Whale of a Tale John Kirkup was born in Kemptville, Ontario in 1855. He apprenticed as a carriage-maker and at the age of 21 went to Winnipeg to work construction in the housing boom. The next year he went to Victoria to return to his trade, but soon joined the Victoria Police. In 1881 he joined the BC Provincial Police and went to Yale for the construction of the CPR until 1886 and then went to a desk job. On 1 January 1891 he married Margaret Susan Kerr (born 1866). By 1894 his disdain for local politicians had so angered the business community all the way from Revelstoke to Nelson that their lobbying forced his resignation. However in 1896 he was rehired and appointed to Rossland as Chief Constable and Recorder (there is some confusion about the date - either he was rehired in 1895 or he was already in Rossland when he was rehired, since he had a son born in Rossland in November 1895).
     In 1896 Rossland was a pretty wild place, inhabited largely by American miners. The culmination of a feud in Sourdough Alley resulted in Jimmy Westgate brutally and bloodily killing Hugh MacLaughlin with an axe. After trial in Nelson, Westgate was sentenced to only 11 months in prison. Worried that Rossland was becoming as lawless as mining camps south of the border, Victoria sent Kirkup to clean up the camp. And clean it up he did! Contrary to popular myth, before coming to Rossland Kirkup always carried a Colt 44 sidearm, though he seldom ever shot it. During his time in Rossland he abandoned his sidearm and instead carried a lead weighted walking stick.
     When Rossland incorporated in 1897, he was relieved of police duties, but remained as Gold Commissioner and Government Agent. At that point he settled down and faded into the background, living in a house on the corner of LeRoi Ave. and Davis St. They had two sons born in Rossland - Jack Kirkup, born 18 November 1895 and Robert Kerr Kirkup, born 23 December 1896.
     In 1912 he went to Alberni as Government Agent for three years and then went to Nanaimo in the same capacity. He died in Nanaimo on 2 November 1916 as a result of diabetes. Margaret died in Nanaimo in 1937 at the age of 71. They are both buried in the Nanaimo Cemetary.
     "Big John Kirkup", at six foot three and 300 pounds, was a big man and very strong. He was notorious for using his fists instead of his gun. If he did use his gun, it was usually as a club, rather than shooting it, but more often he would use his walking stick for a club if his fists wouldn't do. One of his classic methods for handling two opponents was to bang their heads together. A famous story from his 16 months as the law in Rossland was the time he intercepted Jack Lucy, an infamous gunman from Idaho, coming into town. Placing his hand on his shoulder and looking him straight in the eye he said pleasantly: "That is a very steep hill. It would be a shame to go all the way down there when you will just have to turn around and come right back up." As Kirkup's grip on his shoulder tightened, Lucy finally agreed and headed back to Northport. Kirkup preferred to settle matters out of court. When a squatter insisted on building next to the creek in Sourdough Alley (a practice not considered proper by common understanding) and refused to take Kirkup's advice to move it, Kirkup simply put his shoulder to it and pushed it into the creek.
     As it had after the CPR years, his dislike of politicians again put an end to his tenure as a lawman. In 1897 when Rossland incorporated, the newly elected mayor, Col. Robert Scott, elected to replace Kirkup with Jack Ingram. His remaining years in Rossland were relatively quiet and stories about him from those years usually involved his sense of humour. One such story involved a letter which appeared in the Phoenix Pioneer in the nearby mining town of Phoenix on 26 May 1900 which was published as follows:
 
A solicitor in this riding, acting on behalf of the estate of a man who has been dead for some time, has received the following communication addressed to the deceased by the well known Rossland law officer, John Kirkup. "Dear Sir - I am to inform you that objection has been taken to your name remaining on the voters' list for the Rossland Riding of West Kootenay, upon the ground that you have been dead for some time. You will kindly let me know by return mail whether you are dead or not. If you are dead let me know, and I will strike your name off, but if not, of course your name will remain as it is."
 
     There is a famous story from 1890 about the time he chased a fugitive into the US. According to a former owner of Kirkup's papers and photos (Bernie of Antiquarius Books), this story is documented in his warrant. He chased the man into the US and across eight states, capturing him near Chicago. He put him in Chicago's jail for holding, came back to Canada for extradition papers, then went back and got him and brought him back to BC, where he was hung. Frederic Remington, the western artist spent six days with him on this trip and made a sketch each day. One of these , entitled Big Jack the Mountain Sheriff was published in Harper's Monthly in 1891. Five of these are in the Remington Museum; it's not known what happened to the sixth.
     It is said that John Wayne used Kirkup as one of two models in creating himself. He is said to have taken his distinctive walk from Hollywood stunt man Yakima Kanut, and several other of his signature traits from Kirkup, including his habit of using his gun as a club. Whale of a Tale In twenty-nine years as a lawman, Jack Ingram tamed Winnipeg, Calgary, Great Falls (Montana), and Rossland. He was born in St. Thomas, Ontario in 1850. In 1870 he headed west working at different things including trapping and herding horses. In 1873 he arrived in Winnipeg and quickly became a legendary brawler in places such as the Red Saloon. Manitoba at the time was policed by a territorial force headquartered at Fort Garry. Ottawa at the time hoped to police the territory with the North West Mounted Police within a year, but soon realized the NWMP was not large enough, so the territory started recruiting men for it's force and Ingram joined up and became a deputy sherrif. Working quietly and effectively, he rarely carried a gun, preferring to use his fists. His arrest of Ambroise Lepine was typical of his method. Lepine was wanted on a murder charge. Ingram walked up to him and greeted him as a friend and then delivered a left hook to the head. Lepine woke up in jail, and when he was later hung, Ingram was paid the reward.
