Smuggler Kelly and his legend
Lawrence Kelly, "King of the Smugglers"
He was the father of nine and a member of the Sinclair Island school board who once wrote "never in my life have I wronged my fellow men." But mothers had only to bring up his name to terrify their children into good behavior.
That name was "Smuggler Kelly," synonymous for 45 years with a scruffy seadog who ran opium and Chinese laborers from Canada into Washington.
Information is sketchy, but Kelly was born sometime in the 1830s, most likely in Ireland. He left a ship that put in at New Orleans during the Civil War to join in the fight for the South. With Lee's surrender in 1865 Kelly headed west, vowing to "never earn an honest living under the stars and stripes!"
At this he excelled. Kelly arrived in Puget Sound aboard the Young America and quickly made good on his promise by smuggling silks into Washington.
Over the years, Kelly smuggled whatever was profitable, although his main contraband was unstamped opium. He worked alone, slicing through island waters on the tallow-greased hulls of his sailboats the Alert and the Katy Thomas. Kelly eventually proved so adept at eluding officers through his cunning and familiarity with local waters that he was crowned "King of the Smugglers."
His daring at sea was described by a man who marveled as Kelly sailed heeled over and rail awash through a hurricane. The smuggler "came into the bay as unconcerned as if he had been out for a pleasant day's sail. Believe me, Kelly was a cool one, and he knew his sails."
Nonetheless, Kelly was caught numerous times and served several jail terms. Confronted once by a customs agent on a train, he bolted to the platform, jumped, and was picked up unconscious. Doctored and served roast duck at Sumas Immigration, he reported "I never was treated better in my life."
In 1878, Kelly married Lizzie Cootes (often referred to as "Kotz") and built a cabin on the southwest tip of Guemes (Kelly's Point). Eventually, his smuggling payoffs purchased a 360-acre homestead on Sinclair Island.
As far we know, Kelly never apologized for smuggling but noted "I was an honest smuggler if there ever was one." In 1912, after his last lock-up, the Smuggler King was broke, landless and no longer married to Lizzie. He supposedly moved to Louisiana where he lived out his last days in a Confederate Soldier's Home.
- From Colorful Characters and Local Lore exhibit, Anacortes Museum, 2008
