Page 4 - Demo

BuffaloBill COMES TO LYNCHBURG
Indians parade on Church Street approaching Seventh Street.
BY ROGER G. GARFIELD
It is difficult to distinguish fact from fiction when researching Buffalo Bill—a challenge complicated by his natural showmanship, tendency toward self-aggrandizement, and ability to convincingly embroider the truth. But certain facts cannot be refuted:
• Buffalo Bill actually was a U.S.
Cavalry Indian Scout;
• Buffalo Bill did earn his nickname by supplying buffalo meat to the Kansas Pacific Railroad;
• Buffalo Bill knew and worked with famous western figures such as Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, and Sitting Bull; and
• He did bring Buffalo Bill’s Wild West to Lynchburg four times.
4 LYNCH’S FERRY
William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody was born on a farm in Scott County, Iowa Territory, on February 26, 1846. Eight years later, his family moved to the Kansas plains, a frontier area that would soon earn the nickname “Bloody Kansas” as pro- and anti- slavery factions battled to secure the territory’s status. In 1854, Buffalo
Bill’s abolitionist father, Isaac Cody,
was stabbed by a slavery advocate. Though Isaac survived the attack, the wounds may have hastened his death from pneumonia in 1857. According
to Buffalo Bill’s autobiography, he then became the breadwinner for his family. He took a job with a freight-wagon company, traveling a route that included a stop at Fort Laramie, Wyoming,
where young Bill Cody is said to have met Kit Carson and Jim Bridger. In
1860, the same company established the Pony Express; however there is no solid evidence, despite Cody’s claims, that he became one of the riders. The fledgling service, which delivered mail from
St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, lasted only eighteen months, until the Transcontinental Telegraph began operations in October 1861. During this period, Cody met and became friends with James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, and the paths of these two famous Americans would continue to cross.
In 1863, Cody enlisted as a teamster in the 7th Kansas Volunteers (while too drunk to realize it, he later claimed). He served until 1865. In 1866, he married Louisa “Lulu” Frederici. This was the beginning of a stormy relationship. Many of Lulu’s complaints about Cody