Wild Bill Hickok: Difference between revisions

|image = Wild Bill Hickok sepia (cropped).png

|birth_place = Homer, Illinois, U.S.<br />{{small|(now [[Troy Grove, Illinois]], U.S.)}}

Hickok was born and raised on a farm in northern [[Illinois]] at a time when lawlessness and [[vigilante]] activity were rampant because of the influence of the "[[Banditti of the Prairie]]". Drawn to this ruffiancriminal lifestyle, he headed west at age 18 as a fugitive from justice, working as a [[stagecoach]] driver and later as a lawman in the frontier territories of [[Kansas Territory|Kansas]] and [[Nebraska Territory|Nebraska]]. He fought and spied for the [[Union Army]] during the [[American Civil War]] and gained publicity after the war as a scout, [[marksman]], actor, and professional gambler. He was involved in several notable shootouts during the course of his life.

Hickok remains a popular figure of frontier history. Many historic sites and monuments commemorate his life, and he has been [[List of cultural depictions of Wild Bill Hickok|depicted numerous times]] in literature, film, and television. He is chiefly portrayed as a [[protagonist]], although historical accounts of his actions are often controversial, and much of his career is known to have been exaggerated both by himself and by contemporary mythmakers. While Hickok claimed to have killed numerous named and unnamed gunmen in his lifetime, his career as a gunfighter only lasted from 1861 to 1871. AccordingHickok killed only six or seven men in gunfights, according to [[Joseph G. Rosa]], Hickok's biographer and the foremost authority on Wild Bill, Hickok killed only six or seven men in gunfights.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://truewestmagazine.com/how-many-men-did-wild-bill-hickok-actually-kill/|title=How many men did Wild Bill Hickok actually kill?|website=[[True West Magazine]]|author=Trimble, Marshall|date=April 2002|access-date=October 5, 2017|archive-date=April 10, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190410160137/https://truewestmagazine.com/how-many-men-did-wild-bill-hickok-actually-kill/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Rosa, Joseph G. ''Wild Bill Hickok, Gunfighter: An Account of Hickok's Gunfights''. University of Oklahoma Press; (2003). p. 198. {{ISBN|978-0806135359}}</ref>

James Butler Hickok was born May 27, 1837, in Homer, Illinois, (present-day [[Troy Grove, Illinois]]) to William Alonzo Hickok (1801–1852), a farmer and [[abolitionism|abolitionist]], and his wife, PollyPamelia Hickok (née Butler, 1804–1878). Hickok was of English ancestry.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-12-12|title=James Butler Hickok May 27 1837 -– August 2 1876 Better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok|url=http://www.countryside-lavie.com/article/2013/12/12/james-butler-hickok-may-27-1837-august-2-1876-better-known-wild-bill-hickok|access-date=2022-02-14|website=www.countryside-lavie.com|archive-date=December 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224173104/http://www.countryside-lavie.com/article/2013/12/12/james-butler-hickok-may-27-1837-august-2-1876-better-known-wild-bill-hickok|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>''They Called Him Wild Bill: The Life and Adventures of James Butler Hickok''. pp. 4–5.</ref> James was the fourth of six children. His father was said to have used the family house, now demolished, as a station on the [[Underground Railroad]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Ostrom |first=Gene F. |title=Vi's Secret: A Family's Story |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YpQwhk28YtIC&pg=PA9 |publisher=[[iUniverse]] |year=2008 |page=9 |isbn=9780595466252}}</ref> William Hickok died in 1852, when James was 15.<ref name="odrowaz">Odrowaz-Sypniewska, Margaret. [httphttps://www.angelfire.com/mi4/polcrt/WBHickok.html James Butler Hickok/"Wild Bill"].</ref>

Hickok was a good shot from a young age, and was recognized locally as an outstanding marksman with a pistol.<ref name="Black Hills">{{cite web | title = James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok, Early Deadwood | work = Black Hills Visitor Magazine | url = http://www.blackhillsvisitor.com/all-articles-directory.html?pid=878&sid=918:James-Butler-Wild-Bill-Hickok-Early-Deadwood| access-date=February 20, 2013}}</ref> Photographs of Hickok appear to depict dark hair, but all contemporaneous descriptions affirm that ithe washad [[red hair]].{{efn|Red objects generally appear black in early photographs, as the photographic processes were insensitive to red light.}}<ref>Rosa, Joseph G. (1979). ''They Called Him Wild Bill''. University Press of Oklahoma. p. 306. {{ISBN?}}</ref>

