Everything about Buffalo Bill Cody totally explained
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (
February 26,
1846 –
January 10,
1917) was an
American soldier,
bison hunter and
showman. He was born in the
Iowa Territory (now the
American state of
Iowa), near
Le Claire. He was one of the most colorful figures of the
Old West, and mostly famous for the shows he organized with
cowboy themes. Buffalo Bill received the
Medal of Honor.
Nickname and work life
William Frederick ("Buffalo Bill") Cody got his nickname after he undertook a contract to supply
Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with
buffalo meat . The nickname originally referred to Bill Comstock. Cody earned the nickname by killing 4,280 buffaloes in eighteen months (1867-68).
In addition to his documented service as a soldier during the
Civil War and as Chief of Scouts for the Third Cavalry during the
Plains Wars, Cody claimed to have worked many jobs, including as a
trapper, bullwhacker, "
Fifty-Niner" in
Colorado, a
Pony Express rider in 1860, wagonmaster,
stagecoach driver, and even a
hotel manager, but it's unclear which claims were factual and which were fabricated for purposes of publicity. He became world famous for his Wild West show.
Early years
William Frederick Cody was born at his family's farmhouse in
Scott County,
Iowa, on February 26, 1846, to Isaac Cody and wife Mary Ann Bonsell Laycock, daughter of Samuel Laycock and wife Hannah Taylor. When Cody was 7, his older brother, Samuel, was killed by a fall from a horse. His death so affected Mary Cody's health that a change of scene was advised and the family relocated to Kansas, moving into a large log cabin on land that they'd staked there.
Cody's father believed that Kansas should be a free state, but many of the other settlers in the area were pro-slavery (see
Bleeding Kansas). While giving an
anti-slavery speech at the local trading post, he so inflamed the supporters of slavery in the audience that they formed a mob and one of them stabbed him. Cody helped to drag his father to safety, although he never fully recovered from his injuries. The family was constantly persecuted by the supporters of slavery, forcing Isaac Cody to spend much of his time away from home. His enemies learned of a planned visit to his family and plotted to kill him on the way. Cody, despite his youth and the fact that he was ill, rode
30 miles (48 km) to warn his father. Cody's father died in 1857 from complications from his stabbing.
After his father's death, the Cody family suffered financial difficulties, and Cody, aged 11, took a job with freight carrier as a "boy extra," riding up and down the length of a wagon train, delivering messages. From here, he joined
Johnston's Army as an unofficial member of the scouts assigned to guide the Army to
Utah to put down a falsely-reported rebellion by the
Mormon population of
Salt Lake City. According to Cody's account in
Buffalo Bill's Own Story, the
Utah War 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 the war-bonnet of the Sioux, at his shoulder was a rifle pointed at someone in the river-bottom below; in another second he'd 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,' I answered. McCarthy ran over to the dark figure. 'Hi!' he cried. 'Little Billy's killed an Indian all by himself!' So began my career as an Indian fighter.
At the age of 14, Cody was struck by gold fever, but on his way to the gold fields, he met an agent for the
Pony Express. He signed with them and after building several way stations and corrals was given a job as rider, which he kept until he was called home to his sick mother's bedside.
His mother recovered, and Cody, who wished to enlist as a soldier, but was refused for his age, began working with a United States freight caravan which delivered supplies to
Fort Laramie.
Civil War soldier and marriage
Shortly after the death of his mother in 1863, Cody enlisted in the
7th Kansas Cavalry Regiment and fought with them on the Union side for the rest of the
Civil War.
While stationed at military camp in
St. Louis, Bill met Louisa Frederici (1843-1921). He returned after his discharge and they married on March 6, 1866. Their marriage wasn't a happy one, and Bill unsuccessfully attempted to divorce Louisa. They had four children, two of whom died young: his beloved son, Kit died of scarlet fever in April, 1876, and his daughter Orra died in 1880.
His early experience as an Army scout led him again to scouting.
From 1868 until 1872 Cody was employed as a scout by the
United States Army. Part of this time he spent scouting for Indians, and the remainder was spent gathering and killing bison for them and the
Kansas Pacific Railroad.
Medal of Honor
He received the
Medal of Honor in 1872 for "gallantry in action" while serving as a civilian scout for the
3rd Cavalry Regiment. This medal was revoked on February 5, 1917, 24 days after his death, because he was a civilian and therefore was ineligible for the award under new guidelines for the award in 1917. The medal was restored to him by the army in 1989.
