1950s photograph of Skagway and Dyea

Skagway and Dyea
with interesting features noted

(Click image to enlarge)

Soapy Smith: Dirtiest Crook In Skagway. A review.

A tourist or an old pal?
poses with Soapy Smith's first grave marker
circa 1898-1905

y good friend, Bob "Buckshot" Bradley sent this 1966 article to me for a review. Bob has been kind enough to send me a number of these old magazine articles from his private collection. I collect anything Soapy Smith related. If there is something you want reviewed feel free to contact me. 

The following is entitled, Soapy Smith: Dirtiest Crook in Skagway by J. N. Kelly and published in the November 1966 issue of The West magazine. Below the story is my review, which is more of a correction list in my opinion.

Soapy Smith - Dirtiest Crook in Skagway

My review

Everything is in chronological order, based on the magazine page numbers and paragraphs. I am always open to comments and questions.

Page 25

Photo at top of page 25: The arrow points to Soap Gang member, William Saportas but incorrectly identified as Soapy Smith. This is a very old mistake but even today some authors make this mistake. I saved Alaskan historian, Professor Jean Haigh from making this same mistake in her little 100 page book, King Con (2006).

Paragraph 1-6: I enjoyed the authors description of Dyea and Skagway. There were attempts to settle the town from the very start but the gamblers and saloon proprietors were all seasoned pros in handling new camps and "do-gooders." They knew that once civilization took over the control of a town, their days of big money and low overhead were numbered. They knew that their best chance to make the most money was to keep "law and order" at a minimum in order to keep it from interfering with their enterprises.

Paragraph 7: The author spells Soapy's middle name wrong. It should read Randolph, not Randall.

The author claims that friends told Soapy about Skagway. Considering Soapy was up in Alaska scouting for a location over a year prior to the founding of Skagway, and arrived there within 2 weeks of its founding, I tend to believe he found out about Skagway on his own.

The author states that the family lived in South Carolina but it should read Georgia.

Paragraph 8: The author writes that "Everybody called him 'Soapy,' ...." Not everybody. In fact, only his enemies and the newspapers called him "Soapy." His friends called him Jeff. He did not like the name "Soapy" as that alias was synonymous with crime and Soapy did not see himself as a criminal. In Denver he signed his name and added "Alias Soapy" on only two known letters and that was in the line of sarcasm or perhaps even intimidation.

Page 25-41

Paragraph 9: "Smith had pulled this little trick in the fading gold towns of Colorado." This little trick, being the prize package soap racket and Soapy pulled it in many many small towns, as well as large cities all across the nation. The fact is, the only locations we currently know of are the ones in which he made the newspapers, which are quite a few. We do not have all those little mentions of a soap man down on third street because that involves a lot of work looking through microfilmed newspapers through the years of 1879-1897. One day it will be done but probably not in my lifetime. Hell, I'm still working on the Denver newspapers!

Page 41

Paragraph 3: The author states that in 1897 Soapy bought a saloon from a Dawson (Canada) businessman named Ed Kickock. I wish there was a source for this. My files, the Skagway name index, and Google contains no information on this name.

Paragraph 4: The same holds true for supposed Soap Gang member, "Tom Galbraith," the Scotsman who had beaten a murder rap in McCabe, Arizona. Googling the name I found a John Thompson Galbraith and brothers but according to his biography he was up in Canada, along the Wala Wala trail in 1864 when Soapy was but 4-years-old. If John was 16 when he went to Canada that would make him at least 53 in 1897. There is no birth year for John, however, he and his brothers were up there apparently into the 1900s so anything is possible. Perhaps John had a son he named Thomas? Unfortunately the author I am reviewing today did not source anything for the article.

Paragraph 6: "He was probably incapable of feeling honest emotion." Do I really need to address this?

Paragraph 7: The author talks of women and romance but never mentions that he was married. The ONLY mention in a newspaper of Soapy being with another woman other than his wife was published in the Skagway News after Soapy was killed. I'm not trying to imply that Soapy was always faithful, I just stating a current fact. It is also stated in this paragraph that his eye color was "green-speckled," but according to his wife his eyes were blue-gray.

Paragraph 8: The author numbers the Soap Gang at 100-300. Although there is no count of the gang these numbers are commonly used. I have a gang list in the works but it is no where near completion so I hesitate to post the numbers I have. The list will include names that are supposed; such as Tom Galbraith whose name was added today.

