Big Horn County WY Archives Biographies.....Cody, William F. 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 June 19, 2009, 3:28 am

Author: Bowen & Co. (1903)

COL. WILLIAM F. CODY.

   Each age, each race, each country, inscribes itself with more or less
distinctness on History's dial. The cities of the world's infancy, and some of
later date, deep-buried in the ruins of time and almost faded from our
traditions of their day, revisit us in the freshly exhumed sculptures and
picture writings unearthed by the German explorers and in the sparkling pages of
their narratives. The Egypt of Sesostris and the Pharaohs survives in her
obelisks and pyramids no less vividly than in the ever enduring records of Moses
and Manetho. Jerusalem, in her lonely humiliation, best typifies the Hebrew
state and race for centuries, while her uncrumbling edifices and reviving
dignity suggest the unconquerable spirit and intense intellectual energy of her
people which dominates all the marts and money-centers of the modern world.
Ancient Rome lives for us in the Capitol and Coliseum, as does her medieval and
sacerdotal offspring in St. Peter's and the Vatican. Royal and feudal France,
the France of Richelieu and Louis le Grand, still lingers in the boundless
magnificence and prodigality, the showy sieges and battle-pieces of Versailles,
while the England of the last four centuries confronts us in the Bank, very
substantial and well furnished, the fit heart's core of a trading, money-getting
people. And so we Americans will be found in due time to have written ourselves
most legibly, though all unconsciously, on the earth's unfading records; how, or
in what, time alone can tell. We have already linked ocean to ocean with hoops
of steel and put our electric girdles around the world. We have arranged for
portraying, as on a common dial, all the storms and calms at any moment
prevailing within the earth's atmosphere and foretelling those that are to come,
thus providing in advance against the rage of the elements. Our characteristic
and most typical record may be in these or in something very different from any
or all of them. Essential History insists upon writing itself, and will not be
controlled or anticipated. Certainly one of the most striking phases of our
multiform' life, impulse and activity, with all its trials and triumphs; its
challenge to every condition and circumstance, and its conquest over all, is in
the wild life of the pioneers on our western frontier and the mighty fabrics of
human progress, civilization and philanthropy that have been woven from the
fruits of their daring and endurance. They were the trail-blazers for an
oncoming army of great events, the heralds of a new evangely of beneficence
which should aid in making and keeping our land what it has most aptly been
called, the great charity of God to the human race. The wilderness into which
they ventured was deep, boundless and seemingly impenetrable. Wild beasts, wild
men and Nature herself seemed all in arms against them. The ordinary armor of
civilized man, organized and concentrated effort, convenience in communication
and transportation, the power to mass forces and supply them with munitions of
war, was wholly unavailable, even the means of supporting life itself was
uncertain and often difficult of attainment. Yet this race of heroes halted not
nor hesitated. With intrepid courage and all-conquering resourcefulness, with
the sublime faith that moves mountains and laughs at impossibilities, they went
forward and occupied the land, in all things compelling it to minister to their
needs. The story of their daily lives, commonplace, monotonous and unworthy of
note as it may have appeared to them, is in brief the narrative of an empire's
birth, of the start of a new epoch in human annals. And among the products and
the exemplars of this far western life, the molders and makers of this new
domain, especially the conservators for legitimate history of its picturesque
form, its decided tints and its thrilling incidents, perhaps no man stands forth
in the gaze of the world in proportions more heroic, with attributes more
striking, scenic settings more spectacular, yet withal truthful, or elements of
manhood more characteristic of the time, the region and the conditions, than
Col. William F. Cody, the world-renowned "Buffalo Bill," whose portrayal of this
sparkling chapter of .American history has preserved its features and made them
known to the peoples of many climes and tongues. He was one of the star actors
in the dramas which his "Wild West" epitomizes and depicts, and he has thrown
them upon the great canvas of human story in glowing and imperishable
portraiture. William Frederick Cody was born on February 26, 1846, in Scott
county, Iowa, the son of Isaac and Mary B. (Laycock) Cody, who removed to Kansas
when he was eight years old and were the first white settlers in that state.
They located in Salt Creek Valley five miles west of where now stands the city
of Leavenworth, which the father helped to lay out and to the progress of which
he was a substantial contributor. He was very active in helping to make Kansas a
free state, conspicuous in the border trouble which signalized the birth of that
now great and progressive commonwealth. Every hour of time was fraught with
danger to the prime movers in public affairs and all men went armed. At a hot
political meeting Mr. Cody was fatally stabbed and taken home in a critical
condition. He was not safe there, however, even in his wounded and practically
dying state, and was obliged to flee from his home and family and find shelter
where he could. He died of his wounds and exposure in April, 1857. The son was
thus thrown on his own resources at the early age of eleven years and, being the
only boy in the family, became literally its head and a very necessary
contributor to its support. He secured employment as messenger for the firm of
Russell, Majors & Waddell, at that time the most extensive freighters in the
United States. His duties obliged him to visit every fort and military post west
of the Missouri, and his fidelity, capacity, courage and modesty soon made him a
favorite with the plainsmen and soldiers, while his experience educated him
rapidly in knowledge of human nature, independence of thought and action,
self-reliance and readiness for emergencies. It was during this time, too, that
he had his first experience in fighting Indians, shooting one dead when he was
only eleven years old. In November, 1863, he was summoned home by the serious
illness of his mother, who died not long after his arrival. For a number of