See
List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Indian Wars
Buffalo Bill's Wild West
After being a
frontiersman, Buffalo Bill entered show business. He formed a touring company called the
Buffalo Bill Combination which put on plays (such as "Scouts of the Prairie", "Scouts of the Plain") based loosely on his Western adventures, initially with
Texas Jack Omohundro, and for one season (1873) with
Wild Bill Hickok. The troupe toured for ten years and his part typically included an 1876 incident at the
Warbonnet Creek where he claimed to have scalped a
Cheyenne warrior, purportedly in revenge for the death of
George Armstrong Custer.
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It was the age of great showmen and traveling entertainers, like the
Barnum and Bailey Circus and the
Vaudeville circuits. Cody put together a new traveling show based on both of those forms of entertainment. In 1883 in the area of
North Platte,
Nebraska he founded "Buffalo Bill's Wild West," (despite popular misconception, the word "show" wasn't a part of the title) a circus-like attraction that toured annually. The
Omaha Driving Park hosted the first official performance of the Wild West on
May 19,
1883. Eight thousand people attended the premiere at the Park, which was located in
North Omaha.
As the Wild West toured North America over the next twenty years, it became a moving extravaganza, including as many as 1200 performers. In 1893 the title was changed to "Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World". The show began with a parade on horseback, with participants from horse-culture groups that included US and other military, American Indians, and performers from all over the world in their best attire. There were
Turks,
Gauchos,
Arabs,
Mongols and
Cossacks, among others, each showing their own distinctive horses and colorful costumes. Visitors to this spectacle could see main events, feats of skill, staged races, and sideshows. Many authentic western personalities were part of the show. For example
Sitting Bull and a band of twenty braves appeared. Cody's headline performers were well known in their own right. People like
Annie Oakley and her husband
Frank Butler put on shooting exhibitions along with the likes of
Gabriel Dumont. Buffalo Bill and his performers would re-enact the riding of the
Pony Express, Indian attacks on wagon trains, and stagecoach robberies. The show typically ended with a melodramatic re-enactment of
Custer's Last Stand in which Cody himself portrayed General Custer.
The profits from his show enabled him to purchase a ranch near
North Platte,
Nebraska in 1886.
Scout's Rest Ranch included an eighteen-room mansion and a large barn for winter storage of the show's livestock.
In 1887 he took the show to
England in celebration of the
Jubilee year of
Queen Victoria. The show was staged in
London before going on to
Birmingham and then
Salford near
Manchester, where it stayed for five months. In 1889 the show toured
Europe. In 1890 he met
Pope Leo XIII. He set up an exhibition near the
Chicago World's Fair of 1893, which greatly contributed to his popularity, and also vexed the promoters of the fair. As noted in
The Devil in the White City, he'd been rebuffed in his request to be part of the fair, so he set up shop just to the west of the fairgrounds, drawing many patrons away from the fair. Since his show wasn't part of the fair, he wasn't obligated to pay the fair any royalties, which they could have used to temper the financial struggles of the fair.
Conservation activities
Larry McMurtry, along with some historians, asserts that at the turn of the
20th century Buffalo Bill Cody was the most recognizable celebrity on earth. And yet, despite all of the recognition and appreciation Cody's show brought for the Western and American Indian cultures, Buffalo Bill saw the
American West change dramatically during his tumultuous life. Bison herds, which had once numbered in the millions, were now threatened with extinction. Railroads crossed the plains,
barbed wire, and other types of fences divided the land for farmers and ranchers, and the once-threatening Indian tribes were now almost completely confined to reservations.
Wyoming's resources of
coal,
oil and
natural gas were beginning to be exploited towards the end of his life.
Even the Shoshone River was dammed for
hydroelectric power as well as for
irrigation. In 1897 and 1899 Cody and his associates acquired from the State of Wyoming the right to take water from the Shoshone River to irrigate about of land in the Big Horn Basin. They began developing a canal to carry water diverted from the river, but their plans didn't include a water storage reservoir. Cody and his associates were unable to raise sufficient capital to complete their plan. Early in 1903 they joined with the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners in urging the federal government to step in and help with irrigation development in the valley.
The Shoshone Project became one of the first federal water development projects undertaken by the newly formed Reclamation Service, later to become known as the Bureau of Reclamation. After Reclamation took over the project in 1903, investigating engineers recommended constructing a dam on the Shoshone River in the canyon west of Cody.
Construction of the Shoshone Dam started in 1905, a year after the Shoshone Project was authorized. Almost three decades after its construction, the name of the dam and reservoir was changed to Buffalo Bill Dam by an act of Congress to honor Cody.