Page 42

Paragraph 9: "On one occasion, a school function, several persons booed Soapy and one courageous old man in the audience threw a rotten egg at him." I have never heard of this incident and I doubt it happened. There is no source, and what with sourced stories about egg prices in Alaska and the Klondike I doubt it even more.

Paragraph 10: Ed Kickock's name pops up again but this time the author spells it with an "H," as Hickock, which forced me to go back and research Ed Hickock as I had done for Ed Kickock. I found no information in Dawson of this businessman, or in Skagway. The vigilante organization leaders in Skagway are known and his name is listed no where. Not knowing which spelling is correct, if in fact it is real, I left in both spellings for this review.

According to sourced history of the vigilante meetings that took place on July 8, 1898 they did not meet at the town city hall, which was basically just a small cabin. The first location was the warehouse on the end of Sylvester's Wharf. This was the location that was decided to be too small. The vigilante's then decided to move the meeting over to the larger warehouse on the next wharf over, the Juneau Company Wharf.

The author makes the common mistake of naming Frank Reid as a vigilante leader. He was not a leader. He was appointed as one of four guards to man the entrance of the wharf while the meeting was being held.

Paragraph 11: Frank Reid had left Illinois for Oregon, not Minnesota. There are no sources anywhere that I have seen that state Reid was "... a sharpshooter with his rifle and went about Skagway armed at all times." Newspaper accounts in Skagway the following day of the gunfight said that earlier in the day Soapy had accosted Reid in the street and verbally abused him, stating that at the time Reid was unarmed.

"He always carried two knives concealed on his person as an added precaution." Sources, where are the sources!

Paragraph 12: "He had spies everywhere and one of them carried news of the meeting to him. 'They're comin' for you Soapy,' was the spy's warning. The note was written and handed to Soapy by Soap Gang member, William Saportas, who worked for the Daily Alaskan as a reporter, thus able to get into secret meetings being held by the vigilantes. If you are reading this review closely then that name should ring a bell (quickly scroll to the top of my review for page 25 - Saportas is in the photograph identified incorrectly as Soapy). The exact wording of the note handed to Soapy read as follows, "The crowd is angry, if you want to do anything do it quick."

Paragraph 15: The author erroneously has Soapy going to the door of the warehouse where the meeting was being held. Actually, the four guards were about 60' inward on a wharf that stretched out into Skagway Bay for about half-a-mile. Soapy never made it passed the guards before he was shot and killed.

It is known that Soapy and Frank Reid argued before they began shooting at one another, but no where have I read that Reid told Soapy he was "under arrest." The general consensus is that Reid told Soapy he "couldn't go down there" (down the end of the wharf where the meeting was being held).

Paragraph 16: "Soapy quickly brought up his gun—just as Reid did." This is how this author starts the gunfight. In actuality, Soapy had his rifle resting on his right shoulder. He brought his rifle DOWN to strike Reid in the head. Reid raised his arm and the rifle barrel struck it. At this moment the firing began. At least five shots were fired (counting wounds each received) so the fight involved a little more than the author describes. For a quick look at the shootout I suggest going to the following link: Shootout on Juneau Wharf. For a much more thorough and detailed accounting I strongly suggest reading, Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel.                

MAY 6

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

1851: Linus Yale patents the clock-type lock. 

1856: U.S. Army troops from Fort Tejon and Fort Miller ride out to protect Keyesville, California from an Yokut Indian attack. 

1859: John Gregory finds gold at what will be called Gregory's Gulch, on the North Branch of Clear Creek near the new city of Denver. Horace Greeley calls the area “the richest square mile on earth.” 

1861: Arkansas became the ninth state to secede from the Union. 

1868: The U.S. government begins payments of annuities to Crow Indians, Montana Territory 

1877: Chief Crazy Horse surrenders 900 warriors, women, and children to U.S. troops at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. 

1877: Sioux Chief Sitting Bull leads 1,500 of his followers into Canada to ask protection from the Queen. 1882: The U.S. Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act. The act bars Chinese immigrants from the U.S. for 10 years.

