If you ask what year Poker Alice was born, you’d get a variety of articles that debated whether or not it was in 1851, or possibly a little later in 1853. Both answers would be incorrect though. Because as it turns out, Poker Alice was a liar. But instead of making herself younger, as one may expect, she made herself much older. Alice wasn’t born until around 1866.
Correcting the Birth Year
So where does the year 1866 come from? If every other article written about Alice states that she was born in either 1851 or 1853, how can we be sure that she was born around a decade and a half later? Well, we have to start at the beginning.
For us, that means starting with the first verified account that mentions Alice’s birth. That happens to be the 1900 Census. This census gives us a few important pieces of information. First, it tells us where Alice was born. And surprise, it’s not in England as most claim. Instead, Alice herself states she was born in Virginia, as were her parents.
We also get the only mention of when she married Warren G. Tubbs. According to the census, the two were married in 1896. Most important here though, we are told that Alice was born in June of 1868.
Now, interestingly, at the time of the census, Alice was living in Thermopolis, Wyoming, in a tent. Knowing Warren’s history, the why ends up becoming clear. At the time, Thermopolis was home to hot springs that were believed to be able to treat tuberculosis. Nine years later, Warren would pass away due to having contracted tuberculosis. The move to Wyoming, and the living in a tent, was in order to try to treat Warren’s ailment.
Alice’s birth wouldn’t be mentioned again in a verified account until December 23rd, 1918. This time, it was in her marriage certificate with George Huckert. Instead of an exact date, we are told that she was 52 years of age at the time, putting her birth around 1866. Two years later, in the 1920 census, this information would be confirmed, with Alice now being 54 years of age.
The 1920 census gives us a bit more information though. Again, it confirms that Alice was born in Virginia, as were her parents. We also get verification of where she lived, which was on Junction, in Sturgis. We can be certain that this is the same home that once was the infamous Poker Alice Resort. Unlike what later stories would claim, Alice’s house wouldn’t be moved to the Junction location at some later date, but was originally there.
We are also told that living with Alice and George was a man named Lorin Dewey, who was their hired man. For their part, both Alice and George were listed as being unemployed. Lorin’s employment wouldn’t last long with Alice and George. By 1930, he was listed as living in the Meade County Poor House.
From these records, we do gleam some interesting details, such as Alice being from Viriginia, not England. We get a glimpse into the earliest reported life of Alice. A life that wasn’t being sensationalized or romanticized. These reports come from a time that Alice was largely unknown. It wouldn’t be until much later that she would be thrust into the limelight, and even later until a new story would be created about Alice.
Why 1851 or 1853?
If we can verify that Alice was born around 1866, then why do popular stories about Alice claim she was born a decade and a half earlier? There are really two factors at play here. The first is that a full and proper history of Alice has never been done. When it comes to the little research that has been done on Alice, none of it was truly fact-checked. Instead, what has largely been written simply takes what Alice, and a few others, said at face value.
Over time, these accounts were embellished, romanticized, and then repeated. Those repeated versions became accepted fact, and thus they continued to be repeated.
Some of the claims about Alice go back to Alice herself. But it wasn’t until a few years before her death that people began to take interest in her story. It’s really not until December 3rd, 1927, in an interview with Courtney Ryley Cooper, a famed reporter with The Saturday Evening Post, that Alice was really thrown from obscurity into the limelight.
It is from that article, titled “Easy Come, Easy Go,” that much of what has been passed on about Alice has come from. That article established a number of popular ideas about Alice, including the idea that she was born around 1853. However, it turns out that much of what Alice related to Cooper simply couldn’t be true, and at times, would even be contradicted by Alice herself.
In a future article, we will dig into that article and look at many of the falsehoods told, but for now, we are left with another question. Why would Alice lie about her age? Why would she portray herself as older than she really was?
Looking through the article, “Easy Come, Easy Go,” I think we can begin to understand Alice’s rationalization. While we can’t know for sure what Alice was thinking, some things do appear to be certain.
Throughout the vast majority of Alice’s life, she was largely a nobody. The earliest mentions of Alice, appearing in local newspapers, deal with her criminal activities. While most of the crimes Alice was charged with dealt with theft, she was also charged with assaulting a man after she refused to pay rent.
Even with the now famous incident where she shot and killed one soldier, and nearly killed another, very little was ever mentioned about it. It’s not really until the end of 1927, just slightly over 2 years before she would pass away, that anyone really took notice of her. And once they did, she took full advantage of her newfound fame.
To fully take advantage of this fame, Alice did what many other did before her. She embellished her story where she could, and where she couldn’t, she simply lied and created a new narrative. In many ways, she followed the trend that had been set up long before her, the trend people like Calamity Jane had centered their fame on.
It is for this reason that we believe that Alice made herself older than she truly was. It allowed her to place herself into more historical events and situations, and thus bolster the legend she was creating.
She could create a more full resume of her historic deeds, and create a true legend. However today, we have the means to check her claims more closely, and in future articles, we will be doing just that.