of the Lakota Sioux had been killed and 33 wounded. 25 soldiers were killed, and 39 wounded. It is believed that some of the soldiers were the victims of friendly fire, as the shooting took place at close range in chaotic conditions, but there were deaths by arrows. At least twenty troopers were awarded the coveted Medal of Honor in this, the last battle of the Indian Wars.

Soapy Smith first arrives in Skagway, Alaska August 20, 1897, 5 p.m.

The Utopia
Circa November 17, 1898
Jeff Smith collection

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oapy's first arrival in Skagway: August 20, 1897, 5 p.m.

On November 6, 2017, I published a newspaper clipping, from the Seattle Post Intelligencer, August 14, 1897 which was of importance as it was significant evidence of when Soapy had first arrived in Skagway, Alaska onboard the steamer Utopia. Soapy is listed as a passenger, as is "L. W. Tozier" (Leroy Tozier), who's letter is written on August 20th, the day the Utopia arrived in Skagway, and published on September 1, 1897. From the previous posts I was certain that the Utopia had arrived between August 18-22, in the late afternoon, and now, with this published letter, I know that the Utopia, with Soapy on board, arrived on August 20, 1897 at 5 p.m. finally ending decades of debate as to the definitive date and time of his first arrival.

      Of importance, is the name Jesse Murphy, mentioned at the start of paragraph 3. Could this be the same Jesse Murphy who shot and killed Soapy on July 8, 1898?

      The remainder of the article pertains to an interesting look at the earliest days of Skagway. 

Seattle Daily Times
Wednesday, September 1, 1897
Seattle Washington
Page 5

AS SEEN BY LEROY TOZIER

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Well-known Seattle Man Writes From Skaguay.

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WENT UP ON THE UTOPIA

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Tells About Various Seattle Argonauts and 

What They Are Doing – All Have Hopes of 

Getting Over the Back-Breaking Divide.

￣￣￣

Capt. E. J. Powers has received the following interesting letter from Leroy Tozier. Everybody in Seattle knows Tozier and will be interested in what he has to say:

Skaguay Bay, August 20, 1897.

      We dropped anchor here at 5 p.m. midway between the British steamers Bristol and Islander, they both having arrived today some three and five hours before us respectively. The three vessels, Utopia, Islander and Bristol, added just 650 persons to the population of Skaguay, which the city, if it may be so-called, is indeed a wonder. 3000 and 800 people are in camp between the water and the summit of White Pass waiting to cross. After a visit on shore, during which time I interviewed men who had been here for from 3 to 4 weeks, I will say that not 10% of the 3800 will cross this season. Seven horses have been killed on the trail by falling from the narrow path during the two days just past, and it is simply hire animals or men to pack goods. Many are preparing to go into winter quarters, and if I mistake not Skagway will be a lively camp during the fall and winter, but not a few have sold their outfits and will return to their home disgusted and without funds. Jack Levy and Frank and Dan Egan are going through, but have met many obstacles that would have defeated those of less courage: Jack Scurry, and Terry and party are in camp a short distance of the trail with fair prospects for getting through. Mr. Green, the undertaker, and party are camped near the beach and so far have made no onward move, except to get under way by Monday. Trennuman sold his Indian steed and intends to do a Yankee trading business until able to go in over the snow. George Noble will move toward the promised lands tomorrow. He was detained by sickness, having been abed for five days, but is now in good condition and has a chance to get through. Charles Cole abandoned part of his outfit and will start in tomorrow by way of Dyea. To my surprise I learned that J. D. Thaggard is among the few who have crossed and is now well on his way to Dawson city. Capt. Barrington and party profited by the captain’s knowledge of the festive red man’s ways and language and went in via Dyea.

      Advise friends to wait until spring, as a blockade is on and with those here and coming five thousand men will be compelled to remain in Skaguay until spring or return home. Several have horses and wagons. They are making from $80 to $100 per day with each team hauling freight from scows to parts of the camp. There is ample room for a city and it is not true that the town is on a barren and rocky beach or that the campers are suffering for shelter. One hundred yards from high tide water there is a grove where a majority are in camp many in tents, some in frame buildings and a very few in the open. Each steamer having space brings lumber from Juneau and before severe weather comes this place will present a comfortable and substantial appearance. The weather is delightful, with the exception of a breeze which comes up Lynn Canal about 3 p. m. and lasts till 7 or 8 p. m. The wind does not inconvenience campers, but makes unloading vessels at anchor somewhat slow and difficult, but not necessarily dangerous. A large piledriver now at anchor in the harbor will soon be used in constructing a wharf 1000 feet in length from high tide to deep water. C. Sperry and F. Clancy have filed upon a water route leading from the flat or city proper up the mountain side to a beautiful lake situated in a basin at an altitude of 800 feet, from which water can be piped at a small expense. When Skaguay becomes a railway terminus they will have a bonanza.