Artifact #48: Bascomb writes Mary, August 8, 1898

(Click image to enlarge)

pon hearing the news that her husband was deceased, Mary started making travel arrangements to Skagway to see for herself that Jeff was indeed gone. He had told her not to believe he was dead until she saw his body. The statement was one of logic as newspapers often print erroneous facts and Soapy Smith had been reported dead several times throughout his life when he was in fact, still living. Mary was pretty sure this time the story was true and she would need to care for his estate and proper burial. She decided to take their oldest son, 9-year-old Jefferson Randolph Smith III. For protection Mary asked her brother-in-law (Soapy's younger brother) Bascomb to accompany them. He went as far as Port Townsend, Washington choosing not to go to Skagway, probably for fear of being jailed or killed. 

While in Skagway Mary and Bascomb kept in touch. Today I introduce to you artifact #48, a fascinating letter from Bascomb to Mary. The following comes from my book, which includes the deciphered letter above.

Jeff’s brother Bascomb learned of the events surrounding his brother’s death and openly questioned the handling of his estate to the widow. While Mary was still in Skaguay trying to collect the estate, Bascomb wrote to her from Port Townsend, Washington, about what monies he felt she might be entitled to,

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

In an interview with the Rocky Mountain News a year after his brother’s death, Bascomb told some of what he learned from Mary and friends of Jeff.

Soapy Smith Shot in the Back and Robbed

Thieves fall out and we may find out some time what became of Jeff’s property. There are men in Skaguay now who claim to have killed my brother. I have been told that Reid did not kill him, but that another man in the crowd fired a bullet into his back while he was struggling with Reid.

This is part of the statement of Bascomb Smith, the only brother of the late Jefferson R. Smith, who arrived in the city yesterday, after an absence of three years.

Bascomb resembles the famous gun fighting “Soapy” as closely as though he were a twin brother. The eyes, features and general bearing are the same and the voice has the same ring. It is the intention of Bascomb to make Denver his home for the future, providing he can find paying employment. He came from Vancouver, B. C., where he has lived most of the time during the past two years.

“Soapy” was killed and his followers scattered to the four winds on July 8, last. He has been the King of Skaguay and partner of John Clancy, keeper of the principal saloon in town. When war broke out, he organized the Skaguay Guards and offered to take them to Cuba. The Secretary of War, Russell Alger wrote him a letter stating that the guards could not be put into service, but thanked him for his efforts in behalf of his country.

“There are very few honest people up in that country,” Said Bascomb last night. “I was told that my brother had $80 in cash in his clothes when he died, also that he owned several lots in Skaguay, a half-interest in Clancy’s saloon which was taking in probably $200 a day and an interest in the White Pass Trail.

The widow never got anything out of the estate. The money was gone and there was no trace of the lots, as they had never been recorded. Even a letter of thanks from the secretary of war could not be found and nearly everything in Jeff’s room had been stolen.”

Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, pp. 554-55.

Artifact #48: page 554.

MAY 4

1776: Rhode Island declares its freedom from England two months before the Declaration of Independence is adopted. 

1863: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with the retreat of the Union Army. 

1870: The Kansas Pacific begins laying track westward from Kit Carson, Colorado Territory. 

1875: Wyatt Earp makes his first arrest bringing in W. W. Compton, a horse-thief in Wichita, Kansas. Ironically, four years prior Earp had fled Missouri for stealing two horses. 

1880: Six settlers are slain by Apache Indians near Las Lentes, New Mexico Territory. 

1885: fire destroys a major city block of Miles City, Montana. 

1886: Chichester Bell and Charles S. Tainter patent the gramophone. It is the first practical phonograph.

View of the Juneau Company Wharf

(Click image to enlarge)

reat, near level, view of the entire boardwalk on the Juneau Company Wharf, where perhaps foolish, but brave Soapy Smith faced at least four vigilante guards alone. By clicking the image you will be able to view the full sized image with the yellow circle showing the location of the shootout on Juneau Wharf.

MAY 2

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

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

1863: - Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson is wounded by his own men in the battle of Chancellorsville, VA. He dies 8 days later. 

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

1873: The first legal hanging takes place in Yuma, Arizona Territory. 

1875: The new judge for Fort Smith, Arkansas, Isaac “Hanging Judge” Parker and his wife, arrive in town to take on his duty. 

1885: The magazine "Good Housekeeping" is first published. 

1887: Hannibal W. Goodwin applies for a patent on celluloid photographic film. This is the film from which movies are shown. 

1890: Oklahoma Territory is created. 

