The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1919-07-18
OLD TIMES AT SKAGWAY

/ terest us. Boats from Seattle and
San Francisco will soon be coming
up here like flock of birds end we
intend to take up this claim and make
city here. You say you have prior
rights. If so, go TO it and bring suit
to eject us. We are going to jump
your claim We are from Missouri,
and If you can put us OFF you will
have to show US"
Captain Moore, OF course. was
helpless. He had all the legal rights
on his side, but here were two hun
dred men who had devided TO take
possession of his claim. and, as they
told him. possession was nine points
Of the law, and if his legal rights
were any satisfaction TO him he could
fight it out on that line in the courts.
Frank II, Reed. former county Of
fetal from the Puget Sound country,
surveyed the town site of Skagwav.
They divided it into blocks and lots
and parceled the lots out among
themselves. The town was SURVEYED
so that Captain Moore's log cabin oc-
cupied one Of the newly laid out
streets. They afforded him a lot Oh
which to put his cabin, which he in
dignantly refused. Eventually force
of men took his cabin away and
dumped it in the tide flats Captain
Moore took the matter up in the
courts, but decisions in the Alaska
courts in those days went to the ones
who could pay the most for the de-
cisions. The case dragged its way
through the courts, and after fourI
years Captain Moore secured a de-
cision in his favor. Secretary Hitch
cock, of the Interior Department,
notified all trespassers on Captain
Moore's claim to vacate. The mat
ter was finally settled in this way:
Captain Moore was to receive twenty
five per cent of the assessed valua-
tiOn of all lots. For example, | paid
eight hundred dollars originally for
my lot, and it was now assessed at
four thousand dollars, so | had to
pay one thousand dollars for a war
ranty deed to Captain Moore. being
twenty-five per cent. of its assessed !.
valuation
During the boom days Of Skagway
fortune from his claim In fact. the !
men who jumped his claim did make
fortunes. The jumpers who had laid
out the town-site sold lots TO the new
corners at good prices. They laid out
three thousand and six hundred lots. /
Soon these lots were all sold Hav-
ing no more lots to sell. the claim /
jumpers worked out new plan !
which they put into execution. which
was to resell all lots whose owners
had gone into the mines or were not
in actual possession. This led to
strenuous times. \ man would buy n
lot. build cabin, put his possessions
into it, 80 over the pass to look for
claim, and when he returned few
weeks or months later he found his
outfit thrown out into the street, or
gone, and some one else in possession
of his cabin. This chaotic condition
led to constant ighting Sometimes
The same lot would be sold three or
four times, each man having what he
supposed was perfectly valid title"
Crook rule continued to thrive i'm
Skagway BY the fall OF 1897. the
whole of the district was split into
two distinct factions. the skinncrs
and the skinned. The skinncrs were.
in control. according to Mr. Dcdman
whom Mr. Locklcy quotes furtr
The skinners, however. had a pei
ter organization and stuck together,
so those who were defrauded We're
unable to obtain redress Attention
was soon diverted from the claim
Jumpers by a new party organized
under the leadership of Jefferson II
Smith. from Denver, Col. Most peo-
pie know him by his nickname of
'Soapy' Smith. Soapy Smith was a
most genial and affable crook. He
obtained his nickname by a business
he made OF travelling throughout the
West selling small bars of soap at
one dollar. He would wrap ten or
twenty dollar bill around one of these
small cakes Of soap, put an additional
wrapper on it, drop it into the pile,
and let you pick it out. IT was like
picking out the rubber ball from un-
der the walnut-shen. To your great
surprise, you never were able to pick
out the cake of soap around which