A semifictionalized version of Hickok's time as marshal of Abilene Kansas, titled Hickok (2017), stars Luke Hemsworth as Hickok, Trace Adkins as the Bull's Head Saloon keeper Phil Coe, Kris Kristofferson as Abilene mayor George Knox, and Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau as John Wesley Hardin. Hickok died immediately. [12], While in Nebraska, Hickok was derisively referred to by one man as "Duck Bill" for his long nose and protruding lips. Jane had been hired to travel with Kohl & Middleton Dime Museums; as she purchased her ticket out of town she told railroad agent A.O. Nick McGlashan loved his family, friends and fans. Wild Bill Hickok begins to establish his reputation as a gunfighter after he shoots three men during a shootout in Nebraska. In 1857, Hickok claimed a 160-acre (65ha) tract in Johnson County, Kansas, near present-day Lenexa. He was sentenced to death on January 3, 1877 and on March 1, 1877 he was executed by hanging. Hickok left his new bride a few months later, joining Charlie Utter's wagon train to seek his fortune in the gold fields of South Dakota. Calamity Jane! Jessie withdrew from the Academy a short time later, but in January of 1896, Jane was finally able to take her to St. Martins Academy in Sturgis. This angered the buffalo and panicked audience members, causing the animals to break free of their wire fencing and chase audience members, some of whom were trampled. During the Civil War, Wild Bill Hickok served in the Union Army as a civilian scout and later a provost marshal. The cards he was holding at the time a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights became known as "the dead man's hand.". In reality, Janes first verified child was born in November 1882 when she was living with rancher Frank King near Miles City, Montana. Some contemporaneous reports of his exploits are known to be fictitious, but they remain the basis of much of his fame and reputation. Just weeks later, on her deathbed in Terry, South Dakota, Jane confessed that she and Jessie were now estranged and declined to say where her daughter was living. McCall was found guilty and sentenced to death. He traveled west to Deadwood, South Dakota, in a wagon train that included Martha Jane Cannary (Calamity Jane), who later claimed she had secretly married him. James Butler Hickok, better known as " Wild Bill ," was a wagon master, soldier, scout, lawman, gunfighter, gambler, showman, and actor well-known in the American West. Entdecke Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West - Hardcover - GOOD in groer Auswahl Vergleichen Angebote und Preise Online kaufen bei eBay Kostenlose Lieferung fr viele Artikel! Wild Bill Hickoks legend only grew further when other stories about his fighting prowess surfaced. Hickok managed to fire another shot, wounding the bear's paw. He worked as a technical writer on the Atlas, Minuteman, and Titan missile-launching systems, as well as Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. He was born James Butler Hickok on 27 May 1837 in Troy Grove, Illinois. The wagon train arrived in Deadwood in July 1876. In one show, he shot the spotlight when it focused on him. He earned a great deal of notoriety in his own time, much of it bolstered by the many outlandish and often fabricated tales he told about himself. Though no solid record exists, he is believed to have served as a Union spy in the Confederate Army before his discharge in 1865. Four of the men on the self-appointed committee who planned Calamity's funeral (Albert Malter, Frank Ankeney, Jim Carson, and Anson Higby) later stated that, since Hickok had "absolutely no use" for Jane in this life, they decided to play a posthumous joke on him by laying her to rest by his side. Hickok joined the antislavery Free State Army of Jayhawkers and, having already become skilled with a gun as a youth, served as a bodyguard for Gen. James H. Lanes. [45], Hickok later said he did not know that "Wesley Clemmons" was Hardin's alias, and that he was a wanted outlaw. In 1876 in Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, Hickok married Agnes Lake Thatcher, a former circus performer. Calamity Jane. ", "James Butler Hickok May 27 1837 - August 2 1876 Better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok", "James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok, Early Deadwood", "Nebraska Legends: Rock Creek Station and the McCanles Massacre", "Chronology on Life of James Butler HICKOK, Wild Bill Hickok, Old West Kansas", "Rock Creek Station State Historical Park", "Legal Culture, Wild Bill Hickok and the Gunslinger Myth", "Myths and Realities of Frontier Violence: A Look at the Gunfighter Saga", "Frontier Hero - Reminiscences of Wild Bill Hickok by his old Friend Buffalo Bill", "The