History of Scott County Iowa United States of America

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William Frederick Cody, scout, was born in Scott county, Iowa, Feb. 26, 1845. His father, Isaac Cody, an early pioneer, was one of the founders of the city of Leavenworth, Kan., and a representative in the first Lecompten legislature. As a free state advocate he was uncompromising, and unable to maintain the unequal contest with political foes, he was finally obliged to flee from his home, and died from exposure in March, 1857. Young Cody, but twelve years old, found employment with army contractors engaged in carrying stores to the various posts on the frontier, and here he gained his first experience as an Indian fighter. He continued this wild life until called to the deathbed of his mother, who kept the "Valley Grove House," in Salt Creek Valley. She died in the summer of 1861, after which he joined the 7th Kansas cavalry as an Indian scout, serving with the regiment until the close of the civil war. He afterward engaged in procuring supplies for railroad contractors and became notorious as a buffalo hunter, killing 4280 buffaloes in eighteen months, and thus gaining his sobriquet "Buffalo Bill." In 1868 he was appointed by General Sheridan chief of scouts for the department of the Missouri and the Platte. He was guide to the 5th U.S. cavalry in their campaign against the Sioux and Cheyennes, served with the Canadian river expedition of 1868-69, and continued in the army until 1872, when he resigned and was elected a member of the Nebraska legislature from the 26th district. At the end of his term he directed the hunting party of Alexis, grand duke of Russia, and so conducted the expedition as to avoid accident and return it loaded with game. He then appeared on the stage in Chicago and elsewhere in the character of a western scout and Indian hunter and was eminently successful. The Sioux war of 1876 determined him to leave the mimic stage, and he joined the 5th U.S. cavalry. In the Indian creek fight he killed Yellow Hand, the Cheyenne chief, in a hand-to-hand combat. At the close of the Indian troubles he organized the Wild West show and first exhibited in Omaha, Neb., May 17, 1883. In 1887, after visiting every principal town in the United States, he took the show to England and played in connection with the American exhibition company. He was patronized by the royal family, including the queen. He then played with success in France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany and Belgium. He subsequently made a second tour of Europe, meeting with equal success. His European tours enabled him to add to his attractions and his wild riders included representatives from all the semi-barbarous tribes of the old world.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Scott County Iowa

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