When one thinks of famous women of the American West, Annie Oakley is sure to appear on any list’s top ten. A tremendously gifted sharpshooter, Oakley became infamous around the globe in the late nineteenth century while she performed in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show, which she toured with from 1885 to 1901. However, while Oakley is widely given credit for being a Western star, a true American cowgirl, the woman never lived farther west than Darke County, Ohio, and has never been more than an exhibition and entertainment shooter.
Annie Oakley was born Phoebe Ann Moses on August 13, 1860 in Darke County, Ohio to Jacob and Susan Moses [1]. After her father’s death at age six, Phoebe Ann, nicknamed “Annie†by her six siblings, was sent to live at the Darke County Infirmary, where she remained until about age thirteen or fourteen when she returned home to live with her mother and stepfather [1]. Annie’s career as a sharp shooter started by using her father’s old Kentucky rifle to hunt small game for a grocery store in Greenville, Ohio—she earned enough for her family at this profession to pay off the family’s $200 mortgage in 1875, then only fifteen years old [4]. Also in 1875, Annie was lured to a local marksmen competition, where she competed against and beat Frank Butler, her future husband, stage partner, and manager. Phoebe Ann Moses, now Mrs. Frank Butler, took on the name “Annie Oakley†and began touring the vaudeville circuit with her husband. In 1882, when Butler’s partner became sick one night, Annie reportedly took his place—this was when Annie became the center of her husband’s act because, as her husband later reportedly said, “she outclassed me,†[3]
In December 1884, Annie and her husband first applied to Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. However, he already had a champion shooter, Captain Bogardus, so he turned them down. When Bogardus quits the show in March of 1885, Annie reapplied with Buffalo Bill again, who agreed to a try-out session in April; in the mean time, Cody’s business manager saw Oakley perform and hired her on the spot [4]. She would perform with the Wild West show for almost seventeen years, performing across the United States as well as in front of major heads of state in London, Paris, and Germany [3]. She opened rodeos and wild west shows to women, was a strong advocate for a woman’s right to bear and use firearms, and helped change the United States’ and Europe’s mind about appropriate sports and activities for women [2].
Annie was one of the shining stars of Buffalo Bill’s show, but in October 1901 the Butler’s were in a large train accident. While neither were seriously injured, Oakley quit the Wild West show for good; she spent the rest of her life acting in two different stage plays, performing in various shooting expositions, and teaching women how to fire guns. In 1917, at the start of World War I, Oakley telegraphed the secretary of war with an offer to raise a “regiment of women to join the fight,†but never received a reply [4]. She was in a serious automobile accident in 1922, which left her walking in a leg brace until November 3, 1926, when she died of “pernicious anemia†in Darke County, Ohio [3].
Annie Oakley was a famed wild west star, the heroine of a television show that ran from 1954 to 1957, and the subject of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical Annie Get Your Gun, which later became a film [4]. She became the first “cowgirl†in motion pictures when she performed in front of Thomas Edison’s moving picture machine as she shot glass balls in the air [3]. But the first famous woman of the wild west never lived farther west than Ohio and actually spent most of her adult life living on the east coast and travelling with various wild west and vaudeville shows.
Author: Sigourney Demers
Bibliography
[1]”Annie Oakley.” Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Web. 20 Oct. 2009.
[2]Edwards, Bess. “Annie Oakley’s Life and Career.” The Annie Oakley Foundation. Web. 20 Oct. 2009.
[3]Sorg, Eric V. “Annie Oakley.” History Net. Wild West, Feb. 2001. Web. 20 Oct. 2009.
[4]”Timeline: The Life of Annie Oakley.” PBS.org. 14 Feb. 2006. Web. 20 Oct. 2009.
Image: Wood, J. Annie Oakley “Little Sure Shot” 1885. Photograph. Annie Oakley. Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Web. 28 Oct. 2009.
