November 30, 2015

Soapy Smith's model 1877 revolver?

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

Courtesy of Larry Zeug collection
(Click image to enlarge)






 new addition to the website
  The Zeug revolver.





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


"SOAPY SMITH DENVER"
Engraving on the back-strap

Courtesy of Larry Zeug collection
(Click image to enlarge)

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



"JEFF"
Penciled name inside grip

Courtesy of Larry Zeug
(Click image to enlarge)


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


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

(Click image to enlarge)




The other side
Courtesy of Larry Zeug collection
(Click image to enlarge)


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





Mrs. Smith, Dear Friend, yours to hand and glad to hear from you. I know they will say that Jeff had nothing when you went up but I think the Saloon must be a part his [—] only way it looks like he would have paid for something and the 2,100 that they claim that they found in his trunk must belong to him for they claimed that the man lost 3,200 so I think you can get that. Did you get Jeff’s personal effects? I suppose they stole everything. I will be here for a week, so write to me here as I will get it. Let me hear all the news. Yours as Ever Bascom Smith, Care of Tom Sanders Saloon 
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 554.



NOVEMBER 30


1782: The U.S. and Britain sign preliminary peace articles in Paris, France, ending the American Revolution.
1803: Spain completes the process of ceding Louisiana to France.
1804: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase goes on trial accused of political bias. He is later acquitted by the U.S. Senate.
1835: America’s most famous literary icon, Samuel Langhorne Clemens is born in Florida, Missouri. Best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876 and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885, both written under the moniker “Mark Twain.”
1875: A. J. Ehrichson patents the oat-crushing machine.
1878: The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe lay railroad tracks crossing Colorado's southern border into New Mexico Territory, the first tracks into New Mexico.
1879: Outlaw Billy the Kid meets with rancher John Chisum, at Bob Hargrove's saloon in New Mexico Territory, to talk about recent rustlings.
1881: Judge Wells Spicer of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, officially states that the Earp’s and Doc Holiday were justified in their actions, which led to, and include the gunfight behind the OK Corral. In another matter bad man “cow-boy” Johnny Ringo is arrested for having robbed a poker game in August 1881.
1884: At nineteen-years-old, Elfego Baca, arrests a cowboy in New Mexico Territory for disturbing the peace. When the cowboys friends attempt to “teach Baca a lesson,” he shoots and kills the foreman.
1887: Outlaws Robert Leroy “Butch Cassidy” Parker and the McCarty brothers, stop, but fail their attempt to rob the Denver and Rio Grande express near Grand Junction, Colorado. The stubborn express guard refuses to open the safe in the mail car and rather than kill him, the gang allows the train to continue on their way, leaving the bandits empty-handed.
1892: Bank robber Oliver “Ol” Yantis, a member of the infamous Doolin Dalton Gang, succumbs to his wounds after a gunfight with Deputy US Marshal Tom Hueston near Orlando, Oklahoma, the previous day. the lawmen trailed Yantis to his sister’s home outside of Orlando. The two lawmen demanded his surrender. Yantis walked out as if giving up but drew a revolver and fired. The lawmen returned fire, hitting Yantis in the leg and stomach. The lawmen took the wounded Yantis to a hotel in Orlando, where he died on this day. Yantis is the first of the Doolin Dalton gang members to fall. Hueston would later be killed during another shootout with the Doolin Dalton gang members in Ingalls, Oklahoma, during the Battle of Ingalls. It is believed that Soapy Smith’s wife Mary was a cousin of the outlaw Dalton’s.
1897: Thomas Edison's motion picture projector has its first commercial exhibition.
1897: The Rocky Mountain News reports that bad man Soapy Smith is “in New York organizing a Klondyke expedition to start from the East in February (1898).”




November 29, 2015

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







HE GRANITE HOTEL
Central City, Colorado

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




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


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



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


The Granite House
As it looks today
(Click photo to enlarge)


Central City
The Granite House is seen on the middle right
circa 1920s
(Click photo to enlarge)


Central City
The Granite House is seen on the lower right
circa 1940s
(Click photo to enlarge)


 
Central City as it looks today
The Granite House is seen on the lower right
(Click Photo to enlarge)














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






"He was a character the like of which will probably never be seen again in the history of the country. He left a few friends who will regret his death, but the majority of people who knew him were relieved when they heard that he had been killed. The evil which he did will live a long time after him, and his bunco record will be a monument which will last all ages."
Rocky Mountain News
Alias Soapy Smith, p. 582.



November 29


1864: The Sand Creek Massacre occurs in Colorado when the 3rd Colorado Cavalry led by Colonel John Chivington, kills at least 400 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, who had surrendered and had been given permission to camp where they were.
1872: Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune, dies. In May of 1872 Greeley was nominated for President but lost at the polls to Ulysses S. Grant. He is most famous for his phrase, “Go west young man.”
1872: A Modoc Indian, called Captain Jack, was a leader in the Modoc War in Oregon Territory, 1872-73. T. B. Odeneal, with forty soldiers, tracked the Indians to Lost River with the intent of disarming them. A fight ensued and several troopers and Indians were shot and killed.
1874: During the Red River War, Captain Charles Hartwell and detachments of Companies C, H, K, and I, 8th Infantry attack a Cheyenne Indian camp on the Canadian River. Two Indians are killed and two wounded.
1877: Captain Samuel Young and Companies A and K, 8th Cavalry; Company C, 10th Cavalry; with a detachment of Seminole-Negro scouts, were on a scout into Mexico when they attack a camp of Mescalero Apache Indians. Two Indians are killed, Lieutenant Frederick Phelps is wounded, as are three Indians. Thirty horses are captured.
1879: famed gambler, lawman, Wyatt Earp arrives in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.
1881: Legal hearings in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, regarding the gunfight behind the O.K. Corral end. In another matter a grand jury indicts Billy “the Kid” Claiborne for murder.
1881: Before joining the Soapy Smith Gang, gunman Joe Palmer is arrested for robbing a telegraph operator at gunpoint for “only a few dollars.”
1886: The first Kansas, Pacific and Western Railroad train arrives in Pratt, Kansas.
1890: Navy defeats Army by a score of 24-0 in the first Army-Navy football game, played at West Point, New York.
1892: A patent is issued to Almon Strowger for the rotary dial.
1892: Wild Bunch outlaw member Harry “The Sundance Kid” Lonabaugh, Bill Madden and Harry Bass rob the Great Northern Railway near Malta, Montana. They found $64, mostly in checks and then make a toast to the crew before leaving.
1892: Bank robber Oliver “Ol” Yantis, a member of the infamous Doolin Dalton Gang, is shot and fatally wounded by lawman Tom Hueston. Hueston, accompanied by Chris Madsen and Heck Thomas, tried to apprehend Yantis in Orlando, Oklahoma Territory, at his sister's farm, but Yantis would not give up without a fight. Yantis walked out, and as he acted as if he was putting his hands up, he drew a revolver and fired on the officers, who both returned fire, hitting Yantis in the leg and stomach. The lawmen took him to a hotel in Orlando, where he died the next day. Yantis is the first of the Doolin Dalton gang members to fall. Hueston would later be killed during another shootout with the Doolin Dalton gang members in Ingalls, Oklahoma, during the Battle of Ingalls. It is believed that Soapy Smith’s wife Mary was a cousin of the outlaw Dalton’s.
1977: Jefferson J. Smith a grandson of bad man Soapy Smith passes away.