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Buffalo Bill Cody Biography

Buffalo Bill Cody Image 

William Frederick "Buffalo Bill." Cody.  He was born in Scott Co., Iowa, and became one of the riders of the Pony Express (q.v.) at its establishment in 1860, and at the beginning of the Civil War was a government scout and guide. In 1863 he enlisted in the Seventh Kansas Cavalry, and at the close of the war contracted with the Kansas Pacific Railroad to furnish buffalo meat to its laborers building the line, in this way earning the name "Buffalo Bill." He was again with the army as scout from 1868 to 1872, when he was elected to the Nebraska Legislature. Later he became judge-advocate-general of the Wyoming National Guard. He served in the Fifth Cavalry in the Sioux War of 1876, and in the battle of Indian Creek killed in personal combat Chief Yellow Hand. In 1883 he organized his "Wild West Show," a representation of actual life on the plains, and in 1887 took the "show" to Europe for the first time. In 1901 he became president of the Cody Military College and International Academy of Rough Riders established on his lands in Wyoming. He is author of several books describing his life on the frontier, including: The Life of Hon. William F. Cody (1879); Story of the Wild West and Camp-Fire Chats (1888); The Adventures of Buffalo Bill (1904); True Tales of the Plains (1908). Cody is the last of the picturesque frontier scouts of American history.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. V (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 544.