      Ex-Register Jesse Murphy of Olympia, who assisted in surveying the town site, has a general merchandise store and is making big money. R. O. Lasier and party have their tent pitched in an ideal camping spot, where they will remain until winter: then go inside over the ice and snow. Jack D is teaming and doing a rushing and remunerative business. Ex-Collector Andrew Wasson and party are pushing onward and may get through, but like others who have abandoned their boats will have serious trouble at the Lakes in getting afloat. Robert Morgan and Barney McGee are at Lake Bennett awaiting the arrival of small outfits from this side, intending to go inside on receipt of same. Joe and I will go to Dyea Sunday and start for Dawson with our 350 pounds on Monday. Have not the slightest doubt as to our ability to get in as we can get over the Chilkoot Pass in six days and will do all are packing ourselves. We will encounter difficulties in getting our boat over, but will get there just the same. Joe Slenthus has recovered from his tumbled down the stairway and is now out with his pic examining a mountain back of the town. He got his optics on a quarts [quartz] formation by looking through Mariner’s glasses and would give me no rest until I got a ship’s boat and rowed him to the mountain. Expect to go after him soon and will not be surprised to find him with a ton of rock ready for shipment by return steamer. So many have requested personal letters that in order to reply I would have to write all the while; therefore kindly read this and let it act as a circular letter to my friends in Seattle. If you desire to be brief to all not to go to the Klondike until they can travel over the ice and snow or until spring. Tell Archie Hayes that he missed it by not coming, as the packing rate is from 35 to 50 cents, and any old thing in the shape of a horse sells on sight for $150 or $200. Further tell him that if he intends coming in the spring to bring mules or small horses, as the mules are heartier and small horses have a decided advantage over large animals owning to the narrow path and numerous blogs. Town “Uncle” Abner Gilmore and “Uncle” George B. Walker that the seductive game of faro is not in favor here as yet, but all who desire to get “action” upon spare change can find a place and time in any of the five “clubs” now open. Will do my best to send a line from Dyea, but may not have time. With best regards to yourself and my inquiring friends, yours in F. C. and B., Leroy Tozier.

      Just learned that a sawmill plant [Built and operated by Captain William Moore] is here and is now being placed in position and within a few days will be in operation. The company is loaded with orders and cannot fill them for two months.

November 6, 2017

"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.

DECEMBER 28

1732: The Pennsylvania Gazette, owned by Benjamin Franklin, runs an ad for the first issue of Poor Richard’s Almanack.

1832: John C. Calhoun steps down as vice president over differences with President Jackson. He is the first vice president to resign.

1846: Iowa is the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.

1869: William E. Semple, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, patents an acceptable chewing gum. The previous “gums” were not very tasty to put into ones mouth.

1872: Dodge City, Kansas saloon employee, Matthew Sullivan, is shot and killed by an unknown assailant who fired through the window of the saloon. Rumor and accusation point at Bully Brooks as the likely suspect.

1875: Charles Earl “Black Bart” Bowles robs the North San Juan-Marysville stage in California. At the conclusion of the robbery he leaves behind an unusual calling card: a poem.

1877: John Stevens applies and receives a patent for his flour-rolling mill, which boosts production by 70%.

1881: City Marshal Virgil Walter Earp of Tombstone, Arizona Territory is ambushed and shot from behind as he walked from the Oriental saloon to his room at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. He is hit in the back and left arm by three loads of double-barreled buckshot. He survives the attack but is crippled. The ambushers are never revealed although there are numerous suspects.

1882: Henry Brown, assistant marshal, is appointed city marshal of Caldwell, Kansas.

1895: Soapy Smith, Edward Keeley, William “Holland” White, and Charles “Major” Meary, swindled J. R. Landry of out of $34 in a rigged poker game in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1902: The first professional indoor football game is played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Syracuse defeats the Philadelphia Nationals 6-0.

