Many Loves of Buffalo Bill (16 page)

John was employed with the Wild West show from 1899 to 1902. He acted as the show's booking agent and advertising representative, among other jobs. During the theatrical season of 1900, John was William's personal valet. He retrieved Cody's mail, looked after Cody's clothes, was his personal dresser for each performance, made sure that Cody's sleeping accommodations were acceptable, and was available for whatever the showman might require at any time. “I was always in close contact with him,” John testified at the Codys' divorce trial.

Whereas most people could only speculate about William's extramarital affairs, John swore he could attest to at least one of the women Buffalo Bill was rumored to be seeing. Bessie Isbell was not the first woman William was linked to romantically. However, she would be the last mistress Mrs. Cody would tolerate. Bitter over the betrayal and fed up with her husband's philandering, Louisa listed Bessie as co-respondent in the divorce suit William filed.
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During the 1905 divorce trial, some of the soldiers William served with at Fort McPherson, Nebraska, testified that his penchant for other women dated as far back as 1869, less than four years after he and Louisa were married. M. Blake of the Fifth Cavalry noted that William was “always surrounded by a bevy of dusky maidens employed at a house of ill fame in Cottonwood Canyon.” Blake told the court that William spent the bulk of his time there with a young woman named Vicky Howard. “She often told me herself that he paid her room and board for 16 or 17 weeks,” the soldier stated to the court. He noted that William frequented other such businesses and kept other women. “He visited Dave Perry's house at North Platte, run by a woman by the name of Lizz or Lizzie,” the soldier added. He went on to say that William was “one of the business's most popular guests.”

“No matter where I went with him there were always other women,” Blake continued with a hint of animosity toward the famous showman. “Cody was made a little God of in that post [Fort McPherson], the officers surrounded him, boozed him up pretty well, and got up all sorts of games there and sports in honor of Buffalo Bill…. The Poncho Indian Reservation was quiet across the river, and we all had skiffs and canoes in the evening to go across to the reservation to have a good time with the Indian maidens. Bill had his share of them as well as the rest of us. He had three or four pretty ones that he picked out for his own use.”
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Bessie Isbell was one of many women who sought William's attention in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Little is known of the early life of the beauty Buffalo Bill insisted was his publicity agent. She was born in 1872 in Virginia. Her parents were highly educated people, as were their parents before them. Trained in the field of law, both of her grandfathers were judges. Bessie and her sister were living off an inheritance from their grandfather when she decided to work with the Wild West show. Her duties were to advertise and sell Helen Cody Wetmore's book about Buffalo Bill entitled
Last of the Great Scouts
. Bessie often worked in advance of the show, handing out flyers and posting advertisements about the program and Wetmore's popular biography.
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During the time Bessie toured with the Wild West show, which most historical accounts list as the 1900 theatrical season, William was traveling to the performances in his new private railroad coach. In addition to the changes in his mode of transportation and his traveling companion, the show also underwent a transformation. His cast was no longer acting out Custer's Last Stand but was now reenacting the Battle of San Juan Hill. Wherever the show appeared throughout the East and the Midwest, fans enthusiastically cheered the program and its star. Fifty-four-year-old William was encouraged by the overwhelming reception to the alterations in the production.
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The show was doing well, but William was concerned about the overwhelming cost of maintaining the enormous event and his other business ventures. Some of the funds from the program were being used for the continual development of Cody, Wyoming; an irrigation project in the Bighorn Basin; and gold and copper mining operations in Arizona. Bessie was a pleasant distraction from the monetary struggles. Although William maintained that she was a good press agent and a necessary addition to the staff of advance publicists, not everyone connected with the program believed she was on the Wild West show's payroll.
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In his deposition given during the Codys' divorce trial, John Claire insisted that Bessie was not an employee of William's show. He stated that she was simply Buffalo Bill's mistress. William denied the allegation and claimed that they were simply good friends. He told the court that Bessie's salary was $25 a week plus expenses. John testified that William specifically told him the two were lovers. He swore that William gave Bessie money and expensive presents; John also stated that he packed some of those gifts in Cody's private car when the William and Bessie traveled together. One of the presents was a stride saddle engraved with both of their names. (According to several historians, William gave saddles to a variety of women over the course of his career. He considered it a pleasure to present them with gifts as a token of his appreciation for their work with the Wild West show. Among the many recipients were Lulu Parr, Mrs. Johnnie Baker, and Annie Oakley.)

William and Bessie were seen together numerous times in hotel rooms in different cities where the Wild West show was scheduled to play. “The couple were inseparable,” John recalled in court. “Bessie visited Cody in his tent before and after performances in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Chicago, and New Orleans…. I saw her place her hands on Cody's shoulders as they left his tent one evening. She pinned a rose on the Colonel's coat and said: ‘Here's a rose for you, Colonel.'”
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William was insulted by the accusation that there was anything inappropriate about his relationship with Bessie. “Ms. Isbell was one of my agents,” he argued in his deposition in 1905. “Most of my agents called on me during the time I was busy in my hotel room or tent, and they came for instructions.”
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Eyewitness accounts of the pair kissing, holding hands, and riding alone in the carriage used to transport William back and forth to the show grounds made Louisa doubt that Bessie was simply a business associate. She hired a private detective to investigate her husband and Bessie. The detective reported that “Buffalo Bill and Ms. Isbell have been on too friendly of terms for some time.”