1895: Two desperados, Charley Pierce and Bitter Creek Newcomb arrive at the Dunn ranch to spend the night. As they stabled their horses, Bill and one of his brothers ambushed them outside the barn to collect the $5,000 bounty on Newcomb in Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory.

Sylvester Scovel: Friend of Soapy Smith, part II

Destruction of the U.S. Battleship Maine!
February 15, 1898

(Click image to enlarge)

ylvester Henry Scovel arrived in Skagway, Alaska as an American hero first, and a journalist second. Back on April 22, 2012 I posted part 1 of this story, exploring the time he and Soapy Smith had become friends. Although Scovel was well know across the nation for his reporting and detainment's in Cuba, it is after he left Skagway and returned to Cuba to report on the ongoing revolution that Scovel became a household name.

My personal interest and historical knowledge is primarily based on Soapy's world and the adventures he had. A secondary interest involves the people he met and associated with. The time I consume researching Soapy's life leaves me few occasions to look deeply into the lives of those Soapy knew. On average I don't dwell into the personage of others, much before or after their time spent with Soapy. Occasionally the story of an associate or friend needs telling, and Sylvester Scovel meets that criteria.

Those who have read my book know how important an impact the sinking of the U.S. battleship Maine had on Soapy and the creation of the Skaguay Military Company, his private army. Until now, I have not really explored the contemporary history behind the explosion that sunk the Maine, nor did I know the huge part Scovel played before and during the Spanish-American War. His reporting and personal sympathy for the Cuban people and their fight against their European rulers. How he was literally the first American on the scene within minutes of the Maine's explosion, and how his reports pulled America into a war with Spain.

In part 1 of the story I utilized the Dissertation paper of Darien Elizabeth Andreu. Because I have not researched this area myself I will rely on Andreu's work. I hope you find this as interesting as I do.

The Maine at sea

By November 1897, Scovel was in Cuba again, soon arrested and released for the third time. Shortly thereafter, the Spanish modified its policies in Cuba, establishing home rule, which allowed the Cubans more autonomy and correspondents freer passage. Scovel sent for Frances and the two spent the next few months socializing in Havana and traveling about the countryside, once in late December, riding out to meet Gomez in the backcountry

As it became apparent, no amount of “home rule” in Cuba was going to be adequate after the events of February 1898. The evening of February 15, Scovel, his wife, and Harper’s Weekly writer George Rea were dining in a café several blocks from Havana’s waterfront when a huge explosion occurred in the harbor, shattering windows and shaking doors from their bolts. Scovel and Rea saw to Frances’ safety and then sprinted toward the bay. Scovel later wrote, “Arriving at the water front ten minutes after the shock, I found a dazed crowd of police and officers, gazing speechless at a mass of protruding, wrenched iron beams bursting with fire. It was the Maine.” The visiting American battleship had been sent to Havana as tensions heightened between the Spanish, American and Cuban populations over the issue of autonomy. President McKinley had become increasingly concerned “for the thousands of Americans living in Cuba and the millions of dollars invested on the island”. Cuban selfgovernance threatened Spanish interests, which, in turn, produced anti-American sentiment.

Declaring themselves as officers of the Maine, the two correspondents pushed through the crowd and leapt into a rowboat, among the first civilians on the scene. As the boatman paddled toward the wreck, the ship’s ammunition continued to explode around them. In an oft-quoted February 18 dispatch, Scovel described the horrible sight:

Her superstructure alone loomed up, partly colored by the red glare of the flames glancing upon the water.

At first it appeared as if her bow was totally demolished. Then the mass of twisted beams and braces was seen that was blown forward by the awful rending.

One hundred yards away we were stopped by floating wreckage, and moans and agonized cries could be heard.

As the men paddled around to the disaster site, Scovel observed “the naked body of a sailor. He writhed, and the magnificent muscles of his arms and chest strained like cables.”

The World
Scovel's employer

The correspondents assisted in pulling the wounded and the dead from the water for an hour and a half until the Charles D. Sigsbee, the Maine’s captain, asked Scovel to announce in Spanish that everyone should leave the vicinity of the wreck. Then Scovel and Rea joined the captain on the deck of a nearby steamer where they were met by Colonel Paglieri, the first Spanish representative to speak with the ship’s captain. Scovel served as translator. Paglieri spoke first. “In the name of the Captain-General I wish to offer you the most sincere condolence and to know what you may have to say as to the awful affair, and its causes.” The captain’s reply was guarded: “I cannot state more than we are blown up until I closely investigate.”

