William “Swift Water Bill” Gates (~1863 – 1935)
Bill Gates grew up poor and prospected in remote areas for many years before he struck it rich in the Klondike.1) He talked about his days as a boatman on the Coeur d’Alene River and gained his nickname, Swiftwater Bill.2) He was working in a roadhouse in Circle, Alaska when he heard about the Klondike strike.3)
Gates was among the seven men who took a lay, or lease, on Claim No. 13 on Eldorado Creek.4) The original staker was A. L. Wagner.5) In April 1898, the claim was owned by J. B. Hollingshead. It was undeveloped because the miners thought that number thirteen was unlucky. Gates and his partners sunk seven shafts before they struck the very rich pay streak. Hollinghead was happy to sell the claim for forty-five thousand dollars and the miners were able to recover that amount in six weeks.6)
Swiftwater Bill is often mentioned in examples of men who had little concern for keeping their money. William Haskell remembers seeing Gates lose $7,500 in nuggets in just an hour at the faro table. Giving up gambling for the night, he bought a round of drinks for the house that cost him an additional one hundred and twelve dollars.7) Reporter Tappen Adney wrote that a “well-known character” lost a thousand dollars at the blackjack table and then ordered whiskey and cigars for everyone in the saloon.8) Seeing the advantage of owning a business, Gates went into a partnership with Jack Smith to establish the Monte Carlo Dance Hall and Saloon. Smith was running the Monte Carlo out of a tent on Front Street in Dawson and Gates put up the money to construct a permanent building.9) Gates met the Lamore sisters when they were working in a Dawson dance hall. He offered Gussie Lamore her weight in gold if she married him, but she said they could be friends. In the spring of 1898, food was expensive to buy. A trader brought in two crates of eggs from Seattle. Gates bought one for $2,280 in gold dust as Gates knew that Gussie loved to eat eggs. Gussie finally agreed to marry him, took his gold to San Francisco, and then turned him down.10) Gussie was already married to Emil Leglice, and had been since 1894.11)
Gates went to San Francisco to buy furnishings and liquor and find dance-hall girls for the Monte Carlo.12) He married Gussie’s sister, Grace Lamore, a month after he arrived in San Francisco and the marriage lasted about three weeks.13) John Mulligan wrote a vaudeville drama, Stillwater Willie, based on Gate’s exploits and starring Nellie Lamore, the youngest of the Lamore sisters. It was performed in the Tivoli and the Monte Carlo where Gates sat and cheerfully applauded while the audience laughed.14)
Shortly after returning from San Francisco, Gates formed the British North America Trading and Exploration Company.15) He travelled to Ottawa and convinced the government to grant him a mining concession on Quartz Creek. He then went to London and received the backing to buy a hydraulic plant that was shipped to Seattle in 1898. Mrs. Iola Beebe was planning to open a hotel in the north and had shipped her outfit up to St. Michael. She and her eldest daughter Blanche met Gates in the Hotel Butler where Gates was staying. Gates offered to help them get settled in Dawson, and then convinced both of Beebe’s daughters, Blanche and Bera, to travel with him to Alaska, but Mrs. Beebe found them before the ship left dock. Gates was in Skagway when Mrs. Bebee and the girls arrived. Gates and the younger daughter eloped, and the group met again in Dawson.16)
Gates was partners with Joe Boyle on the Quartz Creek concession, but Gates went $100,000 in debt trying to get the hydraulic operation working. Mrs. Beebe had lent him $35,000 of that from her savings and the dividends from her hotel. By the spring, she had $35,000 to $40,000 into the operation. Gates abandoned her and his nearly-new-born child in Dawson and took a lay on a claim on Dexter Creek, Alaska where he cleaned up $4,000 worth of gold. Mrs. Beebe got nothing, but the Yukon Council awarded the child some support. Mrs. Beebe and the baby travelled to Nome to meet with Gates and Bera who did not show up. A headline in the Seattle Times informed Mrs. Beebe that Gates had run away with another woman, Kitty Brandon, and married her in Seattle in 1901. Kitty was fifteen and Gate’s [step niece]. Gates’ legal wife, Bera, was waiting for him in Washington, D.C. and her second child was born in August. She received a charity ticket and made her way to Portland and her grandmother. Mrs. Beebe joined her daughter, and they moved to Seattle. They reunited with Gates who was broke. Beebe financed Gate’s trip to San Francisco when he convinced her that his friends were grubstaking a mine in the Fairbanks goldfields. Gates gained a fortune on Cleary Creek in the Tanana country and his backer, Mr. Marks, had to take him to court to get his share. Mrs. Beebe travelled to Skagway, went over the pass and down the river to Fairbanks where she found Gates. Gates had abandoned Kitty, but Kitty’s mother, was at Gate’s claim waiting for the clean-up which turned out to be $75,000. Mrs. Beebe travelled down the coast with Gates to Seattle where Bera had him arrested for bigamy. He talked Mrs. Beebe into loaning him money again and when he was free, he talked Bera into giving him a divorce. He legally married Kitty, then divorced her, and two years later told the San Francisco newspapers that he was looking for another wife.17)
The next season, Gates had a clean-up worth not less than $200,000 and believed that a Gold Stream claim was even richer. Mrs. Beebe obtained several claims there and did well with them. Before that, Beebe travelled to Alaska and found Gates, but he promised to repay his debts, and then left town for Seattle. He applied to the court to be judged bankrupt as he had assigned his property and interests to Phil Wilson to avoid paying his debtors. Gates travelled to Nevada and invested in Rawhide and Goldfield properties. Rumours were that he made another fortune.18) Gates continued his escapades for thirty more years, and his name continued to appear in newspaper stories where truth and myth were combined. He died in Peru where he may have had a large silver-mining concession.19)