Denver Ed Smith, born 1865

[WichitaHistorian]

Hello!

I am in search of information about a boxer by the name of Denver Ed Smith, born in 1865 in England but spent most of his boxing career in the United States.

My current research project has led me in a direction where I think that a man shot in the back by Paddy Shea (also a boxer) here in Wichita (KS) on 14 November 1897 might have been Denver Ed Smith. The man was known locally as Ed (and James at times) Dawson, and was a friend of Shea’s. Dawson was shot three times, one bullet lodging in his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Amazingly, he lived for another 10 months, finally succumbing to his injuries on 13 September 1898. The Wichita Morning Eagle newspaper began the report of his death as follows: “Ed. Dawson, alias James Dawson, Denver Smithy, Ed. Smith and other names, died yesterday afternoon…” During Paddy Shea’s trial for the shooting, a police officer testified that Dawson had the “finest chest and arms” he had ever seen on a man, leading me to believe that Dawson was also a boxer. Another article reported that Dawson has “…auburn hair and moustache, and bright blue eyes…” Dawson said he was 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighed 193, was right-handed, and had used the name McNalty in Colorado not long before the shooting.

In the course of my research I have found online listings of Denver Ed Smith’s fights. Coincidentally, Paddy Shea and Denver Ed Smith fought a match in Wichita on 9 June 1892; according to newspaper reports, the 10-round match was more of a dancing and hugging contest than a fight. Neither did much damage to the other. One of the online listings indicates that Smith’s last documented fight was in May 1897, which would be consistent with the shooting in November 1897. Can anyone supply further information to confirm or disprove that Ed Dawson and Denver Ed Smith are one and the same person?

Thank you in advance for all assistance provided.

[raylawpc]

Denver Ed Smith

[raylawpc]

The Chicago Tribune 11/17/1897 p. 4, reports that "'Denver Ed' Smith, who is advertised to be after a fight with Peter Jackson, is managing a hotel in Victoria, B.C."

[raylawpc]

Also, several wire service reports say that his wife committed suicide on November 15, 1897 in Brazil, Indiana. See, for example, the Syracuse Evening Herald 11/15/1897 at p. 1.

[raylawpc]

Eureka!!

I found the following in the Portsmith (NH) Herald 10-15-1898 p. 3:



And here in the Stuebenville (Ohio) Herald-Star 10-17-1898 p. 5:



I hope this helps.

[WichitaHistorian]

Thank you so much! This is great information, and so quickly, too! I am in the process of writing an article for a Wichita historical publication that will cover Ed Dawson/Denver Ed Smith, Paddy Shea, and the madam/prostitute that both were involved with and seems central to the cause of the shooting, Ella Whaley/Dawson/Shea.

Thank you again so very much for the quick response and the excellent information.

[raylawpc]

Can you send me a copy of the article? I'll PM my mailing address.

[Senya13]

I found the following in the Portsmith (NH) Herald 10-15-1898 p. 3:

1898-10-15 Omaha Morning World-Herald (page 1):

DENVER ED SMITH ALIVE.
Victoria, B. C., Oct. 14.--The story telegraphed from Chicago today of the death of "Denver" Ed Smith, the heavyweight pugilist, is without foundation according to Smith's wife. Smith is proprietor of the Colonist hotel here. His wife today said Smith is in Dawson City. She had a letter from him week before last, dated at White Horse Rapids.


1898-10-18 Wilkes-Barre Times (page 1)

Denver Ed Smith Home.
VICTORIA, B. C., Oct. 18.--Denver Ed Smith, pugilist, who was recently reported killed, arrived from Dawson last night.


On December 27, 1898 many newspapers reported from Victoria, B.C., that Denver Ed Smith was matched to meet Jim Jeffries, and that Smith had been training hard for the past six weeks.


Smith had been managing a hotel in Victoria for some time, it was mentioned in October 1897, for example, so this is the same Denver Ed Smith.


1899-06-29 Idaho Daily Statesman (page 4)
FIGHT ARRANGED.
Seattle, Wash., June 28.--"Denver" Ed Smith has accepted the challenge of Costello, a gunner on the battleship Iowa, to fight a limited number of rounds for a $1000 purse in the latter part of July. The fight will probably be pulled off in this city.