      When Winnipeg incorporated in 1874, Ingram was hired as it's first Chief of Police. This was during the time of the Riel Rebellion. Within weeks his influence was apparent and he was considered a success. Then Carrie Lyons (an Ontario madam) arrived in town with five girls (Ella Lewis, Fannie Ellsworth, Carrie Rowland, Nellie Foster and Addie Booth) to become Winnipeg's first madam. (As a note of interest, in the police logs from the early days in Rossland brothels were always called "sporting houses" and the girls, whether they were in the brothel or on the street, were always called "sporting girls"). Ingram controlled the brothels (up to this point all owned by men) by strictly enforcing his rule that the gamblers, girls and saloon owners behaved themsleves and stayed in the west end of town and stayed away from the "nice" folks.
      Carrie, however, soon had Ingram spending more time at her place than on the job. Two of his constables made a complaint that he was rarely available when they needed him. Alderman John Villiers, who was strongly apposed to the red light district, publicly charged Ingram with negligence of duty and of maintaining order in the red light district by running a protection racket. Ingram sued Villiers, but before that got anywhere Ingram was rounded up one night in June 1875 in a surprise raid on Carrie's brothel. Ingram was fined $8.00 plus $2.00 costs and then fired. Ingram's remaining time in Winnipeg was spent drinking and prizefighting in the Red Saloon, The Pride Of The West Saloon, and the Prairie Saloon, and no doubt at Carrie's place as well.
     In 1884 the new City of Calgary hired Ingram to head it's new police force. The City Council was well aware of his reputation, but Bob Edwards and his newspaper, The Eye Opener, supported him and carried the day. Calgary was a tough town at that time. In two months Ingram tamed Calgary without firing a single shot. Most of the thugs, including "Crackerbox Bill" and "Bulldog Kelly", left town and those that stayed kept in line. He was never seen in Calgary carrying a gun - at least not in sight. His fists always seemed to be enough for the job. He ran things from a back room in a pool hall / saloon and he hired two like-minded constables. Each of the three of them would decide the right and wrong of any dispute they encountered and deal with it according to their own criteria. Their decisions were final, if not always reflective of justice to the deserving party.
     In July 1887 Ingram became engaged to the pretty Edith Oake, from Hyde, England. A week before the wedding, the folks of the red light district, hoping that marriage would mellow him, all got together in an effort to start things off on a new footing with him, and threw a bachelor party for him that lasted three days. They were married in October 1887, but much to the disappointment of everyone his approach to law and order was changed not one iota.
     His many enemies found an ally in the editor of the Calgary Herald who campaigned for Ingram's removal. In February 1888 Ingram and his two constables resigned. Within two months the Herald was looking back on Ingram's peaceful tenure with fondness and regretting that Calgary was once again in the hands of the lawless. Further emphasizing the point, Ingram accepted a job managing two hotels, The Palace and The Royal, and these became the only establishments in town enjoying peace. May Buchanan who had been operating her brothel on a reduced schedule under Ingram once again expanded her schedule to 24 hours a day, closing only on Sunday morning and evening for church. In 1890 Ingram went to Great Falls, Montana, once again as a lawman.
     There is some confusion around Ingram's arrival in Rossland. Most accounts say that he was contacted by Rossland officials while he was still in Montana and asked to come to Rossland to clean up the town, which had reverted to lawlessness after Kirkup's departure, and that he arived in Rossland in 1896. In fact Kirkup did not leave Rossland (he remained as Gold Commissioner until 1912), but was not kept on as a law officer by the new mayor when Rossland incorporated in April 1897. So whether or not Ingram had to retame the town after Kirkup is not clear. In any case Ingram became Rossland's first Police Chief in April 1897.
     In 1900 Ingram played a prominent role in bringing an eight year old Rossland boy, Ernest Chenoweth, to trial for murder (see The Killing of Mah Lin). Even though no one seriously thought anyone would convict an eight year old for murder, he was relentless in his pursuit. One gets the feeling that he had some kind of axe to grind concerning Mary or her sons. He was quoted as saying that Mary "is no better than a prostitute and her 3 sons are very tough boys", an odd comment considering his history.
     In April 1901, a political enemy by the name of C.O. Lalonde was elected mayor and Ingram retired and spent his time working some mining properties he had. In 1902 John S. Clute was elected mayor and rehired Ingram as Chief, but in 1903 John Dean became mayor and Ingram retired from police work for good.
     Ingram went to work for the Centre Star Mining Company as a powderman. On 16 December 1905 Jack had lunch with his stepson Bert O. Ingram in the fuse house. At 12:40 pm Jack told Bert to go to the thawing room and see that it was not overheated and to open the door if it was, while he continued making fuse bunches. Now the thawing room held 1500 to 1800 pounds of Gelignite explosive which was 75% nitro-glycerine. It had to be thawed before they could use it. They controlled the temperature in the room by opening and closing the door. Shortly after that the thawing room exploded, sending black smoke 600 feet in the air and breaking most of the glass in town (it took them months to bring enough glass into town to replace it all). They found Jack buried head first up to his ankles in a bank, the only fatality. No one knows what happened. Perhaps Bert forgot to leave the door open or perhaps Jack did something to cause it. In any case he died as he lived - explosively! This is a very long document, so I've put it on it's own page. It's probably much too long to read in one sitting, so I've divided it into chapters to help you find your place again. I've added a "Top of This Page" link in the upper right if you want to jump around different chapters once you're in the chapters. It's a transcript of an evening spent with Alex in 1967. Alex was on the Rossland Police Force from 1902 to 1911 and then for years on the Nelson Police Force. It's a great read! (I apologize for any typos or spelling mistakes; it's so long I haven't proofread it thoroughly)    An Evening With Alex Stewart