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William Frederick Cody, better known at Buffalo Bill, was one of the Wild West’s most famous characters,  a soldier, Pony Express rider, miner, bullwhacker, wagonmaster and, most famously, an entertainer known around the world.

Cody, who was born in rural Scott County on February 26, 1846, was nicknamed Buffalo Bill for supplying railroad workers with bison meat. The nickname originally referred to another man, Bill Comstock, but Cody won it in a bet to see who could kill the most bison. Cody won the contest 69 to 48.

During his seven years in Scott County, Cody showed signs of his adventurous nature. Life on the farm was boring to the young Cody, but when his family moved to LeClaire, about 15 miles north of Davenport, he found that town life suited him.

“At LeClaire, I was sent to a school where, by diligence and fairly good conduct I managed to familiarize myself with the alphabet,” Cody wrote in his autobiography, The Life and Adventures of ‘Buffalo Bill.’ “…
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(B)ut further progress was arrested by a suddenly developed love for skiff-riding on the Mississippi, which occupied so much of my time thereafter that really I found no convenient opportunity for further attendance at school.”

After moving to town, Cody’s father worked as a stage driver on the route between Davenport and Chicago. Isaac Cody was a popular figure in LeClaire and soon was drafted into politics, serving as Justice of the Peace and, later, a state legislator. But the opportunities of the west beckoned him and in 1852, he and his family moved to Kansas.

Cody’s father was a Free-Stater, one of a group of new Kansans who opposed slavery and believed the state should prohibit slaves from being held in the state. He settled in an area raft with pioneers who were pro-slavery. One day, after giving an impassioned speech at a
local trading post, he was attacked by a mob and stabbed. He survived but never really recovered from his injuries. He died in 1857, when Codywas 11 years old.

To support the family, young Cody  took a job as a "boy extra," riding up and down the length of a wagon train, delivering messages. From there, 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.

At 14, Cody headed to the gold fields, but along the way 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. After returning home to take care of his sick mother, he took a job with the Army (he was too young to enlist), but eventually became a member of the 7th Kansas Cavalry Regiment in 1963 and fought with them on the Union side for the rest of the Civil War.

Cody married Louisa Frederici in 1866, an unhappy union that he tried to end unsuccessfully several times. He had four children, two whom died in their youth.

Cody continued working at an Army Scout and a bison hunter until entering show business, first producing a show with Texan Jack Omohundro and then, for one year, with Wild Bill Hickok. The pair worked together for ten years. In 1883, he founded "Buffalo Bill's Wild West," a circus-like attraction that toured around the world for the next 20 years. During that period, he performed for Queen Victoria and Pope Leo XIII and nearly

He set up an exhibition near the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, which greatly contributed to his popularity, He had been turned down 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. In 1895, William Cody was instrumental in helping found Cody, Wyoming.

Cody died of kidney failure on January 10, 1917 surrounded by family and friends at his sister's house in Denver. Over time, Cody has remained as well-known and popular in death as in life. His image has been included in more than 60 movies as well as in the Broadway musical “Annie Get Your Gun”.



William F. Cody