Also, regarding the suicide of Smith's wife, one Washington newspaper reported this:
1897-11-16 Tacoma Daily News (page 4)

WHICH MRS. SMITH WAS IT?
Seattle, Nov. 16.--A dispatch in the Associated Press yesterday stating that the wife of "Denver Ed" Smith had committed suicide in Indiana, had considerable local interest owing to the fact that "Denver Ed" Smith is married to a Seattle girl, and as near as could be learned today this lady is still among the living. Who the woman is that committed suicide in Brazil, Ind., cannot be learned, but one thing is certain--she is not the Mrs. Ed Smith whom Seattle people know. This latter lady's maiden name was Miss Anna Foster, her mother lives at 108 Rose street, in this city, and her sister, Miss Nora Foster, is authority for the statement that she and "Denver Ed" have been married for 13 years and are now keeping a road house on Beacon Hill, in Victoria.

[WichitaHistorian]

Fascinating! So there is still some question as to whether the real Denver Ed Smith died in Wichita in 1898 or was running the Colonist hotel in Victoria, BC in 1898.

If Denver Ed had been married for 18 years in 1898, that would mean he and Anna Foster were married about 1880, when he was 15 years old. If the newspaper reporting is accurate and the reported date of Denver Ed's birth is also accurate, I would tend to discount the Victoria gentleman's claim to the name of Denver Ed Smith. The claim still needs to be checked, though, and I appreciate the information.

[donnellon]

Add this to the mix;
Reno Evening Gazette, June 3, 1932.

"Denver Ed Smith, ring stalwart in
the days of Paddy Ryan and John L.Sullivan, died recently in Seattle..."Somebody could be using Smith name to make a dollar but Smith is listed as 5-101/2 tall not 5-9.
I have a record for Smith in my recently published book, on Peter Maher, "The Irish Champion" and i have 4 fights for Smith after 1897.Jim Mc Cormick(1900) Jack Mansfield(1902)L.D.Brown(1902) and on June 30, 1908 in Seattle v Jack Ryan.
Also his birth name has allways been reported as Edward Corcoran, so a man of many alliases.
If you get a definitive answer be sure and let the forum know.

[Senya13]

If Denver Ed had been married for 18 years in 1898, that would mean he and Anna Foster were married about 1880, when he was 15 years old. If the newspaper reporting is accurate and the reported date of Denver Ed's birth is also accurate, I would tend to discount the Victoria gentleman's claim to the name of Denver Ed Smith. The claim still needs to be checked, though, and I appreciate the information.

The scan was very faded, I zoomed it up in Photoshop and it looks like 13 after all.

[WichitaHistorian]

Going back to the online listings of Denver Ed Smith's fights, I find he was in Dodge City (KS) and Wichita (KS) both in late 1885, in Wichita again in 1892, and had several fights in the late 1880s and 1890s in Denver (CO). He had only one fight on the west coast of North America - a bout in Alameda (CA) in 1886 - before fighting Jack Ryan in 1908 in Seattle. It seems obvious that boxing as a profession would require a fair amount of travel, but the number of his fights that took place in Kansas and Colorado is a point in favor of the Wichita man being Denver Ed Smith.

On the other side of the equation, I have not found any reference to the name Corcoran in connection with the Wichita man. In addition, there are insinuations that Ed Dawson belonged to a loose-knit gang of roving thugs at the time he was shot, and had recently been involved in the murder of a man in Arkansas City (KS), not far from Wichita. When Dawson died in 1898, according to the Wichita newspaper he had just been indicted for the 1897 robbery of the Catskill, NM post office. The town of Catskill no longer exists so research into that crime is proving to be difficult. The point here is that it doesn't seem likely that the prizefighter who defeated Joe Goddard in late 1896 to become the Heavyweight Champion of South Africa would end up on the wrong side of the law a year later.

If my reasoning is flawed or I am missing an important point, please let me know. Again, thanks very much to each of you for all the help I have received so far.

[donnellon]

"Denver" Ed Smith, now running a
cafe in Cincinnati, makes the announcement
that he is about to enter
the ring again. He does not state what for.
Reno Evening Gazette, March 22, 1906.

Denver Ed Smith the once prominent prize fighter Is conducting a boxing school at Newport, Ky. He says he in out of the boxing game forever but who knows?
Anaconda Standard, November 28, 1905.

