Wild Bill Hickok

James Butler Hickok (27 May 1837 -2 August 1876) better known as Wild Bill Hickok, was a legendary figure in the American Wild West. He is remembered as a gunfighter, gambler and lawman.



early 1860's



Mendota, Illinois in 1869

Born and raised on a farm in Illinois, his parents were William Alonzo and Polly Butler Hickok. 

 

James Hickok went west at age 18 as a fugitive from justice. 

He had many jobs: a stagecoach driver, a lawman in the frontier territories of Kansas and Nebraska, a soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War, a war scout, marksman, actor, and professional gambler.

Hickok was involved in several notable shootouts.

 

He was shot from behind and killed at the age of 39 while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. 

The card hand he held at the time of his death (aces and eights) is called the "Dead Man's Hand".

RESOURCES:
Nebraska State Historical Society
The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok: The Man and His Myth

Find out more about him here:


Annie Oakley

“I ain't afraid to love a man. I ain't afraid to shoot him either.”
 ~ Annie Oakley.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Earp in the front row, second from left

Frontier Lawman of the Wild West

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp 1848 – 1929

Wyatt Earp had many occupations in his 80 years. He started as a farmer, of his families 80 acre farm, at 13 years of age when all the other men folk joined the army.

He drove a cargo wagon with a team of horses, he bought and sold real estate including saloons, he was listed as a gambler in the San Diego City Directory in 1887. In 1869 he was appointed local constable at  Lamar, Missouri.  He was a city marshall, or police officer, in Wichita from 1871 to 1876, and later various other frontier towns such as Deadwood.

He is best remembered for the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, with two of his brothers,Virgil and Morgan, and his friend Doc Holliday. The shootout resulted in Wyatt Earp being thought of as one of the best and toughest gunmen of the times.

 

Linked up at History and Home

Aim at a high mark, and you'll hit it. Annie Oakley

This photo was taken @ 1880 of Annie Oakley (1860 –  1926)

She was famous as a sharpshooter during her life and started shooting at the age of six to support her siblings and her widowed mother by selling hunted game to locals.  This skill of necessity paid off the mortgage on her mother's farm by the time Annie was 15.

She famously said: “Aim at a high mark and you'll hit it. No, not the first time, nor the second time. Maybe not the third. But keep on aiming and keep on shooting for only practice will make you perfect.”