John agreed with the detective's findings and went on to tell the court about the affectionate letters and telegrams Bessie and William sent to each other whenever they were apart. Louisa's attorneys questioned William about the correspondences, and he did not deny they communicated. He maintained, however, that he was only being kind and supportive. Bessie had contracted tuberculosis, and he only wanted to help her through the illness.

The extent of William's benevolence toward Bessie was the source of heated debate during the divorce hearing. Louisa's lawyers grilled Buffalo Bill about the support he gave Bessie. When pressed, he admitted to “having bought a ranch and transferring the ownership to her for $1 and other considerations.” When asked what those “other considerations” were, William said he “didn't remember.”
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Another woman William was romantically linked to was the author Olive Logan Sikes. Reference was made to her during the Codys' divorce hearing. Olive wrote for the House of Beadle and Adams, a publishing firm responsible for several dime novels about Buffalo Bill and his daring exploits. Olive was an actress and lecturer as well as a novelist. Born in April 1839 in Elmira, New York, she made her stage debut at the age of five. After attending Wesleyan Female Seminary, she became a playwright and a contributor to numerous periodicals, including
Beadle and Adams Dime and Nickel Handbooks
.

A chance introduction to William Cody at the New York publishing company in 1885 sparked rumors that the accomplished writer would be penning a new novel about Buffalo Bill's adventures. There was no truth to the talk, as William's novels were written either by himself or by Prentiss Ingram. When the rumors about Olive reached Louisa, she was quick to believe them and was jealous. William assured his wife that what she heard was just gossip, but she remained suspicious of Olive and extremely jealous that the author's and her husband's names were linked.
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In 1871 Olive married Wirt Sikes, a fellow novelist with the house of Beadle and Adams. The couple moved to London, where Wirt died in 1883. Olive became demented and was committed to an asylum in Banstead, England. She died on April 27, 1909.
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Friends and acquaintances of both William and Louisa claimed that William “had an appetite for any beautiful woman he met; it didn't make any difference, there was no exception.”
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Advocates and admirers of the showman suggest that his natural inclination to help anyone in need, combined with his flirtatious manner, was often misconstrued. Such was the case with his association with Nadeau Piatt, a young woman with unspecified ties to William's mining venture in Pima County, Arizona. On occasion the pair wrote each other to share information about the project. Her letters to him began “Dear B.B.” (for “Buffalo Bill”). His letters to her began the same way, but in his case “B.B.” meant “Beautiful Baby.” The tone of the greeting prompted some of William's friends to think that the pair were more than business colleagues, but the letters seemed to be the extent of their relationship.
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The conclusion of the 1900 theater season was marred with tragedy for Buffalo Bill. His brother-in-law Al Goodman, who had been like a father to him, passed away, and a major train accident near Louisville, Kentucky, claimed the lives of several of the Wild West show's horses, destroyed William's private car, and nearly crippled Annie Oakley. The life-changing events left Cody with little time or interest in Bessie or any other woman outside of his immediate family.

His daughters joined him in New York in August 1901, two months after the train wreck. The Wild West show was to perform at Madison Square Garden, and William wanted his children around him when he wasn't hosting the nightly extravaganza. According to John Claire, Bessie left for Wyoming just before Irma and Arta arrived. Believing the climate would be good for Bessie's health, William suggested that she stay at his ranch in the Bighorn country.

After more than three years with the Wild West show, Bessie and William parted company. Her tuberculosis was advancing, and she decided to travel to the desert country of the Holy Land to live out the remainder of her days.
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To the loveliest and truest little woman both in heart and aim, in all the world
.

—W
ILLIAM
F. C
ODY, IN A NOTE TO
A
NNIE
O
AKLEY
(1890)

I
n April 1885 the sun-bleached wooden grandstand in Louisville, Kentucky, which ordinarily surrounded a well-maintained baseball field, overlooked Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West set. The plush, green outfield was filled with scenes depicting the wild frontier, and the infield had been transformed into a parade ground for horses, buffalo, and steers. A number of members of the show's cast stood in a line in front of home plate patiently waiting to be introduced to a petite, unassuming young woman named Annie Oakley. William and the manager of the Wild West show, Nate Salsbury, had signed a contract with the expert riflewoman to appear in the historical program, and they were anxious for her to meet the rest of the cast.
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Cowboys, Indian warriors and chiefs, and vaqueros greeted the pretty woman with a hearty handshake and a warm welcome. “There I was facing the real Wild West,” Annie recalled in her memoirs, “the first white woman to travel with what society might have considered an impossible outfit.”
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Buffalo Bill affectionately referred to Annie as Missie and positioned the talented markswoman at the start of his show. According to William's sister Julia, Annie's act “always brought the crowds to their feet.”
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