Local Buffalo Bill most famous man in the world

Friends,  foes, kings, queens and presidents salute showman

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

 William F. Cody acted globally, and operated locally with a worldly view. Colorado, especially Denver, Golden and Larimer County were regular haunts for the most famous and recognizable man in the world, at the time.

"Western history without Buffalo Bill would have astonished 20-Century Americans," notes Thomas J. Noel, (Dr. Colorado) in "Mile High City,  An Illustrated History of Denver."

Despite fame as an Indian fighter, "He later befriended many of his former foes," says Noel. "Ironically, the Indians he helped put on the reservations found some of their better-paying and more gratifying jobs with Cody, traveling the U.S. and Europe as performers with the Wild West Show."

 "Kings, queens and presidents attended Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and it is estimated that more than 25 million words were written about the famous scout during his lifetime, making his silver goatee, buckskin jacket and wide Stetson hat more recognizable and famous than anyone in the world at the time. When he died in 1917, while visiting his sister in Denver, his body was put on view in the state capitol," says the City of Golden's site. 

And here in Larimer County, at his boyhood friend A.H. 'Billy' Paterson's house in Fort Collins:

"Buffalo Bill Cody was in town in April where he was entertained by his boyhood friend, A. H. Patterson, Fort Collins pioneer implement dealer. Buffalo Bill and Patterson had come west together. Buffalo Bill was enroute to Boulder to Cheyenne. He had made quite a deal of money in these years by his novel show "The Wild West." In the winter, he played in a show known as the "Prairie Waif." As one person remarked, "Buffalo Bill is thriving and need not long for the good old days." Buffalo Bill at this time ordered a special buggy which was made in Fort Collins by E. C. Roth. Roth supplied the buggy with a patented Roth Spring and shipped it to Cody's Nebraska ranch (Scouts Rest). Millions of words and probably as much nonsense has been penned about Bill Cody. Probably the world's worst businessman, he was on the other hand generous to a fault, an excellent showman, handsome (with legions of feminine admirers), a good rifle shot and better than average rider. 

"The attractive house at 121 North Grant (Fort Collins), where Patterson entertained Buffalo Bill is now owned by the owners and publishers of this paper. I have one of the rifles Buffalo Bill used when he performed for the Queen of England. My father was a friend of Patterson's son. The son inherited the rifle upon his father's early death. He sold it to my father so he could continue his studies of law at the University of Wyoming. George W. Patterson became a well-known California attorney and died there a years later," Dick Baker, Triangle Review, in 1974. The article was part of a series by historian Dick Baker, a retired city official whose grandfather was mayor of Fort Collins. 

Patterson owned the Old Grout Livery Barn, which stood where the old Union Pacific Depot now stands on the east side of Jefferson Street in Fort Collins. "His lumbering and wagon business was one of the finest in the country," writes historian Wayne Sundberg. "He sold his business and he and his wife, the former Alice Waterous, left the city for a few years. Shortly after returning, the family purchased the home at 121 North Grant."

"Bill Cody and his family were visitors at the Paterson home on several occasions. Their early friendship lasted many years. "Buffalo Bill" asked some of the town's people why there was no marker on the grounds of the Agricultural College to honor his friend and other men who had donated land for the college. A short time later, such a monument was erected near Main Hall. The Codys and Pattersons spent many pleasant camping and fishing trips up Poudre Canyon. Shortly before he died in December of 1892, Patterson had his last visit from his old friend, who had just brought his Wild West Show back from a successful European tour."

"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 an early version of the Pony Express. Most of his time as a messenger 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," according to information from the Buffalo Bill Memorial Museum.

Cody visited Denver in the 1870s 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.

The record says that "In 1913 Buffalo Bill borrowed money from Denver businessman Harry Tammen, not realizing the loan would be used to force him to appear in Tammen’s Sells Floto Circus. Cody fell behind in payment of the loan and, when the Wild West stopped in Denver to do a show that July, Tammen had the show seized. The Wild West was sold off at auction in Denver’s Overland Park and Cody was forced to join the Sells Floto Circus. Eventually he got out of that contract but was never able to re-build his Wild West."

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 site with spectacular views of both the mountains and plains, places where he had spent the happiest times of his life," says the museum's site.

"Louisa, who married Cody before he became famous, was buried next to her husband in 1921, four years after his death. That same year Johnny Baker, a close friend and unofficial foster son to Cody, opened the Buffalo Bill Memorial Museum. The museum collection moved into the current building next to Pahaska Tepee in 1977. Just as millions of people saw Buffalo Bill in his Wild West shows during his life, millions have visited his grave in the years since 1917. Today the museum and grave is one of the top visitor attractions in Denver and Colorado."

