Wild Bill: After His Death

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

Well guys, I've been talking about one of the most famous and also
misunderstood characters from the American Old West in the period
of the 1800's, most of his life story carried out in the 1860's and 70's.

He was gunned down by a cowardly assassin in Deadwood, South
Dakota in 1876 at the age of just 39 years old. The best photo of him
and I'm sure the last one makes him look like he's in his 50's! But you
have to remember that life was hard back then with poor nutrition
and medical care.

Many people died young if they got a serious infection because there
were no antibiotics, not even Penicillin. The life expectancy in the
later 1800's was only 58 years old! yikes. So at age 39 Wild Bill was
beyond Middle Age. Here's that last photo of him:

source

My friend @rebeccabe pointed out that his nose looks like it had been
broken and indeed it does, the shape is definitely different than in
earlier photos.

This sounds like a tiny factor but it was said of him that he liked to
settle disputes as much with his fists as with his pistols so this photo
and his smashed-in nose lends credence to that fact.

Here is proof that Wild Bill was indeed 39 when he died, this is at his
grave in Deadwood:

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I never got back to talking about his wife Agnes and what she did
after his death. At the time of his death she was 49 or 50 years old
and was raising a daughter from her previous marriage to the other
"Bill" ..remember the guy who got shot by Killyou?

She was devastated by the loss of Wild Bill and it took her a long
time to recover but carried on and then worked with her daughter
to train her in the Equestrian specialties which she was famous for
during her traveling circus years.

She moved to Kansas for a number of years where she ran a ranch
and trained horses and helped her daughter to join Buffalo Bill's
Wild West show where her daughter also became a well known
Esquestrian.

Agnes never married again and she died of old age in 1907 at the age
of 81. She had stayed in near constant contact with Wild Bill's mother
with letters until Bill's death, after which she did write one more time
after a couple of months.

I read the letter but I don't want to get all mushy on here but it was
very moving, the way people wrote back then was very powerful.

There are a few life sized bronze statues in honor of Wild Bill, one of
them is his headstone in Deadwood.

This thing cracks me up. Notice what is says..that "Custer was lonely
without him"...that's ridiculous because General George Custer hardly
knew him. They came in contact during the war but were by no means
friends. lol.

And here is his original headstone:
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The two men at his grave are two of his friends but I'm not sure who
they are sorry.

Here is a life-sized sculpture in Boerne, Texas for some unknown
reason.

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Why I say "for some unknown reason" is that Texans hated Wild Bill,
or at least they used to. Back when he was a sheriff in Abilene, Kansas
he shot Coe who as a Texan with a group of Texas cowboys at the time
and there were many threats from Texas and Texans for years
afterwards to the effect that they were going to kill him for shooting
Coe.

Those threats persisted and was one reason Wild Bill was always so
causcious. But I reckon Texas forgave him because they put up this
nice sculpture!

Paradox..

I'm closing this series of Wild Bill who was one of the great enigmas
of his time and who has baffled historians ever since his death
because of his total uniqueness.

On one hand he was gentle, soft spoken.. kids loved him and were
attracted to him and he loved playing with them...and in a time when
many men in the rough, unsettled Western territories were tough,
mean, course and brutal..here was Wild Bill who was a gentleman,
a clean freak, immaculate dresser, very respectful and polite..
especially toward women.

But when he was riled or threatened, or God help you if you came
against his friends, he became a deadly, ruthless killer unmatched
in skill with his pistols.

Quite a few men took his mild mannered and gentile looks and dress
as a sign of weakness and those men usually ended up dead.

So passed from this life one of the most interesting men I've had the
privilege of researching and one of the great men who contributed to
the founding of modern society in the Western United States.

This is another photo that I found of him that I hadn't seen before. I
don't know the year but he was pretty young.

source

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck

ps- ya know....you might just be a redneck if:

Your dad is also your favorite uncle!
lol. that shouldn't be funny!