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| Skaguay to Whitehorse Distance map (Click image to enlarge) |
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| Geri Murphy, Jeff Smith and Jeanie Schaffner at the graves of Soapy Smith's grandparents Dr. Ira Ellis Smith and Ellen Stimpson Peniston (Click image to enlarge) |
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| Jeff during his Soapy Smith presentation |
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| l to r: Jeff, Jeanie, Danny, Christina and Geri. |
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| Jeff swindles family member Christina during the presentation |
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| Jeanie studies the artifacts in the Smith Room Male Academy Museum (Click image to enlarge) |
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| Family heirloom at the museum. |
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Hi Jeff,
Got your book yesterday and we all love it! Great job!! Great photos. Such a wonderful piece of family history and a valuable historical look at the post Civil War era and the wild West in this country.
Thanks, Jeff.
Tad
(a great grandson of Soapy Smith)
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| Days of '98 cast photo by Allison Graham |
I learned about your website from my neighbor, Bob Holden and although I don't have a direct connection to your relative, Soapy Smith, I have a story that I though you might like to hear.
In the winter of 1929-30 at the start of the Great Depression, when my father, Bill Demarchi was 19, he and a buddy, Russ McEwan got a job in a sawmill at Knouff Lake, 28 miles north of their home town of Kamloops, British Columbia. The foreman went to town to purchase supplies for the crew and returned one night extremely drunk. He came into the bunkhouse and started looking through his gear for a bottle of whiskey that he had cached before leaving for town. When he couldn't find it he started cursing at the men who he had awakened in their bunks, accusing them of having stolen his bottle. My dad said that he woke up with a pistol in his face and the foreman shouting, "This is the gun that killed Soapy Smith and this is the gun that is going to kill the son-of-a-bitch who stole my whiskey!"
One of the men told the foreman to cool it and started looking for the bottle. He soon found it where the foreman had hidden it and things immediately went back to normal.
When I was 19, in 1959, on a fishing trip to Knouff Lake, my dad took me back to the site where the sawmill had stood and related the story to me.
Whether or not that was the actual gun that killed your great-grandfather, the infamous, Soapy Smith, I do not know. However, over the years as I raised my own two sons, whenever I misplaced an item I would mockingly threaten them by saying, "This is the gun that killed Soapy Smith and this is the gun that is going to kill the SOB who hid my (blank)." We always got a good laugh out the situation.
Ray Demarchi
I think it is great that you have pursued the biography of your great-grandfather, Soapy Smith. Do you know if he ever spent any time in British Columbia's Cariboo or Chilcotin regions? I seem to recall when I was a teenager growing up in BC that people related tales of your grandfather having spent some time there. Perhaps in Barkerville, which at the time was a major gold camp in the Cariboo. (The Cariboo is the territory east of the Fraser River and the Chilcotin is to the west. Both had gold rushes before the turn of the 19th Century). Perhaps, people back then simply wished to be associated with such a famous outlaw.
My own paternal grandfather was a bit of a rogue himself although not nearly as active or famous as Soapy.
I have researched Soapy's life and death for over 25-years. I am fortunate that he saved nearly all of his correspondences, which are split up between several family members. No where have I found that Soapy ever stepped foot on Canadian soil. He mentions having to go to Dawson in a letter to his wife but it is not believed he went. However, it would not surprise me to find proof that he indeed traveled inside the Klondike. New information is being dug up all the time. Thankfully, we live in an age of information sharing. A friend in the National Park Service in Skagway just returned from Whitehorse where he went through 1000 newly discovered photographs taken during the gold rush days. He said he found a couple of Soapy, one of which I will be posting on my blog real soon.
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| Kdog left Soapy some "special" cards (Click image to enlarge) |
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| At Soapy's grave (Click image to enlarge) |
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| Jeff Smith's Parlor Restoration in progress (Click image to enlarge) |
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Petersburg,
February 3d, 1820
Dear brother
Feeling sensibly your neglect I had almost determined on the same course of conduct but my friendship conquered that inclination, and I cannot resist the pleasure of writing though I am apprehensive that either the letter or the writer (or perhaps both) will be deemed by you unworthy of your notice. Although this conclusion is deeply mortifying, and the general tenour of your past conduct should forbid such a suspicion, the sincerity and ardour of my love, produce fears as to the perpetuity of your affection and lead me to draw from your silence the most painful inference. My mind is busied and agitated with a thousand conjectures as to the cause of offence which I may possibly have given you, but the most scrupulous and impartial retrospection of my past conduct, does not furnish me with a single instance in which I can accuse myself of having deviated from the strictest rules of a sisters duty. I entreat you not to leave me in that painful suspense attendant on your silence, but either inform me by letter in what manner I have offended you, or convey to me the assurance that my fears are groundless and that I still share some portion of your fondness.
