Buffalo Bill: Last of the Great Scouts

Stamford, CT: Longmeadow Press, 1994. Reprint edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. 296 pages. One of the Legends of the West series. Helen Cody Wetmore was the sister of Colonial William "Buffalo Bill" Cody. For a short period of time, she travelled with the Wild West show. She also was the business manager for the Duluth Press, and advocated for women's suffrage. Helen Cody Wetmore, lived in Duluth and convinced the famous frontiersman and Wild West showman to invest in the Zenith City. Buffalo Bill responded by sending $30,000 for the construction of the Duluth Press Building, which served as the paper's headquarters. Last of the Great Scouts is a classic American frontier history text by Helen Cody Wetmore that details the life of Buffalo Bill Cody. It is not generally known that genuine royal blood courses in Buffalo Bill Cody's veins. He is a lineal descendant of Milesius, king of Spain, that famous monarch whose three sons, Heber, Heremon, and Ir, founded the first dynasty in Ireland, about the beginning of the Christian era. The Cody family comes through the line of Heremon. The original name was Tireach, which signifies "The Rocks." Muiredach Tireach, one of the first of this line, and son of Fiacha Straivetine, was crowned king of Ireland, Anno Domini 320. Another of the line became king of Connaught, Anno Domini 701. William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846 - January 10, 1917), known as Buffalo Bill, was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. One of the most famous and well-known figures of the American Old West, Cody started his legend when he was only 23. Shortly thereafter he started performing in shows that displayed cowboy themes and episodes from the frontier and Indian Wars. He founded Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1883, taking his large company on tours in the United States and, beginning in 1887, in Europe. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but settled in the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill started working at the age of 11, after his father's death, and became a rider for the Pony Express at age 15. During the American Civil War, he served the Union from 1863 to the end of the war in 1865. Later he served as a civilian scout for the U.S. Army during the Indian Wars. While he was initially awarded the Medal of Honor in 1872 for his actions in the Indian Wars, he was among 910 recipients to have the award rescinded in 1917. Congress reinstated the medals for Cody and four other civilian scouts in 1989. In 1866, after his service during the Civil War, he reunited with his old friend Wild Bill Hickok in Junction City, Kansas, then serving as a scout. Cody enlisted as a scout himself at Fort Ellsworth and scouted between there and Fort Fletcher. He was attached as a scout, variously, to Captain George Augustus Armes (Battle of the Saline River) and Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (guide and impromptu horse race to Fort Larned). General Philip Sheridan assigned him Chief of Scouts for the 5th Cavalry Regiment. He was also Chief of Scouts for the Third Cavalry in later campaigns of the Plains Wars. In January 1872, Cody was a scout for the highly publicized hunting expedition of the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia. In December 1872, Cody traveled to Chicago to make his stage debut with his friend Texas Jack Omohundro in The Scouts of the Prairie, one of the original Wild West shows produced by Ned Buntline--the performer was a hit with the sold-out crowds. In 1893, Cody changed the title to Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World. The show began with a parade on horseback, with participants from horse-culture groups that included the US and another military, cowboys, American Indians, and performers from all over the world in their best attire. Visitors would see main events, feats of skill, staged races, and sideshows. Many historical western figures participated in the show. For example, Sitting Bull appeared with a band of 20 of his soldiers. In 1887, invited by the British businessman John Robinson Whitley, Cody took the show to Great Britain in celebration of the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria, who attended a performance.[11][32] It played in London and then in Birmingham and Salford, near Manchester, where it stayed for five months. In 1894, Edison Studios invited Buffalo Bill and his show to be filmed in an early silent film, Buffalo Bill.