Hickok used his late father's name, William Hickok, from 1858, and the name William Haycock during the [[American Civil War]]. Most newspapers referred to him as William Haycock until 1869. He was arrested while using the name Haycock in 1865. He afterward resumed using his given name, James Hickok. Military records after 1865 list him as Hickok, but he was also known as Haycock.<ref>Miller, Nyle H. (200). ''Why the West Was Wild''. University Press of Oklahoma. pp. 184–191. {{ISBN|0-8061-3530-1}}.</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2020}}<ref>Rosa, Joseph G. (2003). ''Wild Bill Hickok, Gunfighter: An Account of Hickok's Gunfights''. University Press of Oklahoma. {{ISBN|0-8061-3535-2}}.{{page?|date=July 2024}}</ref> In an 1867 article about his shootout with [[Davis Tutt]], his surname was misspelled as Hitchcock.<ref name="twain">{{cite web|url=http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/roughingit/map/herhickok.html|title=Wild Bill in Harper's Magazine|publisher=Mark Twain in His Times|access-date=July 9, 2018}}</ref>

In 1860, Hickok was badly injured by a bear, while driving a freight team from [[Independence, Missouri]], to [[Santa Fe, New Mexico]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Richard |first=John P. |title=Chronology on Life of James Butler Hickok, Wild Bill Hickok, Old West Kansas |url=http://www.kansasheritage.org/abilene/gunfighters/JBH.html |access-date=2020-09-24 |website=www.kansasheritage.org}}</ref> According to Hickok's account, he found the road blocked by a [[cinnamon bear]] and its two cubs. Dismounting, he approached the bear and fired a shot into its head, but the bullet ricocheted off its skull, infuriating it. The bear attacked, crushing Hickok with its body. Hickok managed to fire another shot, wounding the bear's paw. The bear then grabbed his arm in its mouth, but Hickok was able to grab his knife and slash its throat, killing it.<ref name="TClav">{{cite book |title=Wild Bill: The true story of the American frontier's first gunfighter | publisher=St. Martin's Press |first1=Tom |last1=Clavin |year=2019 | pages=37, 200–203}}</ref>

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. McCanles reportedly threatened Wellman, and either Wellman or Hickok, who was hiding behind a curtain, killed McCanles.<ref name="rosa">{{cite book |last1=Rosa|first1=Joseph G.|title=They Called Him Wild Bill: The Life and Adventures of James Butler Hickok |date=1987 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|location=Norman|isbn=978-0806115382|edition=2nd |pages= 45–51}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Rock Creek Station State Historical Park|url=http://www.fairbury.com/pages/history/rock_creek.html|publisher=Main Street Consulting Group|access-date=December 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151224000043/http://www.fairbury.com/pages/history/rock_creek.html|archive-date=December 24, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>Two men with McCanles (James Wood and James Gordon) were also killed. Hickok, Wellman, and another employee, J.W. Brink, were tried for killing McCanles, but were found to have acted in self-defense. McCanles may have been the first man Hickok killed.<ref name="rosa" /> Hickok subsequently visited McCanles' widow, apologized for the killing, and offered her $35 in restitution, all the money he had with him at the time.<ref name="aYRip">{{Cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/mss/wpalh1/16/1608/16082611/16082611.pdf|title=Wild Bill Hickok & McCanles Affair|last=Elliott|first=F. G.|date=November 26, 1938|website=Library of Congress|access-date=July 31, 2019}}</ref>{{efn|group="notes"|Personal account of the foreman of the Overland Stage Company stations, as given to ''The DeWitt Times News'':