The body of evidence favors Smith alive after 1897, IMO.

[SteveO]

Going back to the online listings of Denver Ed Smith's fights, I find he was in Dodge City (KS) and Wichita (KS) both in late 1885, in Wichita again in 1892, and had several fights in the late 1880s and 1890s in Denver (CO). He had only one fight on the west coast of North America - a bout in Alameda (CA) in 1886 - before fighting Jack Ryan in 1908 in Seattle. It seems obvious that boxing as a profession would require a fair amount of travel, but the number of his fights that took place in Kansas and Colorado is a point in favor of the Wichita man being Denver Ed Smith.

Denver Ed Smith obviously could not have fought Jack Ryan in 1908 if he died in 1898. Perhaps the Wichita man had been using one of Smith's aliases!
It seems to me that the report of his death in 1932 in Seattle is probably correct.
This is a very intriguing thread though, and I am very interested to see how it progresses.

[WichitaHistorian]

1897-11-16 Tacoma Daily News (page 4)

WHICH MRS. SMITH WAS IT?
Seattle, Nov. 16.--A dispatch in the Associated Press yesterday stating that the wife of "Denver Ed" Smith had committed suicide in Indiana, had considerable local interest owing to the fact that "Denver Ed" Smith is married to a Seattle girl, and as near as could be learned today this lady is still among the living. Who the woman is that committed suicide in Brazil, Ind., cannot be learned, but one thing is certain--she is not the Mrs. Ed Smith whom Seattle people know. This latter lady's maiden name was Miss Anna Foster, her mother lives at 108 Rose street, in this city, and her sister, Miss Nora Foster, is authority for the statement that she and "Denver Ed" have been married for 13 years and are now keeping a road house on Beacon Hill, in Victoria.

My apologies, I was not as clear as I meant to be in my previous posting...

According to what I have read so far, Denver Ed Smith came to the United States in 1883 or 1884, and with the exception of a fight in Butte, MT, stayed near the Atlantic coast until 1885. If the information in the above article is accurate, Smith and Anna Foster were married sometime in 1884, probably in Seattle. It would have been difficult for Smith to meet, court and marry Miss Foster since there doesn't seem to be any documented evidence that Smith was ever in the Pacific Northwest during 1883-1884. IMO that weakens the case supporting the Victoria, BC gentleman as the real Denver Ed Smith. Which doesn't mean that the Wichita man, Dawson, was the real Denver Ed Smith, either. From the postings in this thread, it seems possible there were a plethora of boxers claiming to be Denver Ed Smith!

I'm probably dating myself here, but this reminds me of an old television program, "To Tell The Truth". :)

[raylawpc]

If he was alive after 1898, he sure got around.

"'Cause I'm the wanderer yeah the wanderer
I roam around around around...
Oh well I roam from town to town
I go through life without a care
'Til I'm as happy as a clown
With my two fists of iron and I'm going nowhere
I'm the type of guy that likes to roam around."

[donnellon]

There are loads of Denver Ed Smith references after 1897-8 but it proves nothing. Maybe the guy moved around, (well actually he did! England, Australia, SA, Westcoast. Klondike etc.)Awful hard to call this...somebody must know, I still favor the 5-10 1/2 guy that died in 1932 but ...

[Ric]

BTW: The Jan 24 (give or take a day or two), 1900 Tacoma Evening News reported that a Paddy Smith was Denver Ed Smith's brother.

[donnellon]

Paddy Smith was a top lightweight and also a trainer.

[WichitaHistorian]

I had seen a reference to Paddy Smith before, in the Denver Ed Smith writeup here:
http://digital.library.villanova.edu/Pe ... -00007.xml

I have uploaded the announcement from the 9 June 1892 Wichita Daily Beacon (page 4, column 3) about the fight between Denver Ed Smith and Paddy Shea in Wichita here:
http://cid-3e11cb73cceeaf86.skydrive.li ... verEdSmith

Paddy Shea was put on trial for attempted murder while Dawson was still alive. During the trial Dawson was brought in to testify. In his testimony he states “I haven’t a brother this side of Pennsylvania.” I thought it was interesting that in the 1892 announcement, Ed Smith is supposed to be from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.