years she had kept a wayside inn in Salt Creek Valley and had made its name.
"The Valley Grove House," a synonym for all that involves comfort and abundance
in entertainment, high character and strict propriety in a public house. By this
time the Civil War had begun and young Cody enlisted in the Seventh Kansas
Cavalry and acted as scout for that regiment until the close of the war. Upon
his discharge from the army he became one of the famous pony-express riders,
being the youngest boy who ever crossed the plains in that capacity. In 1866 he
married at St. Louis, Mo., with Miss Louisa Fredricie, a bright, beautiful and
accomplished young lady of that city, and their union has been blessed with four
children, two of whom died in infancy. After his marriage he severed his
connection with the pony express line and engaged in business near Leavenworth.
But his mind was too large, his nature was too resourceful and his habits of
restless activity were too well fixed for this quiet life, so he soon disposed
of his interests and again started west. Locating at Fort Hayes, Kansas, he
entered the employ of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, then in course of
construction, and some little time later took a contract to furnish meat for the
railroad builders. While filling this contract he acquired the title of "Buffalo
Bill" from the great number of buffaloes he slew, 4,280 in eighteen months. He
had become a dead shot with the rifle and never missed his mark. After the
completion of the railroad he enlisted in the Ninth U. S. Cavalry, and was
assigned to duty as a scout and guide, with headquarters at Fort McPherson, Neb.
In this service he took part in many battles with the Indians and had numerous
hair-breadth escapes. Before its conclusion he was made chief of scouts for the
Department of the Missouri and the Platte, a well-earned and universally
approved promotion for merit. While stationed at the fort he was also elected to
the Nebraska legislature from that district. During his brilliant military
career he served under nearly all of the great generals of the time and met many
noted characters of his own and other lands. He acted as guide for the
Grand-Duke Alexis of Russia in his celebrated hunting expedition, piloting the
party through the whole of the trip and bringing it back unharmed and loaded
with game. For this service he was richly rewarded and received from the
Grand-Duke, as a personal souvenir of the expedition, a scarfpin studded with
precious stones. In 1870 Colonel Cody obtained leave of absence from the
government, organized his first theatrical venture, and for a few years
thereafter played in the principal cities of the United States with phenomenal
success. In 1876 the Sioux war commenced and, disbanding his show, he joined the
Fifth U. S. Cavalry and took an active and leading part in that sanguinary
contest. In a furious hand-to-hand fight in the battle of Indian Creek, he
killed Yellow Hand, one of the most noted and dangerous of the Cheyenne chiefs.
After this war he reorganized his exhibition on a larger scale than before and
in 1882 added new features, rebaptizing the organization as "Buffalo Bill's Wild
West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World." With this aggregation he has
since been on the road, except when occasional calls have enlisted his aid in
suppressing minor Indian uprisings, and has made many successful tours of the
United States and Europe. But, although for years busily occupied with this
gigantic enterprise, he has not lost interest in the welfare of his country, nor
lacked industry or zeal in pushing forward the development of that section of
which he is so truly typical. In the autumn of 1894 he became a resident of
Bighorn county, Wyo., founding there the flourishing town which bears his name,
near which he owns numerous fine ranches, all stocked with his own superior
grades of horses and cattle. He has erected one of the most elegant, most
completely equipped and best conducted hotels in the state; holds interests in
many commercial and industrial enterprises at Cody; is president of the Shoshone
Irrigation Co., which has been instrumental in placing under cultivation
thousands of acres of choice land; and in every possible way has helped along
the development and improvement of the region in which he has cast his lot. His
services in this respect have been of inestimable value and the town of Cody,
with the healthy progress, rich productiveness and advanced cultivation of the
country around it, forms the best monument to his enterprise, ability and
patriotism. What an interesting career has been that of this man! Born to the
destiny of toil and obscurity of the frontier and inured to all its dangers,
hardships and privations, deeply schooled in its rugged life and bearing the
marks of its burdens, it has yet been his lot to be courted, feted and honored
by the rich and the titled of earth's gayest capitals, to have the very flower
of the most advanced civilizations wait upon his presence and Royalty itself
bidding for his smiles. The delight of innocent childhood, the inspiration of
budding youth, the stimulus of vigorous manhood, and the entertainment of
retrospective old age, the diversion of the rich and the festival of the poor,
his show has ministered to the enjoyment and the instruction of all classes and
conditions of men. It has transported the wild flavor of our western plains and
mountains to the busy marts of the East, carried the wild life of the New World
into close contact with the culture of the Old, mingling the barbarism of the
one with the refinement of the other, and so brought the ends of the earth
together. And through all his varying experiences, his fidelity to duty in even-
field, his courageous endurance in every difficulty, his early trials and later
triumphs, his mighty successes and the adulation which follows them, he has
remained the same strong, true man, preserving unimpaired the firm fiber, high
tone and unbending dignity of his American citizenship and the loyalty of his
faith with his country, his manhood and his fame. Tried by all extremes of
fortune he has never been subdued by any.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF THE STATE OF WYOMING

ILLUSTRATED

A people who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors, will
never achieve anything worthy to he remembered with pride by remote
generations.—.MACAULAY.

CHICAGO, ILL.
A. W. BOWEN & CO.
PUBLISHERS AND ENGRAVERS
1903


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