[[Henry M. Stanley]], of the ''Weekly Missouri Democrat'', reported Hickok to be "an inveterate hater of Indian People", perhaps to enhance his reputation as a scout and American fighter. But separating fact from fiction is difficult considering his recruitment of Indians to cross the nation to appear in his own Wild West show.<ref name="odrowaz" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rosa |first1=Joseph G. |title=They Called Him Wild Bill: The Life and Adventures of James Butler Hickok |date=2012 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman|isbn=978-0806115382 |pages=Chapter 6 |edition=2nd., rev. & enl. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UatE9Vib6VYC&q=an+inveterate+hater+of+Indians&pg=PT104}}</ref> Witnesses confirm that while working as a scout at [[Fort Harker (Kansas)|Fort Harker, Kansas]], on May 11, 1867, Hickok was attacked by a large group of Indians, who fled after he shot and killed two. In July, Hickok told a newspaper reporter that he had led several soldiers in pursuit of Indians who had killed four men near the fort on July 2. He reported returning with five prisoners after killing 10. Witnesses confirm that the story was true to the extent the party had set out to find whoever had killed the four men,{{efn|group=notes|For details, see [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1867-07-01/ed-1/seq-1/# ''Evening Star''], July 1, 1867, which contains a garbled report of 11 men killed by Indians at Fort Harker. It also reports the death of one and the wounding of a second railroad man by Indians near Fort Harker (the two casualties are confirmed). The report of the larger number of deaths may confuse this incident with another fight with Indians, at [[Fort Wallace]], Kansas, in which a number of soldiers were killed and wounded. For the Fort Wallace fight and casualties, see [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1867-07-15/ed-1/seq-1/# ''The Sun''], July 15, 1867.}} but the group returned to the fort "without nary a dead Indian, [never] even seeing a live one".<ref>Miller, Nyle H. (2003). ''Why the West was Wild''. University Press of Oklahoma. p. 185. {{ISBN|0-8061-3530-1}}.</ref><ref name="Bad" />

The regular county election was held on November 2, 1869. Hickok ran as an Independent; but lost to his deputy, Peter Lanihan, who ran as a Democrat. Hickok and Lanihan, however, remained sheriff and deputy, respectively. Hickok accused a J.V. Macintosh of irregularities and misconduct during the election. On December 9, Hickok and Lanihan both served legal papers on Macintosh, and local newspapers acknowledged that Hickok had guardianship of Hays City.<ref name="miller2">{{cite book | last1=Miller| first1=Nyle H.| last2=Rosa| first2=Joseph W. |title=Why the West Was Wild: A Contemporary Look at the Antics of Some Highly Publicized Kansas Cowtown Personalities| year=1963| publisher=University of Oklahoma Press| location=Norman| isbn=0-8061-3530-1}}</ref>{{rp|196}}

On April 15, 1871, Hickok became marshal of [[Abilene, Kansas]]. He replaced [[Thomas J. Smith|Tom "Bear River" Smith]], who had been killed while serving an arrest warrant on November 2, 1870.

In 1872, Hickok recruited six Native Americans and three cowboys to accompany him to [[Niagara Falls]], where he put on an outdoor demonstration called ''The Daring Buffalo Chase of the Plains''.<ref name="TClav" /> Since the event was outdoors, he could not compel people to pay, and the venture was a financial failure.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/lifemarvelousadv00buel |title=Life and Marvelous Adventures of Wild Bill, the Scout | publisher=Belford, Clarke & Company |first1=James William |last1=Buel |year=1880|page=34}}</ref>{{rp|34}} The show featured six buffalo, a bear, and a monkey, and one show ended in disaster when a buffalo refused to act, prompting Hickok to fire a bullet into the sky. 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. The incident helped contribute to the overall failure of the show.<ref name="TClav" />

In 1873, Buffalo Bill Cody and [[Texas Jack Omohundro]] invited Hickok to join their troupe after their earlier success.<ref name="cody" />{{rp|329}} Hickok did not enjoy acting, and often hid behind scenery. In one show, he shot the spotlight when it focused on him. He was released from the group after a few months.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Burns |first1=Walter Noble |title=Frontier Hero -– Reminiscences of Wild Bill Hickok by his old Friend Buffalo Bill|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86091195/1911-11-02/ed-1/seq-2/ |access-date=May 14, 2017 |publisher=The Blackfoot Optimist. (Blackfoot, Idaho)|date=November 2, 1911}}</ref>

In 1876, Hickok sought treatment from an eye specialist in [[Kansas City, Missouri]]. No definitive diagnosis has survived, but speculation ranges from [[secondary syphilis]] to [[glaucoma]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Wild Bill: The true story of the American frontier's first gunfighter | publisher=St. Martin's Press |first1=Tom |last1=Clavin |year=2019 | pages=199–200}}</ref> Although he was just 39, his marksmanship and health were apparently in decline, and he had been arrested several times for [[vagrancy]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87052128/1876-08-18/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1869&index=0&date2=1922&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=Hickok+William&proxdistance=5&state=&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=William+Hickok&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1|title=The State Journal (Jefferson City, Mo.), 1872–1886. August 18, 1876, image 3|work=loc.gov|date=August 18, 1876}}</ref> despite earning a good income from gambling and displays of showmanship only a few years earlier.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