Life in Cody, Wyoming
In 1895, William Cody was instrumental in founding
Cody, Wyoming. Cody passed through the region in the 1870s. He was so impressed by the development possibilities from irrigation, rich soil, grand scenery, hunting, and proximity to Yellowstone Park that he returned in the mid-1890s to start a town. He brought with him men whose names are still on street signs in Cody’s downtown area – Beck, Alger, Rumsey, Bleistein and Salsbury. The town was incorporated in 1901.
In November 1902 Cody opened the
Irma Hotel in downtown Cody, a hotel named after his daughter. Cody envisioned a growing number of tourists coming to the town of Cody via a recently opened Burlington rail line. He expected that they'd spend money at local business including the Irma Hotel. Cody also expected that they'd proceed up the Cody Road along the of the North Fork of the Shoshone River to visit Yellowstone Park. To accommodate travelers along the Cody Road he Cody built the Wapiti Inn and
Pahaska Tepee. In 1905 Cody completed construction of the Wapiti Inn and Pahaska Tepee and opened both to guests.
Cody also established the TE Ranch, which was located on the South Fork of the Shoshone River about 35 miles from Cody. When Cody acquired the TE property, he ordered the movement of Nebraska and South Dakota cattle to Wyoming. This new herd carried the TE brand. The late 1890s were relatively prosperous years for Buffalo Bill's Wild West and he used some of the profits to accumulate lands which were added to the TE holdings. Eventually Cody held around eight thousand acres (32 km²) of private land for grazing operations and ran about a thousand head of cattle. He also operated a
dude ranch, pack horse camping trips, and big game hunting business at and from the TE Ranch. In his spacious and comfortable ranch house he entertained notable guests from Europe and America.
Death
Cody died of kidney failure on
January 10, 1917, surrounded by family and friends at his sister's house in
Denver. On his death bed William F. Cody was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church the day before his death
January 9, 1917, by Father Christopher Walsh of the Denver Cathedral. Upon the news of his death he received tributes from the King of Britain, the German Kaiser, and President Woodrow Wilson. His funeral was in Denver at the Elks Lodge Hall. Wyoming Governor
John B. Kendrick, a friend of Cody's, led the funeral procession to the Elks Lodge.
Contrary to popular belief Cody wasn't destitute, but his once great fortune had dwindled to under $100,000. Despite his request to be buried in Cody, Wyoming, in an early will, it was superseded by a later will which left his burial arrangements up to his wife Louisa. To this day there's controversy as to where Cody should have been buried. According to the writer
Larry McMurtry, Harry Tammen and
Frederick Gilmer Bonfils of the
Denver Post, who had strong-armed Cody into appearing in their
Sells-Floto Circus, either "bullied or bamboozled the grieving Louisa" and had Cody buried in Colorado. This is consistent with an account by
Gene Fowler, who wrote Cody's obituary for the Post under direction from Tammen and Bonfils.
On
June 3, 1917, Cody was buried on Colorado's
Lookout Mountain, in
Golden, Colorado, west of the city of Denver, located on the edge of the
Rocky Mountains and overlooking the
Great Plains. His exact burial site was selected by his sister, Mrs. Mary Decker, while looking over the area accompanied by W.F.R. Mills, manager of the
Denver Mountain Parks. In 1948 the Cody branch of the
American Legion offered a reward for the 'return' of the body, so the Denver branch mounted a guard over the grave until a deeper shaft could be blasted into the rock.
Legacy
In contrast to his image and stereotype as a rough-hewn outdoorsman, Buffalo Bill pushed for the rights of
American Indians and
women. In addition, despite his history of killing bison, he supported their
conservation by speaking out against hide-hunting and pushing for a hunting season.
Buffalo Bill became so well known and his exploits so well entrenched in American culture that his character has appeared in many literary works, as well as television shows and movies, and on two U.S. postage stamps. Westerns were very popular in the 1950s and 60s, and Buffalo Bill would make an appearance in many of them. As a character, he's in the very popular Broadway musical
Annie Get Your Gun, which was very successful both with
Ethel Merman and more recently with
Bernadette Peters in the lead role.
Having been a frontier scout who respected the natives, he was a staunch supporter of their rights. He employed many more natives than just Sitting Bull, feeling his show offered them a better life, calling them
"the former foe, present friend, the American", and once said,
» "Every
Indian outbreak that I've ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government."