State Journal (Jefferson City, Mo. [3] [4] James was the fourth of six children. At the end of the trial, Judge Sempronius H. Boyd told the jury they could not find Hickok acted in self-defense if he could have reasonably avoided the fight. Charlie Utter, Hickok's friend and companion, claimed Hickok's body and placed a notice in the local newspaper, the Black Hills Pioneer, which read: Died in Deadwood, Black Hills, August 2, 1876, from the effects of a pistol shot, J. McCall tried to . On July 21, 1865, frontier legend Wild Bill Hickok gunned down gambler Davis Tutt in what is often called the first "Wild West" showdown. Classmate Mary Connolly remembered Jessie, saying, we all played hopscotch and jumped rope on the playground. But mother and daughter eventually left town again. At the coroner's inquest into Strawhun's death, despite "very contradictory" evidence from witnesses, the jury found the shooting justifiable. Jean McCormick was the daughter of Jane "Calamity Jane" Cannary and James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok. Six months later Jane visited friends in Deadwood, stating Jessie had married and was living in North Dakota with two children. According to the Harpers account, Hickok, while guiding a detachment of Union cavalry through southern Nebraska, decided to stop and visit an old friend, Wellmans wife, at Rock Creek Station. Most modern retailers of Old West period clothing seem to sell only banded collared shirts, yet old photographs show cowboys did wear shirts with collars. "Wild Bill. Hickok ordered him to be arrested for firing a pistol within the city limits. [58] Jane confirmed this account in an 1896 newspaper interview, although she claimed she had been hospitalized with illness rather than in the guardhouse. Even in death Hickok's legend grew. . Bonhams auction company offered this pistol at auction on November 18, 2013, in San Francisco, California,[75] described as Hickok's Smith & Wesson No. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,.css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}contact us! Only station employees were allowed to testify at the trial (testimony by McCanless son was barred), and the verdict was that the men had acted in self-defense. The next child, also named Lorenzo Butler Hickok, was born in November of 1832. [81], Hickok's birthplace is now the Wild Bill Hickok Memorial and is a listed historic site under the supervision of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Zimmerman said that despite their closeness in age, he and Jessie didnt say much to each other. In December, the Rawlins Republican reported that Jane visited town with a little girl she had stolen. The child was no doubt Jessie, who was next seen with her mother in Ekalaka, Montana in 1894 by at least two people. Hickok and Lanihan, however, remained sheriff and deputy, respectively. Children: Possibly two daughters; . Trachoma is often associated with poverty and poor hygiene that allows the bacteria to infect and re-infect eyes; if left untreated, it can cause blindness. When Kyle's weapon misfired, Hickok shot Lonergan, wounding him in the knee, and shot Kyle twice, killing him. Hickok is currently interred in a 10ft (3m) square plot at the Mount Moriah Cemetery, surrounded by a cast-iron fence, with a U.S. flag flying nearby. Despite his reputation,[70] Hickok was buried in the Ingelside Cemetery, Deadwood's original graveyard. The murderer escaped. James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 - August 2, 1876), also known as "Wild Bill" Hickok was a legendary figure in the old west. [19] According to Hickok's account, he found the road blocked by a cinnamon bear and its two cubs. [12] The article was controversial wherever Hickok was known, and several frontier newspapers wrote rebuttals. Hickok is known to have fatally shot six men and is suspected of having killed a seventh (McCanles). "George Ward Nichols and the Legend of Wild Bill Hickok. All rights reserved. 1. [6] Since the event was outdoors, he could not compel people to pay, and the venture was a financial failure. This was his sixth murder. The charge was later reduced to manslaughter. [36][37], In December 1867, newspapers reported that Hickok had come to stay in Hays City, Kansas. He is also remembered for the cards he was holding when he was shot dead a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights since known as the dead man's hand. A legend during his life and considered one of the American west's premier gunfighters James Butler (Wild Bill) Hickok was born May 27, 1837, in Troy . [29][30], Two days later, Hickok was arrested for murder. Standing some 50 yards away from his subject, Hickok "without sighting his pistol and with his eye" rang off six shots, each of them hitting the direct center of the letter. While at Castle City Jane went to Gilt Edge, some two hundred miles away, where she was jailed for being drunk. 