Many Loves of Buffalo Bill (4 page)

Cody's mother, Mary Ann, adored William and depended heavily on his resourcefulness. Having lost her firstborn son and her husband, she was vulnerable and despondent. Her emotional despair was compounded by the financial crisis that occurred shortly after her husband's funeral. Ruthless creditors claimed that Isaac owed them thousands of dollars for building supplies used to maintain the ranch. It was through the efforts of her steady and capable son that Mary Ann was able to afford to fight the bogus claims and keep her children fed and clothed.
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The $45 a month in wages William earned as an extra working for the Russell, Majors and Waddell freight service was used to support his mother, sisters, and brother. “The cares and responsibilities laid upon our brother's shoulders did not quench his boyish spirits and love of fun,” Helen remembered. “When he was home he teased us all and rough-housed with Charles and the neighbor's children.”
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William spent much of his time between jobs tending to herds of cattle on a wagon train, working for the Pony Express, and reenacting Wild West adventures with his siblings. Armed with wooden tomahawks, spears, and guns, William would perform Indian battles and stage robberies. He portrayed the brave protector fighting off bad guys and scalping violent Indians. He enjoyed the masquerade so much that he told his family that when he was older, he planned to run a show portraying life on the rugged frontier.

The men William met during his employment—such as Alec Majors, owner of the Russell, Majors and Waddell freight service, and Kit Carson—acted as surrogate fathers to him and served as examples of how to be a parent to his brother and sisters.
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Not only did he entertain his younger siblings, but he sometimes acted as disciplinarian as well. “To tell the truth,” Helen recorded in her memoirs, “when we misbehaved and Will would crook his finger at us, we would bawl. Yet we fairly worshipped him,” she added, “and cried harder when he went away than when he was home.”
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William's mother and sisters were not the only females of note in his early years. Frank and Bill McCarthy, two of the men he worked for at Russell, Majors and Waddell, had a sister named Sarah with whom he was infatuated. She was older, and he was captivated by her beauty and kindness. “I was ‘dead in love' in a juvenile way,” William recounted in his autobiography. His feelings for Sarah were never returned, but he came in contact with other girls who took an interest in him. Despite his sister's claim that William was a ladies' man, none of the girls he met captured his attention as much as the untamed frontier.

All of his sisters encouraged his natural love for western adventure, but none more so than Helen Cody Wetmore.

Not only did she listen enthusiastically to William's dreams of traveling beyond the Mississippi to hunt and trap wild game while riding with Indian warriors, but when they got older, she also helped him shape the real tales he'd experienced into best-selling books. When Helen grew up, she became a writer, ran a newspaper, and guided William's career as a published author working for the creator of the well-known dime novel series, Ned Buntline. The success of the novels gave William the audience he needed to launch his Wild West show.

After William's father died, he often spoke of joining the military. Although Helen would have hated to see him leave home, she supported his desire to serve his country. William's mother, however, made him promise that he would not enlist until she passed away because she couldn't stand the thought of losing another loved one. True to his promise, he waited to sign up with the Seventh Kansas until after his mother's death.
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Mary Ann passed away in 1863. The youngest Cody son died less than a year later, at the age of nine.
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William's sister Julia, who was two years older than he, assumed the role of caring for the younger children. Martha, the oldest daughter, who was nine years William's senior, had preceded their mother in death shortly after she married in 1858.

William admired Julia's willingness to be the matriarch of the family, and he trusted her in ways he never did his other siblings. In her later years she managed his ranch in North Platte, Nebraska, and the Irma Hotel in Cody, Wyoming.

Julia married Al Goodman in late 1862 and was in the process of establishing her own home when the Codys' mother passed away. She put her own plans on hold and focused on raising her siblings. Throughout the course of his life, William wrote Julia letters praising her dedication and devotion. In a letter dated February 14, 1886, he wrote, “Dear Good Sister, your kind letter just received and it proves how good you are—still looking to my interest, and willing to sacrifice your own comfort for my benefit.”
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On June 14, 1905, more than forty years after his mother died, he continued to sing his sister's praises in his correspondence. “Dear Sister Julia, you have always been good to me. I only wish that someday I will be able to do much more for you. And all my sisters who have been good and true to me.”
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Julia was one of William's closest friends and confidants, but he was dutiful to his three other sisters. His sister Eliza Alice, the middle Cody daughter, married George Meyers when she was very young. The couple made their home in Jackson County, Kansas. The Meyerses' income was modest, and they could not afford any frills.
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Once William began to see a profit from the Wild West show, he helped provide the family with funds to travel and visit him in North Platte. Eliza died in 1902 and was buried in Denison, Kansas.
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Mary Hannah, more commonly known as May, was the youngest and most daring of the Cody sisters. Until she was grown and married, she and Helen lived with William and Louisa.
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May was with her brother and sister-in-law at Fort McPherson, Nebraska, when William accepted an appointment by the government as judge of the area. She watched him perform a wedding as one of his first acts of duty. At the conclusion of the ceremony, May proudly congratulated William on the job he did.