Nothing of moment has occured since you left us. I have boarded Mary C with a lady who is capable of attending to the morals as well as deportment, Mrs Gary of Prince George. She goes to school to Mr. Branch who is sufficiently learned, as yet, she being backward in her education.
I have had the pleasure of hearing from you indirectly. The place of your residence is well known, and I am sorry you did not explain yourself explicitly, ere you left us, as you have been very much censured in this abode of friends, for the mystery which accompanied you altho' I am not acquainted with your affairs I am perfectly assured you always act from motives perfectly consistent with propriety.
Samuel has left his school and friters away his time in the street not regarding any advice which is given him by me. The other children are well. Mr. Burke will hand you this he has met with a powerful friend in Boiling Robinson, who will no doubt, advance him considerably in his literary carreer. To hear of your prosperity and celebrity in your profession is the first wish of my heart and tho' tossed about by the rude billows of adversity, I still have a sheltering port in your affection, for I cannot bids you the injustice to believe you are selfish enough to forget those whom nature and religion bids us love and cherish - it was reported you died in New York in an Oyster house. Oh! the Poisonous breath of calumny vice vegetates more luxuriantly here than in any other place I have ever known, and a knowledge of the malignity of some of our dear Petersburg friends accounts for these reports. You will perceive that in one paragraph of my letter I have taken the sisterly liberty of admonishing, and is not dread greater in use than an astronomer would receive for remarking a small spot on the brilliant orb of the sun.
Mrs A compliments and best wishes believe me to be ever yours
devotedly,
Ellen S. Peniston
Mount Laurel
Dec. 24, 1821
Dear brother
Months have roll'd [sic] by, hours of anxiety have suceeded [sic] each other, with out a single line to relieve my solicitude. I wrote in answer to the letter enclosed to Mr. Sproner, but imagine you never received it, any other conclusion would be too mortifying and so then is the mood soothing to affection, I adopt it with the friends he has of the truth. How many prayers do I offer up to that throne of devine [sic] mercy, for your safety and protection. Through the toil some and diversified scenes of precarious existance [sic], no selfish [illegible] can erase my anxiety, or cause me to forget the brother, my early love, the friend who supported me through the thorny path of adversity, and lighten'd [sic] the bursting heart of sorrows devoted child. Can I forget your assiduousness to tranquilize my feelings under every affliction? or cease to be grateful for the many tender proofs I have experienced, of your steady and underacting love. Rembrance [sic] cherishes them in my bosom and gratitude shall perpetuate them -
The important era in the eventful life of your sister has pass'd [sic]. I am married!!!! The marriage was solemnized at Mr. Akins before a large and brilliant assemblage of ladies and gentlemen, the 6th of this month. I am united to a man of worth, one who is universally belov'd [sic], and, whose merits an envious world is willing to acknowledge. Dr. Smith of Dinwiddie, he is a partner of Dr. Peter Haraway and as that is the case, we reside at his house in [illegible] before we commence house hunting. Mary Catherine is with us. All our brothers are well. Samuel causes me more sorrow than any thing in the world. He is in Petersburg, but has no home. He has been refused board every where he appli'd [sic] and he is too lazy to think of any alternative himself and too headstrong to listen to my advice. if you do not send for him disgrace and ruin will attend him, for you are the only person who can manage him at all. I deliver'd [sic] your letter safe to Mrs. M, who has never condescended to speak easily to me who she [illegible sentence]
business and she spends in fashion and folly, his hard earnings, as soon as she can grasp at them - her mother has lately died, but the dear propensity can not be still'd [sic], not even by the hand of Death! It is astonishing to me how a mother can be so blind to the interests of her children, or a wife so destitute of affection for her husband! You will gratify me more than I can express, by sending me your miniature by the first opportunity - tis not impracticable and the pleasure of gazing on your features, though still and inanimate, will convey to your sister's bosom the most delightful emotions - a willing gaze on it and fancy, I see in the delicate combinations of that face the irradiations of your brilliant understanding and almost think the lips parting to give me a smile of love. Write to me brother. I entrust you to torture me no longer, By your neglect or deepen the wound it has already occasion'd [sic]. How shall I find words to express how warmly and affectionately I am your
sister, and friend.
