Wild West – June 2019

LETTERS

KANSAS

HISTORY

My hat is off to Deb Good-
rich and her June 2018 arti-
cle “From Tepee to Capitol
Dome” on Kansan Charles
Curtis. It sparked me to pull
out two old Kansas history
schoolbooks that belonged
to my grandmother Patterson
(and were used in a one-room schoolhouse). She
gave them to me as a teenager due to my love of
history. Both books are titled Four Centuries in Kansas:
Unit Studies, by Bliss Isely and Walter Marvin Rich-
ards—the first one was published by the State of Kan-
sas, W.C. Austin, state printer, in Topeka in 1937;
the second one is a second edition, printed in 1944,
with my mother’s signature inside, copyright 1936,
by the McCormick-Mathers Co., of Wichita.
It is noted the contents are “based on original
letters, journals and documents of those who actu-
ally took part in the making of Kansas history, or
it is obtained at first hand by personal interview
with Indians, scouts, Santa Fe traders, free-state
partisans, border ruffians, Quantrill’s raiders, buf-
falo hunters and hundreds of others who were eye-
witnesses of the events herein described.” The re-
moval of Indians from Kansas caused the breakup
of many families. Among those who had to decide
whether he was to be an Indian or a white boy was
13-year-old Curtis. The boy’s mother had died when
he was 3, after which he had lived part of the time
with his white grandparents in Topeka and part of
the time with his French and Indian grandparents
on the Kaw reservation near Council Grove. He
loved both grandparents. Before his death Curtis
wrote specially for this book an account of how his
half-blood grandmother, Julie Pappan, helped him
decide. “As much as she wanted me, because of
my dead mother and her love for me,” wrote Curtis
in a letter to author Isely, “for my own good she
wanted me to return to Topeka, where I could attend
school and make somebody of myself.”
Michael D. Köhn
Baldwin City, Kan.

TEX vS. TEXAS
Your “Apache Attack at Dragoon Springs” map on
P. 72 of the April 2019 issue is inaccurate. The Co-
chise Stronghold is on the east and west sides of
the Dragoon Mountains and totally west of Sulphur
Springs Valley. Texas Canyon is directly northwest
and north of Dragoon Springs, and many movies

Send letters to Wild West, 1919 Gallows Road, Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182-

or by email to [email protected]. Please include your name and hometown.

(such as 3:10 to Yuma) have been made there. Please let your readers

know. History needs to be correct.

Connie Solano

Pearce, Ariz.

Editor responds: We regret misplacing Cochise Stronghold on the map, but Tex

Canyon—separate and distinct from the Texas Canyon you mention in Co-

chise County—is on the southern end of the Chiricahua Mountains, as shown.

CUSTER MOVIE

I still believe a more accurate and constructive movie on the Little

Bighorn needs to be made. There are many flaws, some embarrassing, in

every one that has been made to date—from poor script and poor acting to no

sense of history. I believe if such a movie can be made, it could go a long way

to healing wounds and prejudices that still exist today. Just imagine a big cast

of American Indians who would love to be a part of such an event. This epic

would need to bring out the many interesting characters, other than Lt. Col.

George Armstrong Custer, who participated, providing, of course, they are

portrayed fairly. I love your magazine and your many talented contributors.

Bruce Pryor

Gosford, New South Wales

Australia

SOAPY NOT SO DIRTY

Thank you for your Collections article in the

December 2018 Wild West about Soapy Smith.

He is my favorite bad guy. There are, how-

ever, a few facts that would have made the

story much more interesting. When Soapy

picked up his Winchester rifle and headed

for Skagway’s Juneau Co. wharf that fateful

day, it’s not likely he was setting out to kill

someone. What he wanted was to disperse the

growing crowd there that was hostile to his

activities. There’s no reliable record he had

ever murdered anyone. Today those who

write about Soapy depict him as a ruthless

and dangerous villain. While some of the stories are true, a large percentage

of them are the product of too much literary imagination. His history reveals

a more complex personality. Jeff Smith, as he liked to be called, was not a hard-

core ruthless ogre. He was a very imaginative and successful confidence man.

Not the best of men, but not the worst.

Bob Fry

Ridgeland, Miss.

Editor responds: The December 2018 Collections department, by Linda Wommack,

focused on Jeff Smith’s Parlor Museum in Skagway, Alaska. In prior issues Wild West

has published features with plenty more information about the infamous con man,

including “Soapy Smith’s Showdown with the Vigilantes,” by descendant Jeff Smith,

in April 2013, and “Flash-in-the-Pan Creede,” by Joe Johnston, in April 2018

(both available online at WildWestMag.com).

8 WILD WEST JUNE 2019

Charles Curtis