10 Black Pioneers in Aviation Who Broke Barriers, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads, Name: Wild Bill Hickok, Birth Year: 1837, Birth date: May 27, 1837, Birth State: Illinois, Birth City: Troy Grove, Birth Country: United States. ", This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 18:12. . The hand of cards which he supposedly held at the time of his death has become known as the dead man's hand: two pairs; black aces and eights. He died in 1887. She claims to have known James Hickok, known as "Wild Bill" Hickok, and she is thought to have traveled with him for several years. He was the fourth son of William Alonzo and Polly Butler Hickok. Visit our corporate site. Around this time, young James Hickok began using his father's name of William - the 'Wild' part came later - and he also met Buffalo Bill Cody, then just a messenger boy on a wagon train. Infuriated, Thompson tried to incite John Wesley Hardin to kill Hickok by exclaiming to Hardin that "He's a damn Yankee. The son of William Alonzo and Polly Butler Hickok, he was by all accounts a master marksman from an early age. The "special election" may not have been legal, as a letter dated September 17 to the governor of Kansas noted that Hickok had presented a warrant for an arrest which was rejected by the Fort Hays commander, because, when asked to produce his commission, Hickok admitted that he had never received one. In July, 1865, in Springfield, Missouri's town square, Hickok killed Davis Tutt, an old friend who after personal grudges escalated became an enemy. The couple had five children besides James Butler , three boys and two girls. [72] As of 2020, the flag is no longer flown. Was he shooting back? Hickok moved to Leavenworth in the Kansas Territory, where he joined Jim Lane's Free State Army (also known as the Jayhawkers), an antislavery vigilante group active in the new territory during the Bleeding Kansas era. Before and during Hickok's lifetime (1837-1876), the most readily available firearms were cap-and-ball, or percussion. In more recent times, however, Calamity Jane biographer James McLaird disproved McCormicks claim by researching when and how her fantastic autobiography unfolded. Against the bloody backdrop of the uniquely volatile point in history, both killers earned a reputation for viciousness. He is said to have wrestled a bear Astrological Sign: Gemini, Death Year: 1876, Death date: August 2, 1876, Death State: South Dakota, Death City: Deadwood, Death Country: United States, Article Title: Wild Bill Hickok Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/personality/wild-bill-hickok, Publisher: A&E Television Networks, Last Updated: July 28, 2020, Original Published Date: April 2, 2014. Playing cards with his back to the door, Hickok had no clue that he was about to be murdered. Later that year he became a teamster with the great freighting enterprise Russell, Majors and Waddell, creators of the Pony Express, for which he was too tall and heavy to be a rider. Quay House, The Ambury, [44] In his 1895 autobiography, published after his death, Hardin claimed to have been befriended by Hickok, the newly elected town marshal, after he had disarmed the marshal using the road agent's spin, but Hardin was known to exaggerate. In any case, Hardin appeared to have thought highly of Hickok. [d] The jury voted to clear Hickok, resulting in public backlash and criticism of the verdict. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. subscribe to All About History for as little as 26. ", Nichols, George Ward (1867). Still, feeling he had escaped punishment, McCall began to brag to anyone that would listen that he had killed Wild Bill Hickok. Fox met Jessie when she interviewed Jane for an article in Illustrated American magazine. There are many versions of the shootout that occurred at Rock Creek on July 12, 1861, shortly after the start of the Civil War, and all, in one way or another, contributed to Hickoks legend. Jan MacKell Collins is the author of numerous books about the Old West, the latest isLost Ghost Towns of Teller County. James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 August 2, 1876), better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, cattle rustler, gunslinger, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvement in many famous gunfights. Author McClaird theorised that Jessie, who had no birth certificate, said what she had to in order to receive financial assistance at her last residence in California. He twice asked another man at the table, Charles Rich, to change seats with him, but Rich refused. He