Many Loves of Buffalo Bill (3 page)

“I was only eleven years old,” William later wrote, “and the only man of the family. I made up my mind to be a bread winner.”
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Young William found work with the freighting company Russell, Majors and Waddell. He helped herd the extra cattle that followed the wagon trains en route to deliver supplies to soldiers in the field. The route originated in St. Joseph, Missouri, and ended in San Francisco. William was exposed to a life of danger as the train was often assaulted by Indians and outlaws. He frequently had to help defend the cargo, shooting it out with Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux warriors or with highway robbers.

During his first trip with the company, he stopped an ambush by Indians encamped west of Fort Kearney near Plum Creek. William spotted the outline of an Indian and his headdress against the backdrop of a full moon. “I knew well enough that in another second he would drop one of my friends,” he remembered in his memoirs. “So I raised my Yaeger and fired. I saw the figure collapse, and heard it come tumbling thirty feet down the bank, landing with a splash in the water.” By the time the train returned to Fort Leavenworth, news of William's exploits had reached his family, friends, and neighbors. A reporter with the
Leavenworth Times
interviewed the boy and published a story about him that proclaimed William Cody to be the “youngest Indian slayer on the plains.”

Having proven to himself and his elders that his future lay in being a frontiersman, he returned to the plains. Among the varied events he experienced were losing a caravan of goods to the Mormon leader Lot Smith and his followers, meeting and spending time with celebrated scouts and Indian hunters Kit Carson and Jim Bridger, as well as trapping beaver and mink along the waterways in the Rockies. While tending to his traps on Prairie Creek, he came face to face with a bear that had killed one of his oxen and a bull. William shot the bear, saving himself, his partner, and their livestock from further attack.

On one occasion William broke his leg during a hunting expedition in the wilderness and was forced to hole up in a cave for more than twenty days waiting for help to arrive. After a stint riding for the Pony Express, he took a job supplying meat for the Kansas Pacific Railroad as a buffalo hunter. In an eighteen-month period he killed 4,280 buffalo. He then joined a campaign with Wild Bill Hickok to track down warring bands of Indians and subdue them. At the conclusion of that venture, he offered his expertise to the government and became a guide for the Ninth Kansas Cavalry.

In 1864 William enlisted in the army. He was eighteen years old.
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During William's long absences working for the military under General Phil Sheridan in the Indian wars and eventually reenacting his life onstage across the country, Louisa maintained their home and cared for their children. Occasionally she would attend one of Buffalo Bill's shows. William appreciated Louisa's presence at his performances. He made a point of locating her in the audience and calling out her name. “He came forward, leaned over the gas footlights and waved his arms,” she recalled.

“Oh, Mamma!” he shouted. “I'm a bad actor!” The house roared. Will threw her a kiss and then leaned forward again while the house stilled. “Honest, Mamma,” he shouted, “does this look as awful out there as it feels up here?” Once more the house chuckled and applauded. Someone called out the fact that Louisa was Mrs. Buffalo Bill.

Once the crowd realized that it was indeed William's wife he was addressing, the audience cheered and tried to coax Louisa on stage. Embarrassed and nervous, she refused. It wasn't until William held his hand out to her that she relented. “Come on up. You can't be any worse scared than I am,” Louisa recalled William saying.
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“Someone placed a chair in the orchestra pit,” she added. “Hands reached to help, and I was boosted onto the stage, and Arta after me. I was plainly frightened and it showed. ‘Now you can understand how hard your poor old husband [he was twenty-six years old] has to work to make a living!'” William boomed. The audience again applauded, and William joined them. “After that,” Louisa reported, “whenever I went to see my husband's show, I chose a seat in the farthest and darkest part of the house. But it did little good. For invariably Will would seek me out, and call ‘Hello, Mamma. Oh, but I'm a bad actor.'”
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Both Louisa and William remembered those moments with great fondness. As his theatrical career advanced, William concentrated less and less on wife and home. He was preoccupied with creating a bigger program that celebrated the history of the frontier and with becoming an international showman.

Louisa was loyal to William and, according to a close friend, “loved him more than most women loved their husbands.” She demonstrated her deep affection for him by spending hours making the elaborate costumes he liked to wear. She was an exceptional seamstress and made the patterns, selected materials, and stitched together the fringed jackets and gauntlets that became William's trademark. She tried to make him understand how much she wanted him to spend more time with her. She felt that if he truly grasped her longing, he would be more inclined to turn down the advancements made by other women.

The tension between William and Louisa continued long after the stormy, uncomfortable scene at the farewell party in Omaha had passed. For the bulk of their marriage, Louisa fretted over the women who flung themselves at William, the expense of his various love affairs, the potential scandal, and the alienation of affection that followed.

Not only did the many loves of Buffalo Bill Cody threaten to break up his marriage, but several of William's friends predicted that Louisa's intolerance of his roving eye would ultimately “bust up the Wild West.”

