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  • BUFFALO BILL


    Born
    February 26, 1846
    near Le Claire, Iowa


    Died
    January 10, 1917 (aged 70)
    Denver, Colorado


    Resting Place
    Lookout Mountain, Golden, Colorado


    Spouse(s)
    Louisa Frederici (1843–1921) (m. 1866–1917)


    Children
    Four children,
    two of whom died young:
    Kit died of scarlet fever in April, 1876,
    and his daughter Orra died in 1880


    Occupation
    Trapper, Bull Whacker,
    Catteman,Train Driver, Prospector,Hotel Manager,
    Pony Express Rider, Showman


    Mini-Biography
    Full Biography- Buffalo Bill- Wikipedia


    William Frederick Cody was born in LeClaire, Iowa in 1846.
    While he was still a child, his family moved to Leavenworth, Kansas.
    Cody left his home in Leavenworth, Kansas, at the young age of eleven.
    He herded cattle and worked as a driver on a wagon train,
    crossing the Great Plains several times.



    Age 19


    He went on to fur trapping and gold mining,
    then joined the Pony Express in 1860.
    After the Civil War, Cody scouted for the Army,
    he undertook a contract to supply Kansas Pacific Railroad workers
    and gained the nickname "Buffalo Bill" as a hunter,
    by killing 4,860 American Bison (commonly known as buffalo)
    in eight months (1867–68).
    Cody’s life in the West offered the stuff from which legends
    were made and he soon was popularized in newspaper
    accounts and dime novels.


    Buffalo Bill’s show business career began on December 17, 1872 in Chicago;
    he was age twenty-six.
    "The Scouts of the Prairie" was a drama created by dime novelist
    Ned Buntline, who appeared in it with Cody and another well-known scout,
    "Texas Jack" Omohundro.
    The show was a success, despite one critic’s characterization
    of Cody as "a good-looking fellow, tall and straight as an arrow,
    but ridiculous as an actor."
    Other critics noted Cody’s manner of charming the audience
    and the realism he brought to his performance.
    Actor or not, Buffalo Bill was a showman.


    The following season Cody organized his own troupe, the Buffalo Bill Combination.
    The troupe’ show "Scouts of the Plains" included Buffalo Bill,
    Texas Jack, and Cody’s old friend "Wild Bill" Hickok.
    Wild Bill and Texas Jack eventually left the show,
    but Cody continued staging a variety of plays until 1882.
    That year the Wild West show was conceived.
    It was an outdoor spectacle, designed to both educate and entertain,
    using a cast of hundreds as well as live buffalo, elk, cattle,
    and other animals.



    "Buffalo Bill’s Wild West" used real cow-boys and cow-girls,
    recruited from ranches in the West.
    At first, few people shared Cody's admiration of the cow-boys.
    Most people regarded them as coarse cattle drivers
    and used the term "cow-boy" as an insult.
    By the end of the 19th century, the cow-boy became
    the much more popular "cowboy," thanks in large part
    to the Buffalo Bill Wild West shows.
    The shows demonstrated bronco riding, roping, and other skills
    that would later become part of public rodeos.


    The Wild West was invited to England in 1887 to be the main American contribution
    to Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee celebration.
    "Buffalo Bill’s Wild West" was the hit of the celebration,
    visited by nobility, commoners, and by Queen Victoria herself.
    The show was credited with improving British and American relations.
    "Buffalo Bill’s Wild West" rose to international fame
    and returned two years later to tour the European Continent.



    Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill, Montreal, QC, 1885


    Today there is a lot of confusion about the relationship
    between Buffalo Bill and the Indians.
    Cody treated his former foes with great respect and dignity,
    giving them an opportunity to leave the reservation
    and represent their culture when many were trying to destroy it.
    Wild West show posters frequently portrayed the Indian as "The American."
    Buffalo Bill stated in 1885 that "The defeat of Custer was not a massacre.
    The Indians were being pursued by skilled fighters with orders to kill.
    For centuries they had been hounded from the Atlantic
    to the Pacific and back again.
    They had their wives and little ones to protect
    and they were fighting for their existence."
    These are not the words of an arrogant and bloodthirsty Indian killer,
    a manner in which he is sometime incorrectly portrayed.


    Buffalo Bill had a great love and concern for people, particularly children.
    Many free passes were distributed to orphanages when the
    Wild West show came to town.
    He also was a champion of women’s rights, advocating equal pay
    and voting rights for women.
    The women in his show received comparable pay for comparable work
    to the men in the show.
    In fact, the women in the Wild West often out-rode
    and out-gunned the men.
    Certainly the most famous was Annie Oakley,
    nicknamed Little Sure Shot by Sitting Bull.