was the son of William Alonzo and Polly Butler Hickok (Fishwick). Although McCall accepted the money, he was apparently insulted. He afterward resumed using his given name, James Hickok. Hickok remains a popular figure of frontier history. By Jan MacKell Collins. [20], On July 12, 1861, David McCanles went to the Rock Creek Station office to demand an overdue property payment from Horace Wellman, the station manager. When he saw Hickok, he leveled his cocked rifle at him. Although the show brought Hickok some much-needed income, he was unhappy, began drinking heavily, and returned to the West in March 1874. Burke she had enrolled Jessie in the school. Pard, we will meet again in the happy hunting ground to part no more. Following his Civil War service, Wild Bill Hickok moved to Kansas where he was appointed sheriff in Hays City and marshal of Abilene. Wild Bill Hickok was one of the early "Heroes of the West." He had built a reputation as an extraordinary gunfighter with a sense of fairness and justice. Russell, Majors and Waddell had not kept up with their payments for the station, and the gun-brandishing McCanles had come to demand his money from Wellman, who insisted that he did not have it and refused to relinquish the property to McCanles, as did his wife. On July 21, 1865, in a shootout in Springfield, Missouri, he killed David Tutt, a skillful gunfighter who had been flaunting the watch he won from Hickok in a poker game. Wild Bill Hickok, byname of James Butler Hickok, (born May 27, 1837, Homer [now Troy Grove], Illinois, U.S.died August 2, 1876, Deadwood, Dakota Territory [now in South Dakota, U.S.]), American frontiersman, army scout, and lawman who helped bring order to the frontier West. BA1 1UA Calamity Jane is reputed to have led a mob that threatened McCall with lynching, but at the time of Hickok's death, Jane was actually being held by military authorities. By 1942 Jessie had changed her story, perhaps at McCormicks urging. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. Tutt reached for his pistol but Hickok was the first to draw his weapon, and shot Tutt instantly, from approximately 75 yards. I will be. After the war Hickok continued his adventurous ways, at times just skirting the right side of the law. This was claimed after he was killed during a poker game on Aug. 2, 1876. B. Hickock [sic] (Wild Bill) formerly of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Calamity Jane never married Wild Bill . While a Jayhawker, he met 12-year-old William Cody (later known as "Buffalo Bill"), who, despite his youth, served as a scout just two years later for the U.S. Army during the Utah War. Many historic sites and monuments commemorate his life, and he has been depicted numerous times in literature, film, and television. Witnesses confirm that the story was true to the extent the party had set out to find whoever had killed the four men,[e] but the group returned to the fort "without nary a dead Indian, [never] even seeing a live one". McCall was tried and acquitted of murder as a result of his dubious claim that the killing was in revenge for Hickoks murder of his brother in Abilene. Paramount Pictures' Western silent film Wild Bill Hickok (released on November 18, 1923) was directed by Clifford Smith and stars William S. Hart as Hickok. When did cowboys begin wearing these shirts? Michelle Renes novel, Hour Glass, is a moving, revealing picture of the legendary Calamity Jane., A bar in Hays City, Kansas, on July 17, 1870. Later, after bragging of his murder of Hickok, McCall was retried in Laramie, Wyoming Territory, found guilty, and hanged on March 1, 1877. To date, four children have been credited to the lady, although some of the claims have come from the children themselves. [57] The two possibly met for the first time after Jane was released from the guardhouse in Fort Laramie and joined the wagon train in which Hickok was traveling. [61], Hickok died instantly. I heard him speak recently, and his is the definitive work on this wild woman of the West. [j] Utter supervised the move and noted that, while perfectly preserved, Hickok had been imperfectly embalmed. The couple had a daughter, who also became an accomplished performer and horseback rider. James Butler Hickok was born in Troy Grove, Illinois, on May 27, 1837, to William Alonzo Hickok and Polly Butler Hickok. Man at the table, Charles Rich, to change seats with him, but they remain the of. Kansas where he was the son of William Alonzo and Polly Butler Hickok he. For as did wild bill hickok have children as 26 reached for his pistol but Hickok was buried in the knee, the. And Wales company registration number 2008885. subscribe to all about history for as little as.. 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