Sigsbee dictated a similarly circumspect dispatch to Naval Secretary John Long in Washington; then Rea and Scovel rushed to the Havana cable office where Scovel wired his editor in New York the shocking news: the battleship Maine had been destroyed by an unknown cause, hundreds of enlisted men were dead, and dozens were wounded. He included the suggestive observation that became a headline: “There is some doubt as to whether the explosion took place ON the Maine.” Scovel’s dispatch arrived at the New York World in time for the 5 a.m. edition. Only his thirteen sentence report and an Associated Press story had made it across the cable in time for the nation’s newspapers’ first press runs of the day; of the two breaking stories, only Scovel had been an eye-witness to the disaster scene. Thus the world awakened on February 16, 1898, to the news that would propel America into war with Spain.

From his first sight of the mangled ship, Scovel was certain that the Maine had been a victim of sabotage. In the days that followed, his dispatches focused on the cause of the explosion as well as the ship’s wounded and dead. En route to a Key West hospital were the injured: 24 men and 17 officers. Some 234 others were “still in the iron tomb” of the Maine. Scovel sent sketches showing how torpedoes could have been placed in the Havana harbor to blow up a battleship. Drawing on his engineering background, he speculated that if investigating divers found “that the indenture in the hull is inward, the conclusion that the magazine was exploded by a bomb or torpedo placed beneath the vessel is inevitable. If the indention is outward, it will indicate that the first explosion was in the magazine. This will be determined within twenty-four hours.” Scovel was overly optimistic. It would be another 41 days before the findings of a U.S. investigating board would be presented to Congress.

Wreckage of the Maine

For the next month and a half, Scovel detailed the developments and findings concerning the Maine. Almost every dispatch emphasized the external explosion theory. He argued that since the wreck had a list to its left, this was the “final evidence that the ship is practically broken in two by the explosion against the port side.” Furthermore, despite the fact that no one had witnessed the perpetrators of the crime, this was not confirmation that a conspiracy or fanatic had not been at the source of the explosion: “Tuesday night when the explosion occurred, was dark.” Then, in February 24 dispatch, Scovel offered no fewer than 50 proofs that the Maine was destroyed by a mine or torpedo. The awful truth, he declared, was that even if the ship’s entire amount of powder in its forward magazine exploded, it could not, have “done the awful damage that the divers find.”

Scovel’s vigil at the disaster scene was relentless. Despite the Spanish efforts to keep newspaper correspondents from the vicinity of the wreck, The World correspondent hovered in a small boat around the Maine, watching the recovery efforts and the on-going investigation. Of one trip he wrote that he

was stopped today by the Spanish patrol boat from getting nearer the Maine than three hundred feet. American officers were on board, and the American flag was flying from the rear and only mast. I requested a permit from the commandant of the Spanish warship Alphonso XII. as a matter of courtesy. It was refused, but I went within five yards of the Maine, claiming my right as an American citizen to go as close as close to a piece of United States soil as desired. Force was not used and I remained.

In his memoirs, Captain Sigsbee would recall that “the ubiquitous American newspaper correspondent could not be denied [. . .]. It caused our officers some amusement to see occasionally a certain newspaper correspondent sitting in the stern of the Spanish divers’ boat while it was working on the wreck. I made no objection.” According to Charles H. Brown in The Correspondents’ War, in Scovel “The World had a man who seemingly could out-scoop and out-write the competition, for most of the voluminous copy coming from Havana to the paper carried his by-line.”

Scovel’s writing throughout this period became exceedingly graphic in its critical evaluations of the U.S. government’s handling of the situation. He lamented the fact that U.S. officials were not moving quickly enough to recover the bodies of the victims. He wrote several times of the vultures hovering over the harbor, “one picking, with muscular jerks of his scaly neck, the portions of a man just risen.” Through Scovel The World had offered to finance the cost of local divers to retrieve the bodies, but the McKinley administration declined. Knowing full well the possible gravity of the final verdict of the Maine investigation, it had moved cautiously, hiring its own divers, whom Scovel felt were not as effective in the murky waters. “The mangled sailors are still there, and identification will be impossible to-morrow, so The World’s humane offer comes to naught.”