Charles Snyder, the [[Lucien Howe]] Librarian of Ophthalmology at [[Harvard Medical School]], said "Granular [[conjunctivitis]], [[ophthalmia]], trachoma—call[[trachoma]]—call it what you will—was common on the Western Frontier. [[Jesse James]] suffered from it."<ref>Rosa (1979) p. 269</ref>

{{blockquote|As I write the closing lines of this brief sketch, word reaches me that the slayer of Wild Bill has been rearrested by the United States<!-- "State{{sic" in original |?}}--> authorities, and after trial has been sentenced to death for willful murder. He is now at Yankton, D.T. awaiting execution. At the [second] trial it was suggested that [McCall] was hired to do his work by gamblers who feared the time when better citizens should appoint Bill the champion of law and order – a post which he formerly sustained in Kansas border life, with credit to his manhood and his courage.{{efn|group="notes"|McCall alleged that John Varnes, a Deadwood gambler, had paid him to murder Wild Bill. When Varnes could not be found, McCall then implicated Tim Brady in the plot. Brady, like Varnes, had disappeared from Deadwood and could not be found.}}<ref name="richardson" />}}

Hickok is currently interred in a {{Convert|10|ft|m|0|abbr=on}} square plot at the Mount Moriah Cemetery, surrounded by a cast-iron fence, with a U.S. flag flying nearby.<ref>{{cite book|last=Straub|first=Patrick|title=It Happened in South Dakota: Remarkable Events That Shaped History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=msu8wbtt2J4C&pg=PA33 |date=November 10, 2009 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7627-6171-5|page=33}}</ref> The flag never goes down on Mt. Moriah Cemetery, as Deadwood was granted permission by the U.S. Congress during World War I to fly the flag 24 hours a day to honor all veterans who have served their country.

Hickok's favorite guns were a pair of [[Colt 1851 Navy Revolver|Colt 1851 Navy]] Model (.36 caliber) cap-and-ball revolvers. They had ivory grips and nickel plating, and were ornately engraved with "J.B. Hickok–1869" on the backstrap. He wore his revolvers butt-forward in a belt or sash (when wearing city clothes or buckskins, respectively), and seldom used holsters; he drew the pistols using a "reverse", "twist", or [[cavalry draw]], as would a cavalryman.<ref name="Martin1" /> As Marshal of Hays, Hickok had a Adams and Deane percussion .44-caliber pistol.<ref>Elman "Fired in Anger" p. 273</ref>

At the time of his death, Hickok was wearing a [[Smith & Wesson Model No. 2 Army]] revolver, a five-shot, single-action, .32-caliber weapon, innovative as one of the first metallic cartridge firearms and favored by many Union officers during the Civil War. [[Bonhams]] auction company offered this pistol at auction on November 18, 2013, in San Francisco, California,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bonhams.com/press_release/14277/ |title=Wild Bill Hickok's Smith & Wesson No. 2 Revolver on Offer at Bonhams This Fall |access-date=March 18, 2014}}</ref> described as Hickok's Smith & Wesson No. 2, serial number 29963, a .32 [[Rimfire ammunition|rimfire]] with a six-inch barrel, [[Bluing (steel)|blued]] finish, and varnished rosewood grips. The gun did not sell because the highest bid of $220,000 was less than the reserve set by the gun's owners.<ref name="NYDly" /> A second pistol HickockHickok had at his death was a Sharps Model 1859 .32-caliber four-barreled rim-fire derrinegerderringer.<ref>Elman "Fired in Anger" pp.275-276 275–276</ref>

<ref name="Angelfire">{{cite web |url=httphttps://www.angelfire.com/tv2/theyoungriders1/WHOSWHO/jimmy.html |title=Josh Brolin as James Butler Hickok (aka Wild Bill) |year=1997 |access-date=July 20, 2018 |work=[[Angelfire]] |publisher=Rider Web Productions}}</ref>

[[Category:People from American folklore]]