While in his shows the Indians were usually the "bad guys", attacking stagecoaches and wagon trains in order to be driven off by "heroic" cowboys and soldiers, Bill also had the wives and children of his Indian performers set up camp as they'd in the homelands as part of the show, so that the paying public could see the human side of the "fierce warriors", that they were families like any other, just part of a different culture.
The city of Cody, Wyoming was founded in 1896 by Cody and some investors, and is named for him. It is the home of the
Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Fifty miles from Yellowstone National Park, it became a tourist magnet with many dignitaries and political leaders coming to hunt. Bill did indeed spend a great amount of time in Wyoming at his home in Cody. However, he also had a house in the town of
North Platte, Nebraska and later built the Scout's Rest Ranch there where he came to be with his family between shows. This western
Nebraska town is still home to "
Nebraskaland Days," an annual festival including concerts and a large rodeo. The Scout's Rest Ranch in North Platte is both a museum, and a tourist destination for thousands of people every year.
Buffalo Bill became a hero of the
Bills, a
Congolese youth subculture of the late 1950s who idolized Western movies.
The nickname of the
K.A.A. Gent football club in
Ghent, Belgium is
De Buffalo's (The Buffalos), which was adopted after the Wild West Show visited the area in the early 1900s.
In film and television
On television, his character has appeared on shows such as
Bat Masterson and even
Bonanza. His persona has been portrayed as anything from an elder statesman to a flamboyant, self-serving exhibitionist.
Buffalo Bill has been portrayed in the movies by:
The false Italian pedigree
Italy was among many countries where stories recounting various adventures attributed to Buffalo Bill were highly popular. In the 1930's and 1940's, the
Nerbini Publishing House of
Florence monthly published such brochures, sold at 60 Centimi each.
In 1942, when Fascist Italy found itself at war with the United States, the publisher added a note purporting to reveal that Buffalo Bill had actually been an Italian immigrant named Domenico Tombini, orignially from
Romagna, Mussolini's own native province - a pedigree for which no shred of historical evidence exists. In this way, the adventures could continue publication in wartime Italy, under the title "
Buffalo Bill, the Italian Hero of the Plains" .
Buffalo Bill's / defunct
A
free verse poem on
mortality by
E. E. Cummings uses Buffalo Bill as an image of life and vibrancy. The poem is generally untitled, and commonly known by its first two lines: "Buffalo Bill's / defunct", however some books such as
Poetry edited by J. Hunter uses the name "portrait". The poem uses expressive phrases to describe Buffalo Bill's showmanship, referring to his "watersmooth-silver / stallion", and using a staccato beat to describe his rapid shooting of a series of
clay pigeons. The poem which featured this character caused great controversy. Buffalo Bill was actually in debt at the time of his death which is why the word "defunct" used in the second verse is so effective. The fusion of words such as "onetwothreefour" interprets the impression which Buffalo Bill left on his audiences.
Other Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bill was the first song written by Australian country music singer, Sara Storer. Living in Camooweal, north of Melbourne, she met a retired water buffalo shooter whose stories inspired her to write Buffalo Bill, her first song. Buffalo Bill won a Golden Guitar at the Tammworth Country Music Festival in 2001 for New Talent of the Year and appears on her first album, Chasing Buffalos
Buffalo Bill is also the name of a fictional character from Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs, who was also parodied in the movie Joe Dirt under the name Buffalo Bob.
Two television series, Buffalo Bill, Jr. (1955–6) starring Dickie Jones and Buffalo Bill (1983–4) starring Dabney Coleman, had nothing to do with the historic person.
The Buffalo Bills, an NFL team based in Buffalo, New York, were named after Buffalo Bill. Prior to that team's existence, other early football teams (such as Buffalo Bills (AAFC)) used the nickname, solely due to name recognition, as Bill Cody had no special connection with the city.
The Buffalo Bills are a barbershop-quartet singing group consisting of Vern Reed, Al Shea, Bill Spangenberg, and Wayne Ward. They appeared in the original Broadway cast of The Music Man (opened 1957) and in the 1962 motion-picture version of that play.
Buffalo Bill is the title of a song by the jam band Phish.
Buffalo Bill is the name of a bluegrass band in Wisconsin
Samuel Cowdery, buffalo hunter, "wild west" showman and aviation pioneer changed his surname to "Cody" and was often taken for the original "Buffalo Bill" in his touring show Captain Cody King of the Cowboys.
William Wilson "Buffalo Bill" Quinn: Retired Lieutenant General and Silver Star recipient. He served in World War II as a colonel and became a full colonel in Korea; and at the end of Korea became a Brigadier General.Further Information
Get more info on 'Buffalo Bill Cody'.
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