 

Top photo: William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody poses on his horse "Duke" in a camp for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, possibly at Ambrose Park in Brooklyn, New York. He wears a buckskin coat with tassles adorning it and also wears a hat, possibly a Stetson, and thigh boots. The bridle on Duke is adorned with shells.

Photo 2:  The attractive house at 121 N Grant (Fort Collins) where Patterson entertained Buffalo Bill.

Photo 3: Wild Bill Hickok... (seated left),  Texas Jack and  Buffalo Bill Cody (seated right).

Photo 4: Ten Native American chiefs who met with General Nelson Miles to stop the Indian War pose for a group portrait in front of a teepee. Among the chiefs are Standing Bull, Bear Who Looks Back Running, Has the Big White Horse, White Tail, Liver Bear, Little Thunder, Bull Dog, High Hawk, Lame and Eagle Pipe. The men have blankets wrapped around their shoulders. The man in the center of the front row wears a feather headdress. The man on the far left in the front row holds a war club across his lap.

 Photo 5: Cowgirls Della Ferrell and Georgia Duffy stand at the back of a covered wagon in a camp for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show near Earl's Court in England. Ferrell, a native of Colorado, joined the cast in 1887 as one of the show's "Western Girls." She wears a hat with tassles hanging from its rim. Similar tassles hang around the edges of her short coat. Duffy, a native of Wyoming who also joined the show in 1887, wears a ruffled shirt under her fitted coat. Her long skirt has beads and tassles near the hem. Each of the women holds a riding crop. A small, wood building is in the left background with the words "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" faintly printed on its side.

Photo 6: May Manning Lillie, a shooter in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, poses for a half-length portrait. She wears a wide-brimmed hat and has long hair that covers her shoulders. A necklace with three strands, possibly made from beads or shells, hangs around her neck. Two medals are pinned on her shirt. May Manning, originally of Philadelphia, married Gordon "Pawnee Bill" Lillie, also a performer in the wild west show, in 1886. He reportedly taught her to shoot and she became an outstanding performer in the show.

Photo 7: Violette Verity, a performer in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, poses for a three-quarter length portrait while touring with the show. She wears a long dress with two large flowers on her waist. She also wears a large, floppy hat. She rests her right hand on a tall table in the left foreground. More flowers are on the table. She holds her left hand on her hip.

 

Buffalo Bill Cody contrasts the celebration of expansion

Poster child for duality of Western Reality

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com


Buffalo Bill has widely swung from one end of the popularity spectrum,  to the other, and back a few times, in my lifetime.
He is the poster child for the duality of the Western reality.
When I was a young buck, his tall buckskin-clad persona epitomized the American Western hero. When we realized he killed so many buffalo, and Native Americans, that he was written off as "a white male chauvinist, and violent bigot who slaughtered animals and native Americans," we struggled a bit, but he liked to party, and he always came across as one the best-looking, and coolest hippie-like characters we could imagine.
"Western history without Buffalo Bill would have astonished 20-Century Americans," notes Thomas J. Noel, (Dr. Colorado) in "Mile High City,  An Illustrated History of Denver."
"Cody's career began when he ran away from home at age 13 to join the Colorado Gold Rush. A year later he became a Pony Express rider who boasted he covered 322 miles in 21 hours and 40 minutes using 21 horses."
"Bill killed, according to his own account, 4,280 buffalo," says Noel.
"Cody also hunted Indians. He slew Yellow Hand, a Cheyenne leader, in 1876 and boasted, "Jerking his war bonnet off, I scientifically scalped in about five seconds ...  As the soldiers came up, I swung the Indian chief's top-knot and bonnet in the air, and shouted "The first scalp for Custer!"
Despite that,fame as an Indian fighter, "He later befriended many of his former foes," says Noel. "Ironically, the Indians he helped put on the reservations found some of their better-paying and more gratifying jobs with Cody, traveling the U.S. and Europe as performers with the Wild West Show."
 "Kings, queens and presidents attended Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and it is estimated that more than 25 million words were written about the famous scout during his lifetime, making his silver goatee, buckskin jacket and wide Stetson hat more recognizable and famous than anyone in the world at the time. When he died in 1917, while visiting his sister in Denver, his body was put on view in the state capitol," says the City of Golden's site.
"And there began the controversy. He died in January, but could not be buried on a frozen mountain top, at his request, until June. The body was stored in what is now Lola’s Restaurant in Denver (then a mortuary). In the early 1900s, some people from Wyoming claimed they snuck down, took Buffalo Bill’s body, and replaced him with another body from the mortuary. Unfortunately for this legend, their story is undone by the fact that Bill had an open casket at his burial on top of Lookout Mountain in 1917, with thousands of witnesses paying tribute to the famous scout who they certainly recognized,"  says the Golden site.
 William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was an American scout, bison hunter, and showman born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but he lived for several years in his father's hometown in Toronto Township, Ontario, Canada, before the family returned to the Midwest and settled in the Kansas Territory.
Buffalo Bill started working at the age of eleven, after his father's death, and became a rider for the Pony Express at age 14. During the American Civil War, he served the Union from 1863 to the end of the war in 1865. Later he served as a civilian scout for the US Army during the Indian Wars, receiving the Medal of Honor in 1872.
One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill's legend began to spread when he was only twenty-three. Shortly thereafter he started performing in shows that displayed cowboy themes and episodes from the frontier and Indian Wars. He founded "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" in 1883, taking his large company on tours in the United States and, beginning in 1887, in Great Britain and continental Europe. He became the rough equivalent of a rock star.
Larry McMurtry, along with historians such as R.L. Wilson, asserted that at the turn of the 20th century, Cody was the most recognizable celebrity on Earth.
"While Cody's show brought appreciation for the Western and American Indian cultures, he saw the American West change dramatically during his life. Bison herds, which had once numbered in the millions, were 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 confined to reservations," according to McMurtry.