The Capture of San Juan Hill

Such frank reportage at times bordered on the sensational. Of the bodies the government divers encountered in the forward part of the wreck, Scovel wrote that all had “arms upstretched and extended fingers in the exact position of reaching for handles to jump out of the hammocks, when suddenly awakened by the first shock and being then caught.” The World journalist’s vivid and coldly analytical diction was seen by readers as grounded in truth, and accolades poured in. Congressmen, newspaper editors nationwide, and armaments experts who had studied Scovel’s reports of the destructive effects of mines and torpedoes contacted The World with expressions of thanks for Mr. Scovel’s “phenomenal achievement in journalism.” On February 23, President McKinley acknowledged thorough a World correspondent “the great obligation which the Administration is under to The World for the information which has reached here from World correspondents during the last few days from Havana and Madrid.” In a similar spirit, a Congressman from Tennessee wrote, “The World is very fortunate in having such an able representative on the ground from the first minute of the terrible affair.” 

Throughout the month of February, World headlines touted Scovel’s tireless work. One article noted that members of congressional circles “rely upon The World to furnish them with the most recent and reliable intelligence concerning the great disaster.” Another article observed that it was Scovel’s reports that informed public perception:

Eight days ago, on Saturday, Feb. 19, The World’s special correspondent in Havana electrified the country by the exclusive announcement that the principal forward magazine of the Maine had not exploded. This fact changed the whole current of popular opinion. Up to that time, and even as late as the next day, every other newspaper assumed, like President McKinley in his authorized statement to The World, that the awful calamity was the result of an accident.

Sylvester Scovel would become a spy for the United States and a transporter of U.S. intelligence, all the while, continuing to report the front-line news of the war that other newspaper reporters could not possibly begin to compete with as they were not familiar with Cuba as Scouvel was. Scovel's duties included trying to find out the location of the Spanish fleet that had recently arrived in Cuba. Finding the fleet was the one big moment of the war that Scovel missed. Once the fleet was found Scovel covered the American blockade of Cuba to keep the Spanish fleet from escaping, and the U.S. invasion of the mainland. At the surrender of the Spanish and the raising of the American flag Scovel felt he deserved to assist in hoisting up the flag and when he tried he was pushed aside by Major-General Shafter, the commander of the American Army in Cuba. In the lowest point of his career he chose to punch the major-general.

The Army deported Scovel, and he was not able to report the remaining events of the Spanish-American war in Cuba. By December 15, 1898 after a personal appeal to President McKinley, Scovel was allowed to return to Cuba and report the post-war events until his reports were no longer news worthy. Scovel and his wife Francis established a car dealership in peace-time Cuba. In 1905, at the age of 36, Sylvester Henry Scovel died of complications from a malarial fever, never to be forgotten for the role he played in the history of the Spanish-American War.


Sources:

• Andreu, Darien Elizabeth, "Sylvester H. Scovel, Journalist, and The Spanish-American War" (2003). Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations. Paper 8.

Sylvester H. Scovel
April 3, 2011

Sylvester H. Scovel: pages 436, 473-74.

May 1

1751: America’s first cricket tournament is held in New York City. 

1805: The state of Virginia passed a law requiring all freed slaves to leave the state, or risk either imprisonment or deportation. 

1852: Martha Jane “Calamity Jane” Canary is born in Princeton, Missouri. She served as a muleskinner for the Army She “married” Wild Bill Hickok in 1870 and in 1893 joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. 

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

1863: In Virginia, the Battle of Chancellorsville begins. General Lee's forces fight with Union troops under General Joseph Hooker. Confederate General Stonewall Jackson is mortally wounded by his own soldiers in this battle (May 1-4). 

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

1877: President Rutherford B. Hayes withdraws all Federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction. 1877: James Dolan, a junior partner for L. G. Murphy in Lincoln, New Mexico Territory shoots and kills 20-year-old Heraldo Jaramillo, an employee who pulled a gun on him. Dolan is acquitted. 

1878: Jim Murphy and his father are arrested for harboring the Sam Bass Gang in Texas. Jim cuts a deal with Texas Ranger Major John B. Jones, in which Murphy pretends to join the gang and tell the Rangers where the gang is hiding. Sam Bass becomes suspicious but is talked out of killing Jim by Frank Jackson. 