Ellen S. Smith
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| Cst. Bob Holden and Simpson on the day of Queen Elisabeth's Coronation in front of the old married quarters residence, 1952. |
Dear Jeff Smith.
I lucked out and found your article (Canada uses machine gun to keep Soapy Smith out)
I was stationed in the RCMP in Dawson Dawson City from 1951 to 1953. A very interesting time to be there. Many of the old timers who were and still were involved in the Stampede were still there. Also several of the Gold Rush Madams and their girls kept things going in the summer time (madams like Bombay Peggy, so named because her breasts were so large she used flower sacks opened up for a brazier. Also one of the real old timers, "Zoom" and a couple of French madams and their girls from France. All of which made life interesting.
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| Cst. Bob Holden at Moosehide Indian village just north of Dawson on the Yukon River |
The Norden machine gun you show being displayed in the RCMP museum was still in our storage building which was the old horse stables used by the NWMP. It was dissembled and neatly packed in various crates. I asked our Cst in charge, Ray Bradford if I could put it together and see if it still worked. After assembly, without too much difficulty I loaded it in the back of the 1947 Fargo pickup which was our only police vehicle at the time. As it was winter and bitterly cold, I filled the water chamber with boiling water, loaded up a belt with about 100 rounds of original .303 cal. bullets and drove out the the Klondike river and the gravel tail ponds left the Dredge #5 which was still working the Bonanza creek area. I was a little nervous about firing the gun while sitting on the seat, so I tied a long cord to the trigger, pulled back on the fireing lever, laid down on the ground and pulled the cord. It fired but only once as the old grease and cold weather slowed it down. After two or three tries it eventually began to repeat fire. At which time I sat down on the seat and blew away an old stump about 76 yards away. Cst Jim Simpson who was with me did not venture up off the ground until I used up all of the ammo.
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| Cst. Bob Holden enjoying a glass of rum and listening to message from home on his Webcor wire recorder. "Over proof rum was only sold in the Territories.." |
We returned to the Detachment put the gun back in it's box where is stayed until some time after I left in 1953 and all the old artifacts including the machine gun were sent to Regina.
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| Trapper complaining to the Yukon Game Commissioner about someone trespassing on his trapline. |
To the best of my knowledge the gun had not been fired since it's return from the Chilkoot pass episode. I wish of course, I had taken pictures of that event. I do have some of myself and the other members of that period if you are interested, Let me know.
Sincerely,
Bob Holden
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| Dawson City looking south Klondyke river entering Yukon River from the left above City. Ice rotting as spring approaches. |
Hello, Bob.
Thank you very much for that exciting story. I would love to see some of the old photos you have! With your permission, I would like to write up a post on my blog with your photos and the story you told of the gun.
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| Possibly the Casca wood burning paddle wheeler pushing barge of supplies down river from Whitehorse to Dawson. |
I found about the guns back in the 1980s when someone who lived in Regina saw one of my old ads I used to put into magazines looking for information on Soapy. In the mid 1990s a librarian in Canada was going through some old files on Sam Steel and came across his two notes to his superiors stating that the Skagway deputy marshal (J. M. Tanner) had told him that Frank Reid did not kill Soapy, but that Jesse Murphy did. This was a key piece of evidence I had been searching for in the gunfight controversy that ended my great-grandfather's life. Although he was a bad man, his history is so much fun to study and write about.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Jeff Smith
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| The Casca returning to Whitehorse This is in front of the detachment The current runs very fast making it hard and slow to make progress. Wood for burning to make steam was cut along the entire Yukon shoreline and stacked at intervals along the shore so the the boats could load wood as needed. |
Dear Jeff
I have had some difficulty getting some of the pics. Sorry for the quality but they do have a few years on them. Hope you find the interesting. As I said previously, I can't believe I did not take some of the machine gun.
Regards,
Bob Holden
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| Paddle wheeler tied up and unloading at Dawson City |
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| One of the main streets in Dawson with the Moosehide landslide in the background |
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| NWMP/RCMP graveyard Member of the Force that was killed during the "Mad Trapper of Rat River" incident is buried here |
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| Ice breakup during spring on the Yukon River |
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| Robert Service's cabin Dawson City |
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| Gold dredge #5 working on Bananza Creek |