In the summer of 1870, May and Helen participated in a hunting expedition in which May shot and slightly wounded a buffalo. The injured animal charged after the young woman while the other hunters watched in horror, unable to help her. William, who had been on a scouting trip for the army, suddenly arrived on the scene and brought the buffalo down before it reached May. Once Cody made sure his sisters were all right, he reprimanded them for leaving the fort without him. An article about the incident that appeared in an Omaha newspaper the following day incorrectly cited May as the sharpshooter who had killed the buffalo.

The exaggerated account of May's courage and ability with a gun was the inspiration for a melodrama written by E. C. Judson in 1877. William starred in
May Cody; or, Lost and Won
. One of the show's cast members was L. E. Decker. May fell in love with the handsome actor, and the two were married shortly after the premiere of the program. The play was a huge success, and, for a brief time, May enjoyed a bit of the fame that her brother had experienced.
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William sought advice from all his sisters about his finances, career, and romantic pursuits. Helen was the first sibling he confided in regarding his feelings for Louisa Frederici. The Civil War was close to ending, and William briefly allowed his attention to be diverted from his military assignment and long days on the trail to courtship. According to Helen, William was instantly smitten with Louisa. “From war to love, or from love to war, is but a step, and Will lost no time in taking it. He was somewhat better an apprentice to Dan Cupid…. His opportunities to enjoy feminine society had not been many, which, perhaps, accounts for the promptness with which he embraced them when they did arise. He became the accepted suitor of Miss Louisa Frederici before … his regiment was mustered out.”
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In time, Louisa and William sent a letter to his sisters announcing their engagement. Julia quickly responded with her best wishes and hope for a happy life together. She wrote that her one regret was that their mother was not alive to share the joy.
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“I was almost hysterical with happiness,” Louisa recalled in her journal upon meeting the Cody sisters for the first time.
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“We all love sister Lou,” Julia assured William after she, Eliza, May, and Helen had gotten to know her for themselves. William's sisters hoped the news of their brother's impending wedding meant that he would be staying close to home after he was married.

In her biography Julia remembered what her relatively self-assured brother had shared with her about the time leading up to his proposing to Louisa. “He was tongue-tied around her and unable to convey the deep affection he had. He was so clumsy with his words he would simply stop speaking all together and stare off in complete silence.” Louisa's reassuring smile gave him the nerve to tell her how he felt. “Louisa,” he blurted out one evening, “I love you…. I love you very much … and I want you to be my wife.” Finally, he gave her a chance to speak. “Billy,” Louisa responded. “Billy Cody, I've been waiting to hear these very words since the first minute I met you. I love you, and I'll marry you whenever you want me to.”
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Once nineteen-year-old William had proposed to Louisa, he was determined to find a well-paying job and set money aside to care for his future bride. He hired on with a stageline as a driver, earning $150 a month transporting passengers, supplies, and payroll funds between Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and Fort Kearney, Nebraska.

William quickly became one of the stageline's best drivers. The job was fairly routine. He consistently delivered his cargo undamaged and on time. His travels were interrupted only once by a pair of bandits as the stagecoach was leaving the depot at Fort Kearney. Two of the men riding in William's vehicle looked suspicious to him. He had overheard the two mention that they were part of a gang, and their actions made William believe they knew that the contents of the strongbox atop the stagecoach contained a large amount of money. He decided to hold up the passengers before they had a chance to do the same to him.

During a stop to check the vehicle's running gear, William ordered the men off the stage. He leveled his revolvers at them and demanded that they throw down their guns. He then tied them up and put them back in the vehicle. He dropped the would-be thieves off with the sheriff at the first stage station and, before continuing on his way, removed the money from the strongbox and hid it inside the seat cushion.

While driving through a grove of thick timber, six armed highwaymen blocked the trail and stopped the coach. The bandits rifled through the strongbox and were furious to learn it was empty. William informed them that two passengers he was traveling with earlier in the day had already taken the treasure. The criminals rode out after the fellow gang members they believed had deceived them, and William was free to carry on. He delivered the goods intact.

William wrote his sisters and Louisa about the experience. According to Helen, Louisa quickly sent word back pleading with him to “give up the wild life he was leading, return East, and find another calling.” William penned a letter to his fiancée promising her that he would quit and asked her to set a wedding date.
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I now adored [Miss Frederici] above any other young lady I had ever seen
.

—W
ILLIAM
C
ODY
(1879)

W
illiam Cody waltzed his new bride, the former Louisa Frederici, around the floor of the dining room on board the side-wheel steamer
Morning Star
. Several eyes watched the attractive couple gliding from one side of the room to the other. The newlyweds were completely absorbed in each other and took no real notice of their surroundings. William was an attractive but wild-looking twenty-year-old with long, brown hair that hung over his shoulders. A little mustache and goatee clung to the upper lip and chin of his ruggedly handsome face. His fringed buckskin-style western fashion was in direct contrast to the other male passengers, but suited his overall unique appearance.
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