1880: The first issue of the Tombstone Epitaph, Tombstone, Arizona Territory is published. The paper is owned and operated by John Clum who states, “every tombstone should have its epitaph.” 

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

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

1884: The construction of the first American 10-story building begins in Chicago, IL. 

1889: Asa Candler published a full-page advertisement in The Atlanta Journal, proclaiming his wholesale and retail drug business as "sole proprietors of Coca-Cola ... Delicious. Refreshing. Exhilarating. Invigorating." Mr. Candler did not actually achieve sole ownership until 1891 at a cost of $2,300. 

1898: Soapy mistakenly reported as being arrested in Tacoma, when he is in Skaguay leading a parade as captain of the Skaguay Military Company. 

1898: An American naval squadron under the command of Commodore George Dewey defeats the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay, in the Philippines, in the first major engagement of the war. 

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

U.S. Battleship Maine
by Petr Merkulov

Soapy Smith colorized

JEFFERSON RANDOLPH SMITH II
colorized by Gary Sheaf
(photo: courtesy of Kyle Rosene)

nother superb example of Gary Sheaf's coloring talent. The Denver carte de visite, circa 1889-1893, that graces the cover of my book. Something my father said to me many years ago; "If you look like a crook, you can't be one." Look at those eyes and tell me this is a photograph of the old west's most infamous confidence man...

Thank you Gary Sheaf!

Gary Sheaf
April 27, 2012
April 22, 2012 

APRIL 30

1789: George Washington takes office as first elected U.S. president. 

1803: The U.S. purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. 

1812: Louisiana admitted as the 18th U.S. state. 

1860: Navajo Indians attack Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory, killing one and wounding two. 

1861: President Lincoln orders Union troops to leave Indian Territory. 

1864: Work begins on the Dams along the Red River. The work will allow Union General Nathaniel Banks' troops to sail over the rapids above Alexandria, Louisiana. 

1869: Union Pacific tracks reach Promitory Point, Utah. 

1871: Apache Indians are massacred at Camp Grant, Arizona Territory. 

1878: In Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory members of the "Seven Rivers Crowd" encounter Frank McNab, Ab Sanders, and Frank Coe, watering their horses in a stream. McNab and Sanders are shot immediately, while Coe attempts to escape but his horse is killed and he is captured. When the men returned to the stream they saw that McNab was still alive and they shot him again, killing him. Sanders eventually recovers from his wounds. 

1883: Luke Short, co-owner of the Long Branch Saloon, Dodge City, Kansas is angered when three female entertainers are arrested. Luke fires at L. C. Hartman who falls to the ground unhurt. Luke believing he has killed Hartman flees the scene. 

1884: Henry Newton Brown and two others attempt to rob a bank at Medicine Lodge, Kansas. The robbery is halted in a gun battle that costs the lives of numerous towns’ people. The robbers are captured and placed in the town jail. That night vigilantes stormed the jail and drug the men from their cells. Brown was killed while trying to escape. The other two were hung. At the time of the robbery Brown was Marshal of Caldwell, Kansas. 

1889: George Washington's inauguration becomes the first U.S. national holiday. 

1889: Outlaw George Tobler and Irvin Richmond were vying for the affection of the same female at a dance. Tobler, apparently distressed over his prospects, produced a pistol and shot Richmond dead. He was arrested immediately and sent to Fort Smith, Cache Bottom, Choctaw Nation (Arkansas) where he was hanged on January 30, 1890.

Thank you Howard! -Jeff Smith

Soapy Smith by artist Bill Cummings

Soapy Smith
Artwork by Bill Cummings
$500

ame across the very nice work by artist Bill Cummings. It is entitled Soapy Smith and for sale at $500. I would love to have it but there is one minor problem with it.

Can you guess what it is?

Find the answer here.

APRIL 28

1635: Virginia Governor John Harvey is accused of treason and removed from office. 

1788: Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the U.S. constitution. 

1818: U.S. President James Monroe proclaims naval disarmament on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. 1868: Negotiations to end the war with Red Cloud at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Red Cloud says he would talk peace with the departure of troops from the Powder River region. General Sherman arrives at the conference with orders to abandon the posts in the region, in return for cessation of Indian raids. 

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

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

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

1881: Robert Ollinger and James Bell are shot dead in New Mexico Territory by Billy the Kid during a successful jailbreak. 1896: The Addressograph was patented by J. S. Duncan.

