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Buffalo Bill

Buffalo Bill


William Frederick Cody, also known as Buffalo Bill, was born into an
anti-slavery family. He had a rough childhood, but despite this hardship he
grew up to be an adventurous wild west showman, and achieve many historical
goals.
On February 26, 1846, near the small town of LeClair, Iowa, William F.
Cody was born to Isacc and Marry Ann Cody. At the time William had two sisters,
Martha and Julia, and a brother, Samuel. But he ended up with three more sisters,
Eliza, Helen, and May, and another brother, Charlie. In the first eight years of
his childhood, William grew up on a farm his father owned and worked. During
this time, William had plenty of space on the Plains to play with his brother
Sam and his black dog, Turk. William also had some young Indian friends he met
while on a picnic with his sisters. The Indians were trying to steal the Cody's
lunch, but Bill stopped them and became friends with them. Besides picnics,
young Will also enjoyed riding horses, having pretend Indian fights with Sam,
and hunting in the woods. Sadly, Samuel died when he was thrown from his horse.
Because of this, William not only lost a brother but he lost a very good friend.
In 1854 William, along with his anti-slavery family, moved near the city
of Leavenworth, Kansas. This was not an easy move for the Cody family seeing
how most of that part of Kansas was pro slavery. They were worried about this
because earlier in Iowa a dispute about slavery between Isacc and his brother
Elijah, led to Elijah stabbing Isacc. Luckily, he survived and nothing like
this happened in Kansas. While in Iowa, Bill had received no education. After
moving to Kansas he attended several sessions of country school organized by his
father. In the two and a half months he attended, Bill learned to read and write
which would help him in his future careers.
In order to help his family after his father's death in 1857, William
took his first job working for the firm, Russel Majors &...