Artifact #60: Japanese cryptomeria ad sent to Mary Noonan, 1910

"Mrs. J. Smith"
cryptomeria envelope
Jeff Smith collection

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apanese cryptomeria ad

      For years this ad has been part of my personal collection, but all I knew of it was that it was from Japan or China, appears to be made of bamboo, and is addressed to "Mrs J. Smith." I found it dull and almost decided to skip it, moving on to artifact #61. I decided to see what I could find out about it. When I realized that it exposed a new home local for Mary (Soapy's widow) I decided to publish it. 
      The envelop is addressed to "Mrs. J. Smith, 5348 North Market, St. Louis, Mo. USA." This is Mary Eva Noonan, widow of Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith. The date on the postmark reads "8-11-10" which is either August 11, 1910 or November 8, 1910. Either way in 1910 Mary is Mrs. John P. Little, whom she married on April 20, 1904.

5348 North Market
St. Louis, Missouri
Not positive of this location
Google maps

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      Google Maps was not the best help for locating "5348 North Market, St. Louis, Missouri." Changes in street addresses were common in the past. It is not known when Mary and John moved here, but by 1910 they were living at 5583 Wells Avenue, St. Louis, where they lived through 1920.

Home of Mary and John Little
5583 Wells Avenue
Google Maps

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Cryptomeria ad

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      Both the envelope and ad are made of cryptomeria or balsa wood paper, the ad being backed by paper, for added strength I would guess. The ad contains a printed picture and what appears to be a typed personal message, but I located another near identical ad from the same company, with the same exact "typed" text. The only difference being the picture used. The bottom signature is of the same name, and does differ, meaning it was probably not printed.  I found one cryptomeria collectors group to find out whatever else they could tell me about it, but as of yet, no one replied.

      Stix, Baer and Fuller (sometimes called "Stix" or SBF or the Grand-Leader) was a department store chain in St. Louis, Missouri that operated from 1892 to 1984. The store was founded in 1892 by Charles Stix, brothers Julius Baer and Sigmond Baer, and Aaron Fuller. It was a public company, with its stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange. For many years the company was known as the leading high-end fashion store in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. They also had store branches in Yokohama, Kobe Shanghai, Canton, Manila and Hong Kong. They imported and handled goods from China, French Indo-China, including ceramics, embroideries [old and new], art ware, antiques, hand made items, garments, baby clothes, etc.

Store interior as Mary saw it.

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SOURCE:
Stix, Baer and Fuller -USA (Wikipedia)
Stix, Baer and Fuller -JAPAN

"The citizens have called a mass meeting to consider what steps are to be taken, and it means a fight, and they look to us to lead them."

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

DECEMBER 26

1620: The Mayflower, with 102 passengers, arrives at New Plymouth, Massachusetts to create the Plymouth Colony, with John Carver as Governor.
1776: The British suffer a major defeat against the Colonial Army in the Battle of Trenton during the American Revolution.
1859: 173 Texas Rangers and 165 U.S. regulars attack the outlaw position held by Juan Cortina in Rio Grande City. Hand-to-hand combat forces Cortina's retreat.
1861: Confederate irregulars defeat pro-Union Indians at Chustenahlah, Indian Territory.
1862: 38 Dakota Indians are hung in Mankato, Minnesota for their part in an uprising. The mass execution is the largest in U.S. history.
1863: A Denver brothel, the Highland “Aunt Betsy’s” House, is burnt down by a mob of soldiers. Bill Duffield, a soldier is shot and killed by Joseph Kittery when told they could not enter. The following day a mob of soldiers obtained the deceased from inside and then burnt down the brothel.
1865: The coffee percolator is patented by James H. Mason.
1866: Lieutenant Colonel George Crook leads a company of the 1st Cavalry against Indians at Owyhee Creek, Idaho Territory, killing 30 and taking 7 prisoners while losing only one soldier.
1867: A detachment of Company K, 9th Cavalry, near Ft Lancaster, Texas, is attacked by Indians. Three soldiers are killed during the two days of fighting.
1869: Lieutenant Howard B. Cushing with Company F, 3rd Cavalry, from Ft Stanton, New Mexico, along with 28 citizen volunteers, attack a Mescalero Apache Indian village at the old stage stop of Pine Spring in the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas. One officer is severely wounded.
1874: The first commercial buffalo hunt is conducted in Texas by Joe McComb.
1880: Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garret deposits his prisoners, including Billy the Kid, in the Las Vegas, New Mexico, Territory jail.
1883: Soapy Smith purchases a street vendors license in Phoenix, Arizona for selling his prize package soap.
1909: Western artist Frederic Remington dies at age 48 in Connecticut.