Soapy and Mary: colorized by Gary Sheaf

Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson. R. Smith
Circa 1886
(photo: Gary Sheaf)

he above photograph has been believed in my family to be the wedding photograph of Jefferson Randolph Smith II and Mary Eva Noonan which took place on February 1, 1886. The wonderful colorization work was performed by my friend Gary Sheaf, a very talented artist and historian. With his artistic skills and imagination he has mastered this medium and is able to bring an astute perception of how these two love-birds looked on that special day. He did a superb job and I thank him very much. His endeavors are greatly appreciated. I consider myself very fortunate in catching him at the right time as his gift is very popular on the True West forum right now.

Gary Sheaf
April 22, 2012 

Samuel H. Blonger's grave found.

Samuel H. Blonger
1839 -1914
(photo: Scotti McCarthy)

 have always believed that if the Blonger brothers, the successors to Soapy Smith's throne in Denver, learned anything from Soapy, it was to keep a low profile. It is perhaps the number one reason why Soapy did not retire in Denver a very rich man. Still, he lasted a good 10-ten year run as an underworld leader.

The Blonger brothers, Lou and Sam, were able to stay out of violent trouble, thus out of the newspapers and held on to the reins of power in Denver for some 25-years. They were so successful that historians had little luck in finding a lot of information on them. To the point of not knowing what Sam Blonger looked like!

The lack of information on the Blonger's is changing, thanks to their descendants, Scott and Craig Johnson, who have worked diligently to uncover the history. The boys also happen to be our good neighbors over on the Blongerbros.com blog and Blongerbros.com website. I have had the pleasure numerous times of working with them on mysteries involving their interactions with Soapy previous to 1896.

Recently Scott uncovered Sam's grave site. He did so by going back to a place he had checked years prior; Find-A-Grave. It's a damn good policy and it's one I adhere to as well. Following is what Scott had to say on their blog after finding the grave site (see photo at top).

We’d been looking for Sam for nine years — he was the only Blonger whose final resting place had not been determined. But apparently we weren’t looking nearly hard enough. Turns out this photo has been on the Find-a-Grave web site for the last three years, thanks to researcher Scotti McCarthy. For some reason (that I needn’t bother to figure out at this point), I thought Sam was buried in Fairmount Cemetery in an unmarked grave. Instead, he’s in historic Riverside Cemetery, north of downtown. I will visit him this summer. In addition to answering the lingering mystery of Sam’s location, it also prompted me to set up a “virtual cemetery” of Blongers on the Find-a-Grave web site. Neat idea, and one that I hope to build out some more in the future.

Now if we could just find a picture, or even a drawing, of this guy.

The Blonger's
April 15, 2012
April 1, 2012
March 15, 2012
September 3, 2010
January 2, 2009

Blonger's: pp. 10, 63, 80-81, 90, 171, 176-77, 207, 257.
Lou Blonger: pp. 273, 324, 357-58, 370-71, 373-74, 384, 398-99, 588.
Sam Blonger: pp. 260, 269-70, 573.

APRIL 27

1805: A force led by U.S. Marines captures the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.
1813: Americans under Gen. Pike capture York (present day Toronto) the seat of government in Ontario. 1861: U.S. President Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
1861: West Virginia secedes from Virginia after Virginia secedes from the Union at the start of the American Civil War.
1863: The Army of the Potomac begins the march on Chancellorsville.
1865: The worst steamship disaster in U.S. history occurs when the Sultana, carrying approximately 2,300 passengers, the majority being freed Union POWs, explodes on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee. Neither the cause of the explosion nor the final count of the dead (estimated at between 1,450 and 2,000) is ever fully determined. The Sultana disaster remains the worst of its kind.
1870: J. L. Compton and Joseph Wilson, found guilty of robbery and murder in Helena, Montana Territory, are the last to be hanged on the “Hangman's Tree.”
1872: The James-Younger Gang robs the Deposit Bank in Columbia, Kentucky.
1880: Francis Clarke and M.G. Foster patent the electric hearing aid.
1887: The Southern Pacific's westbound No. 20 train is robbed of $5,000 in Arizona Territory. The messenger, Charles Smith, manages to stash another $5,000 in the potbellied stove of the Wells Fargo car.
1897: Deceased ex-President Grant's Tomb is dedicated.