“BUFFALO BILL”
Celebrated American plains-day express rider, hunter, guide and army scout, who before he was fourteen years of age had won credit for man’s pluck and shrewdness. In his youth a dutiful and helpful son; in his later years an exhibitor of Wild West scenes, with which he has toured the world. Early known as “Will,” “Little Billy,” “Pony Express Bill,” “Scout Bill Cody”; by the Indians termed “Pa-he-haska” (“Long Hair”); but, the globe around, famed as “Buffalo Bill.”
Born on the family farm near LeClaire, Scott County, Eastern Iowa, February 26, 1845.
Father: Isaac Cody. Mother: Mary Ann Cody.
Childhood spent in Scott County, Iowa: at LeClaire and at Walnut Grove.
When eight years old, in 1853, is removed with the family overland to Kansas.
In the Salt Creek Valley, near the Kickapoo Indian reservation and Fort Leavenworth, Eastern Kansas, Mr. Cody takes up a claim and is Indian trader.
Young William is reared among the Free State troubles of 1853–1861, when the slave men and the anti-slave men strove against one another to obtain possession of Kansas. Mr. Cody, the father, was of the Free State party.