    Buffalo Bill in Colorado
    In spring of 1859 Buffalo Bill made his first trip to Colorado
    as part of the Pikes Peak Gold Rush.
    He passed through the new town of Denver on his way to the gold fields
    near Black Hawk where he searched for gold for two months,
    meeting with little success
    . On his return to Kansas he stopped in Julesburg, Colorado,
    where he was recruited to ride in the Pony Express.
    Most of his time with the Pony Express was spent in Kansas,
    although occasionally he traveled across northeast Colorado.
    The Pony Express route did not go to Denver
    but cut north into Nebraska and Wyoming.


    Buffalo Bill did return to Denver in 1869,
    ten years after his first time in the town.
    By then Denver was a growing city where two thieves,
    who had stolen from the Army, hoped to hide out.
    General Carr sent scout Buffalo Bill Cody and Captain W. Green
    to capture the men and return them and the livestock they stole.
    Cody returned to Denver another ten years later
    to perform in a local opera house with the Buffalo Bill Combination.
    He continued to tour through Colorado, performing
    at the Central City Opera (still in operation)
    and at another opera house in Georgetown.



    After Buffalo Bill organized his Wild West show,
    he visited Denver and Colorado many times. Altogether,
    Buffalo Bill performed 35 times in Colorado between 1886 and 1916.



    1903


    In addition to performing, Buffalo Bill had business dealings in Denver.
    In 1911 Cody acquired some horse halters from the
    Gates Tire and Leather Company in Denver.
    He liked them so well that he provided an endorsement for the product
    . This gave the fledgling firm such a boost in sales
    that it became the largest halter manufacturing firm in the U.S.
    It eventually became Gates Rubber Company.


    In 1912 Buffalo Bill needed financing for his show
    and went to Harry Tammen of Denver for a $20,000 loan.
    In 1908 he had combined his show with Pawnee Bill’s
    under the title Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Pawnee Bill’s Far East.
    In 1913 the combined show arrived for a Denver performance date
    at the time the $20,000 loan was due.
    To their surprise the show was seized by the sheriff’s
    and held to pay off the $20,000 debt.
    Since Cody did not have that much cash available at the time
    and Tammen would not extend the loan,
    Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Pawnee Bill’s Far East
    was sold off at auction in Denver.
    Continuing to use the debt as leverage,
    Tammen then forced Buffalo Bill to appear in Tammen’s Sells-Floto circus.
    It was clear that had been his objective all along.
    In 1915, Buffalo Bill finally got out of his coerced agreement with Tammen.


    Buffalo Bill never retired, even though he had hoped to do so.
    He did two years of farewell performances while his show
    was combined with Pawnee Bill’s in 1908 but discovered
    at the end of the second year that he could not retire.
    Growing personal debts due to bad investments
    left him with little to retire on.
    Even after Cody left the Sells-Floto circus,
    his financial situation kept him performing with other wild west shows.



    Buffalo Bill's grave on
    Lookout Mountain in Colorado.


    In 1917 Buffalo Bill died while visiting his sister’s home in Denver.
    According to his wife Louisa it was his choice that he be buried
    on Lookout Mountain overlooking Denver and the Plains.
    Despite the claims of the citizens of Cody,
    Wyoming that he really wanted to be buried near Cody,
    close friends like Goldie Griffith and Johnny Baker,
    as well as the priest who administered last rites,
    affirmed that Lookout Mountain was indeed his choice.
    On June 3, 1917, Buffalo Bill was buried on Lookout Mountain,
    a promontory with spectacular views of both the mountains and plains,
    places where he had spent the happiest times of his life.


    Louisa, who had married Buffalo Bill back before he became famous,
    was buried next to her husband four years later.
    That year, 1921, the Buffalo Bill Memorial Museum was begun
    by Johnny Baker, close friend and unofficial foster son to Buffalo Bill.
    Just as millions of people saw Buffalo Bill in his Wild West shows
    during his life, millions of persons have visited Buffalo Bill’s grave
    in the years since 1917.
    Today it is one of the top visitor attractions in Denver and Colorado.
    Biography Courtesy of The Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave



    William Cody's statue at the
    Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.


    The Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave


    Edited and Compiled by ethanedwards
    With Information and Photographs from
    The Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave
    Spartucus Educational and wikipedia

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 6 times, last by ethanedwards ().