| BUFFALO
BILL |
|
 William
Frederick Cody was an American guide, scout, and showman, who was born
in Scott County, Iowa. In 1854 his family moved west to Kansas, where
his father died a few years later. For a short time he attended school
in 1859. At the age of 14 he joined the newly established Pony Express.
When the American Civil War began, he served as a scout and guide for
the Union Army. In 1863 he joined the Seventh Kansas Cavalry as an army
scout.
After the close of the Civil War in 1865 he contracted with the Kansas
Pacific Railroad to supply buffalo meat to the workers on the line.
Claiming to have killed more than 4000 buffalo in less than 18 months
earned him the nickname "Buffalo Bill." He again served as an
army scout from 1868 to 1872. In 1872 the United States government
awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor to Cody but it was revoked 44
years later because at the time the award was given he had not been a
member of the military.
In 1872 Ned Buntline persuaded him to appear on the stage in Buntline's The
Scouts of the Plains, and, except for a brief period of scouting
against the Sioux in the Sioux War of 1876, he was from that time
connected with show business. From 1872 to 1883, Cody was a showman
known as Buffalo Bill, usually acting the part of himself in one of
Buntline's melodramas. He occasionally returned to the West during this
period to guide cavalry and raise cattle.
Buffalo Bill started a Wild West Exhibition in 1883 with Doc Carver
under the name Rocky Mountain and Prairie Exhibition. The
partners argued and later split up. In 1884 Buffalo Bill teamed up with
Salsbury and Bogardus to put the expedition on the road under the name Buffalo
Bill's Wild West. The show was a representation of life on the
plains. It toured the United States and Europe for almost 20 years. The
legendary Native American leader Sitting Bull, sharpshooter Annie
Oakley, and Wild Bill Hickok were stars in the show.
In 1901 Cody became president of the Cody Military College and
International Academy of Rough Riders, a riding school he established on
his property located in Wyoming. The town of Cody, Wyoming, is named
after him. The Buffalo Bills, a professional football team and one of
five teams in the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference
(AFC) of the National Football League (NFL) was named by the
organization's first president, Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., after William
Frederick Cody a.k.a. Buffalo Bill.
|
|
Do you have questions or
suggestions? Send us .
This site is best viewed with I.E. 5.0 and more, and
resolution of 1024x768 pixels. |
| |