As the head of the household he wanted to be called Bill. A compromise was worked out: to most of his friends he was Bill, to his family—especially his mother—he was Billy
.

—J
ULIA
C
ODY
G
OODMAN
(1922)

T
welve-year-old William Cody plunged a meaty fist into the eye of nineteen-year-old Steven Gobel and watched him fall backward onto the ground. Every student in the Salt Creek Valley School in LeClaire, Iowa, had vacated the one-room building to watch the two boys fight. Most were cheering for William, but some were cheering for Steven. Among them was a pretty, doe-eyed girl named Mary Hyatt. William scanned the sea of faces around him, searching for Mary. When he found her, the two shared a smile. It was obvious the pair were smitten with each other. The exchange did not go unnoticed by Steven, who also was fond of Mary. He leaped to his feet and lunged at William.

The young men tumbled over, and Steven punched William repeatedly in the ribs. The scrappy Steven clearly had the advantage because of his size and age, but William was determined not to be bested.

To win Mary's favor and strike a blow against the class bully, who made a sport of tormenting many of the younger pupils, William had to stand his ground. Somewhere in the midst of the frustrating struggle, William pulled out a Bowie knife and stuck it into the lower part of his opponent's leg. Blood gushed from the wound, and Steven screamed in terror. “I've been killed,” he cried out to the horrified students looking on.
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William was confident that the gash would not cause any permanent damage.

William had learned about hunting and skinning all types of animals while riding with the Russell, Majors and Waddell freight company. He knew the difference between a life-threatening cut and one that merely required stitches. William was unable to reassure his awestruck fellow students that Steven would be fine. Steven continued to yell, and his friends pressed in around him with rags trying to stop the bleeding. The majority of students felt that William's actions were extreme, and sentiments quickly turned against him. Even Mary, whose affections he most coveted, now focused all her attention on the wounded Steven.

A few of the students hurried off to get the teacher, and William quickly contemplated his next move. The teacher was a hard man who strongly believed in corporal punishment.

William was frequently beaten with a hazel switch for what the instructor felt was general lack of respect. The routine paddling brought tears to Mary's eyes. William endured the harsh treatment because his mother desperately wanted him to get an education, and there were no other schools in the area from which to choose. He fully anticipated being expelled for his actions, but not before the teacher had used another switch on him. In spite of the desire to please his mother, William believed that under the circumstances he'd be better off away from the institution.

As he fled the scene, he met up with the wagon master for Russell, Majors and Waddell. He told the teamster what had happened, and the man was outraged to hear of the behavior of Steven Gobel and the unsympathetic teacher. He offered to return to the school with William in tow and fight the pair himself. William reluctantly agreed. The wagon master pounded on the schoolhouse door with the butt of his revolver and then invited the teacher and the bully to step outside. The teacher refused, dismissed the class, and raced home.

Mary's eyes were trained on William as she left the building. He watched her walk away with a sweet longing, happily anticipating the next time he would see her.
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Between Cody's earliest infatuation and the woman who ultimately became his wife were five particular females who doted on him day and night. Martha, Julia, Eliza, Laura Ella (also known as Helen), and Mary (also known as May) were his sisters, and they regarded Cody as a “tender, caring character with true nobility.”
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The tragic 1853 death of Cody's twelve-year-old brother, Samuel, inspired an overly protective attitude in his mother and sisters toward William.
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According to his sister Helen's biography,

The older girls petted Will; the younger regarded him as a superior being; while to all it seemed so fit and proper that the promise of the stars concerning his future should be fulfilled that never for a moment did we weaken in our belief that great things were in store for our only brother
.
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Cody possessed a natural talent with firearms and horseback riding. His father, Isaac, recognized his son's ability and nurtured his skills, teaching him how to track and hunt. At the age of seven, William helped escort his family's prairie schooner from Kansas to Platte County, Missouri. Armed with a Sharps rifle, he was ready to defend his loved ones from wild animals and hostile Indians.
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In the evenings he helped make camp and provide game for the meals. He thrived on responsibility and had an instinct for obtaining water, striking trails, and finding desirable camping grounds. Cody's sisters and little brother, Charles Whitney (born in 1855), admired his skills and looked to him as a protector when their father was away on business. When Isaac passed away in April 1857, William assumed the role as head of the family and proved to his sisters that their trust in him had not been misplaced.
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On more than one occasion, William came to his sisters' rescue. In 1854 six-year-old Eliza and four-year-old Helen ventured away from the homestead with the family dog to collect wildflowers for their ailing mother. When they didn't return in a timely fashion, William was sent to find them. When he finally located them, they were being stalked by a panther.

The Cody's dog had dug a place for the youngsters to hide and had fought back the cat, but the panther eventually overpowered the dog. Just as the panther was set to pounce on the girls, William shot the animal and killed it. Eliza and Helen rushed to their brother and threw their arms around his neck in gratitude.
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“Will, himself but a child, caressed and soothed us in a most paternal fashion,” Helen later wrote in her memoirs. “Our brother was our reliance in every emergency.”
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