This column tells the stories of the people whose faces appear on “A Colorado Panorama: A People’s History,” a two-block-long tile mural on the southeast side of the Colorado Convention Center. Inspired by Howard Zinn’s groundbreaking book, “A People’s History of the United States,” the mural was created by artist Barbara Jo Revelle in 1989 to celebrate those who rarely make it into the history books, but who have nonetheless had a profound impact on the history of our state. This week we’re featuring profiles of Louella Gooding and Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith.
Louella Gooding – Teacher and Girl Scout Leader (1896-1974)
Born in Iowa, Louella Welsh was taken by her parents to Steamboat Springs when she was a little girl. In 1925, she graduated from University of Northern Colorado, and for the next ten years taught school in Steamboat. She met and married Van Gooding in 1930, and together they moved to Denver where she taught at Palmer Elementary School. She also began working with the Girl Scouts.
In 1952 she became Camp Coordinator for the Denver Girl Scouts, a position she would hold for the next six years. From 1958 through 1968 she served as Executive Director of the Mountain-Prairie Girl Scout Council, after which she assumed the role of Executive Director of the Girl Scout Council of Pueblo. In addition to her work with the Scouts, Gooding served as chairman for Catholic Charities of Denver and was a long-time member of the Zonta Club. A lodge belonging to the Mountain-Prairie Girl Scout Council was named in her honor.
Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith, Con artist (1860-1898)
After the Civil War, Jefferson “Soapy” Smith moved to Fort Worth, Texas, and assembled a gang of grifters and scam artists. Together they perfected the “prize package soap sell,” a con in which Smith would stand on a street corner running his mouth while wrapping bars of soap in plain paper. From time to time he’d open his wallet, pull out a $100 bill, and wrap it around a bar of soap. Then he’d cover it in paper and pretend to place it back on the pile. He sold his loaded bars of soap to the unsuspecting crowd for $1.00 apiece.
Every once in awhile, a shill in the crowd would open a packet, pull out a hundred-dollar bill, and start hollering. “Soapy” and the gang moved from Fort Worth to Denver in 1879 and continued their nefarious activities, making enough in illicit cash to open their own saloon and gambling house. When Governor Davis Waite ordered the closure of all Denver gaming establishments, “Soapy” moved his operations to Skagway, Alaska, where, in 1898, he was killed in a gunfight.
Want to help me with my research? I’m looking for information on a Vietnamese woman named Hanh Thi Nguyen (1930-1976) who brought 11 refugee kids with her when she came to America. Contact me at donmorreale@hotmail.com.
Week One: Barney L. Ford and Agnes Smedley
Week Two: Benjamin Barr Lindsey and Anne Bassett
Week Three: William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and Clara Brown
Week Four: William “Big Bill” Haywood and Anne Evans
Week Five: Buckskin Charley and “Babe” Didrikson-Zaharias
Week Six: Antonia Brico and Chief Black Kettle
Week Seven: Casimiro Barela and Daisy Anderson
Week Eight: Chogyam Trungpa and Ellen Elliot Jack
Week Nine: Elizabeth Hickok Robbins Stone and Chin Lin Sou
Week Ten: Emily Griffith and Dalton Trumbo
Week Eleven: Chipeta and Wallace Werner
Week Twelve: Eve Drewelowe and Davis Waite
Week Thirteen: Dr. Carl J. Johnson and Florence Sabin
Week Fourteen: Damon Runyon and Emma Langdon
Week Fifteen: Ellison Onizuka and Golda Meir
Week Sixteen: John Lewis Dyer and Helen Hunt Jackson
Week Seventeen: Edward Berthoud and Frances Wisebart Jacobs
Week Eighteen: Hattie McDaniel and Enos Mills
Week Nineteen: Isabella Bird and Francis Schlatter
Week Twenty: Laura Gilpin and Henry O. Wagoner
Week Twenty-One: Justina Ford and George Norlin
Week Twenty-Two: George Bent and Julia Archibald Holmes
Week Twenty-Three: Herbert Bayer and Mabel Barbee Lee
Week Twenty-Four: Martha Maxwell and Chief Ignacio
Week Twenty-Five: Isom Dart and Marvel Crosson
Week Twenty-Six: Jack Dempsey and Mary Long
Week Twenty-Seven: Mary Lathrop and James Beckwourth
Week Twenty-Eight: John Otto and Mina Loy
Week Twenty-Nine: Mary Rippon and Joseph Henry Stuart
Week Thirty: Lauren Watson and Molly Brown
Week Thirty-One: Mary “Mother” Jones and Chief Little Bear
Week Thirty-Two: Chief Little Raven and Neva Romero
Week Thirty-Three: Olga Little and Louis Tikas
Week Thirty-Four: Lowell Thomas and Poker Alice Ivers
Week Thirty-Five: Mariano Medina and Dr. Portia Lubchenko McKnight
Week Thirty-Six: Tsianina Redfeather and Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez
Week Thirty-Seven: Minoru Yasui and Ruth Cave Flowers
Week Thirty-Eight: Sadie Likens and Neal Cassady
Week Thirty-Nine: Nikola Tesla and Rose Marie Tabor
Week Forty: Oliver Toussaint Jackson and Sarah Platt-Decker
Week Forty-One: Portia Mansfield and Luis Junior Martinez
Week Forty-Two: Chief Ouray and Anne Ellis
Week Forty-Three: Stan Brakhage and Shawsheen
Week Forty-Four: Mary “Grandma” Shelton and Thomas Ferril
Week Forty-Five: Silver Heels and Oliver E. Aultman