Photos:
1: Buffalo Bill with Sitting Bull (center) and others.
2: William Cody.
3. The original Wild West Show staff .

Grand Duke Alexis, celebs, and reality

What he really wanted to do was visit the American West

 By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Though they did not have celebrity and “reality” television then, a Colorado visit by Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff of Russia in 1872 might have made a good pilot.
Perhaps one of the more surreal elements of the trip were buffalo hunting excursions by the Grand Duke led alternately by Buffalo Bill Cody and a young General George Armstrong Custer, four years prior to the battle at Little Big Horn.
Grand Duke Alexis had arrived in New York in November of 1871, and had been hob-knobbing with elites in the East for months.
Dinners at the White House with then President Grant, giving Mayor Medill of Chicago $5,000 in gold for those left homeless from the Great Chicago Fire, and touring the Smith and Wesson factory producing pistols for his father’s army, were all on the agenda.
But what he really wanted to do, was visit the American West.
At a dinner at the White House, Lieutenant General Phil Sheridan wowed him with stories of mine activity in areas around Denver and great buffalo hunts on the plains.
That, of course, led to the Pennsylvania Railroad putting together a five-car special train, headed for the buffalo country of North Platte, Nebraska, and south and west into the Julesburg area of Colorado. Who to guide such important guests?
North Platte’s first resident, Buffalo Bill Cody, also enlisted the help (with the promise of 1,000 pounds of tobacco) of Sioux chief Spotted Tail and 100 Indians of the tribe.
The special train picked up General Custer and other army brass in Omaha and on January 12, arrived in North Platte. There they loaded their meager supplies including three wagons of champagne and Alexis’ personal chef, they headed out on the plain to hunt buffalo.
In the next two days, they killed 56 buffalo, the Duke himself accounting for eight, and in the evenings the 1,000 Indians offered shows involving sham fights, dances and lance throwing.
According to Marshall Sprague’s book, Gallery of Dudes, Cody remarked, “I was in hopes that he (Alexis) would kill five or six more before we reached camp, especially if a basket of champagne was to be opened every time he dropped one.”
Following that hunt, the Duke and entourage was entertained at a grand ball in Denver and toured other Colorado Front Range communities including Golden and Loveland. Disappointed by only the 56 animals slain in the first hunt, Custer and others decided to try additionally in the Kit Carson area of the Colorado plain, near the Kansas border. In one day of that hunt, the Duke killed 12 animals himself and the entire party was able to claim over 200 kills.
“In mid-February, Custer escorted him to New Orleans and to Pensacola in Florida, where he boarded his flagship Svetlanna and sailed for home by way of Cuba,” writes Sprague.
Today, The Krewe of Rex formed in 1872 -- principally to entertain the visiting Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff of Russia continues today as a New Orleans’s tradition.

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Photo information:
1. Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff.
2. Duke in full regalia.
3. General Custer, Grand Duke Alexis and Buffalo Bill.