The Legend
Born and
raised in Wyoming, I feel that it is fitting for me to learn and write about
some of the American West heroes that have made this land so great. This
biography is the first in a series I intend to title, Heroes of the West.
Buffalo
Bill Cody was a legend in the far West. A frontiersman, one of the best bison
hunters West of the Mississippi, a great entertainer with his traveling Wild
West show, and a ruthless trailblazer in a time that mostly consisted of legend
and folktale. Buffalo Bill Cody set a standard for what the West looked like
and could be for the whole nation.
William
Frederick Cody was born on February 26, 1846 on a farm just outside the tiny
town of Le Claire, Iowa to Isaac and Mary Ann Cody. William grew up on the farm,
and led a quiet childhood. In 1853, when he was seven, the family sold the farm
and moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory. This was at a time in our
country when it was divided so badly over slavery. Kansas was nearing Statehood
at this time, and there was a hot debate over whether it would be slave or
free.
Isaac Cody, (William’s
father,) was very antislavery. Kansas was on the verge of becoming a slave
state. Inevitably, that came to a head at Rively’s Store, a place where many
pro-slavery supporters met. Isaac’s antislavery speech angered the men so much
that they threatened to kill him if he didn't step down. When Isaac refused,
one of the men pulled a Bowie knife and stabbed Cody twice. Isaac was immediately
rushed to medical attention, and lived, but never truly made a full recovery.
In Kansas,
the family was persecuted so bad over their being antislavery, that William’s father
often had to leave home for days or weeks on end. One such time, young William rode 30 miles to warn his
father of a plot to kill him on the way back. Isaac went to Cleveland, Ohio to organize
about thirty antislavery families to add
to the cause. During the return trip, he caught a respiratory infection which, compounded
by the lingering effects of the stabbing and complications from kidney disease,
led to Isaac Cody’s death in 1857.
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| Young William Cody |
After the father’s
death, the Cody family struggled financially.
Bill took on a job with a freight carrier as a “boy extra.” He would
ride up and down the wagon train delivering messages between the driver and the
workmen. Next he joined Johnston’s Army as an unofficial member of the scouts
assigned to put out a rumored rebellion from the Mormons in Salt Lake City,
Utah. According to his own account in his autobiography, (see below,) this was where
he first began his career as an “Indian fighter.”
"Presently the moon rose,
dead ahead of me; and painted boldly across its face was the figure of an
Indian. He wore this war-bonnet of the Sioux, at his shoulder was a rifle
pointed at someone in the river-bottom 30 feet (9 m) below; in another second
he would drop one of my friends. I raised my old muzzle-loader and fired. The
figure collapsed, tumbled down the bank and landed with a splash in the water.
"What is it?" called McCarthy, as he hurried back. "It's over
there in the water." "Hi!" he cried. 'Little Billy's killed an
Indian all by himself!' So began my career as an Indian fighter."
In 1860,
Bill Cody was struck by gold fever. He gathered up his belongings and headed
west to California. Along the way, he met an agent for the Pony Express. This
agent persuaded Bill to join and Bill worked delivering messages cross-country
at breakneck speed for a number of years. He only quit when he was called to
his mother’s sick bedside. After she recovered, Cody wanted to enlist as a
Union soldier during the Civil War, but was denied because of his age. He began
working as a Freight Caravan delivering supplies to Fort Laramie, Wyoming until
1863, when he joined the army as a captain in Company H, 7th Kansas Calvary
and served until he was discharged in 1865.
The next
year, Cody married Louisa Frederici. They had four kids together, but two died
young in Rochester, New York. From 1868 to 1872, Cody was employed as a scout
for the United States Army. Part of the time he scouted for Indians, and part
of the time he hunted Bison for the army. In 1872 he joined Alexei
Alexandrovich of Russia’s highly publicized royal hunt. In December that year,
Cody traveled to Chicago to make his stage debut with friend Texas Omohundro in
The Scouts of the Prairie. During the
’73-74 season, they invited their friend James Hickok to join them in a new
play called Scouts of the Plains. In
1879, Cody wrote an autobiography titled The
Life and Adventures of Buffalo Bill.
The troupe
continued for ten years. In 1883, Cody founded “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West,” a
circus – like attraction that toured annually. This show was immediately
popular, touring all over the US and Europe. It was a collection of acts and
tricks all pertaining to the West. Many headline performers were also featured on
the show, such as Annie Oakley, Gabriel Dumont, and Lillian Smith. With his
profits, Bill purchased a 4,000 acre ranch near North Platte, Nebraska. In 1887-1890,
the show toured Europe, and was watched by Queen Victoria and the Pope.
Through the ‘90s the
show gained in popularity in both the U.S. and Europe. In 1895, Bill founded the town of Cody, Wyoming.
He had passed through it in the 1870s and was so impressed at all the area had to
offer that he decided to build a town there. Several streets in the town were
named after his associates. In November 1902, he opened the Irma hotel, which
he named after his daughter. He also established the TE ranch, located on the
south fork of the Shoshone River.
On October
29, 1901, a freight train crashed into Buffalo Bill’s train. 110 horses died in
the accident, and although no people were killed, Annie Oakley’s injuries were
so severe that she was told she would never walk again. However, she recovered
and went back to performing later.
Over the
next 15 or so years, Cody settled down. He retired from performance and moved
to Denver, Colorado. Having built up such an enormous fortune, he lived quite comfortably.
Arguably the greatest legend of the west, Buffalo Bill Cody died of kidney
failure on January 10, 1917, surrounded by friends and family. His funeral procession
was led by Wyoming governor and close friend John B. Kendrick. Today he is
buried on Lookout Mountain, Golden, Colorado.
Buffalo
Bill Cody was, is, and always will be one of the legends of the American West. He
was one of the greatest entertainers of the late 19th and early 20th
century. He founded a still-thriving Wyoming town, and he created a introduced the
world to the American West. He stood for toughness, bravery, and everything
that made the West so great, and I am proud to be able to live in and
experience this great land that this great person left a lasting impression on.
-The Ranger
Great article! I learned so much!
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