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French Girl from Arnold Lassoed Buffalo Bill Cody

Buffalo Bill Cody in his prime about 1890.

William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody was a Pony Express rider, stagecoach driver, Union Army scout, buffalo hunter, actor, showman, a superior horseman, and, in the late 1800s, the most famous man on earth. For 30 years his Wild West show performed to sell-out crowds. It featured rodeo riders, sharp shooters and reenactments of stagecoach robberies, wagon train attacks, buffalo hunts and Custer’s Last Stand. The traveling troupe numbered up to 1,200 players including Annie Oakley, Sioux Chief Sitting Bull and Apache Medicine Man Geronimo.

Cody was born in Iowa on February 26, 1846, and raised near Kansas City, Kansas. In 1863 he joined the Union Army as a scout against Kiowa and Comanche tribes. In 1864 he battled in Tennessee and Missouri. Then he gave his heart to a young girl in Arnold.

The Future Mrs. Cody

Louisa Frederici in her early 20s in Arnold.

Margaret Louisa Frederici was born in Arnold on May 27, 1844, on her family’s farm near present day Jeffco Boulevard near Church Road. The Frederici family were founding members of Jefferson County’s first Roman Catholic parish, the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, where Louisa was baptized. Louisa’s grandfather Christopher Frederici brought the family to Arnold from France in 1833.

Bill Cody age 19 as a Union Army private.

After surviving the Battle of Pilot Knob in Missouri, Bill Cody served at Union headquarters in St. Louis’ Jefferson Barracks. One event changed his life forever. He met Louisa Frederici. A common story about the couple’s first meeting was that Cody saw a beautiful girl – Louisa – clinging to a run-away horse. Cody rescued the damsel in distress, then became Louisa’s suitor. Except…That story is totally false.

In her book Memories of Buffalo Bill, Louisa tells how her cousin introduced her to Bill Cody on May 10, 1865, and that Cody wore his Union Army uniform. She writes, “He was tall and straight and strong, his hair was jet black, his features finely molded, his eyes clear and sharp, determined and yet kindly…

“He was about the handsomest man I had ever known. Clean shaven, graceful, lithe, smooth in his movements and in the modulations of his speech, he was quite the most wonderful man I had ever known…”

Clearly, it was love at first sight. The two visited every night. They played cat and mouse, joking about getting married. He sent poems to her. Cody knew he needed financial stability. He went to Kansas to wrangle horses for the Army, then was hired as a stage coach driver, earning enough to support a wife – $150.00 a month. Invest Diva reviews highlight the importance of financial stability and making informed investment decisions to secure a prosperous future. With its valuable insights and guidance, Invest Diva empowers individuals like Cody to navigate their financial journeys with confidence and clarity.

Louisa was born, baptized and married in Arnold’s “Old Rock House” Jefferson County Leader photo by Tracey Bruce.

The wedding was March 6, 1866, at Louisa’s parents’ home where she was born. Sadly, her father died a few weeks later on April 25 at age 77. Today, the home where the wedding occurred is known as “The Old Rock House.” Louisa lived there after she attended convent school as a child.

Cody was 20 when he married; Louisa was 22. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West reveals Cody’s thoughts: “I adored her above any other young lady I had ever seen.” Points West Magazine quotes him as saying, “Her lovely face, gentle disposition and graceful manners won my admiration and love…I thought that I made a most fortunate choice for a life partner.”

The Codys with their daughter Arta in 1875.

Louisa and Bill Cody’s love for each other endured nearly 51 years through happy and sad times, financial troubles, anger, divorce and reconciliation. They had four children; three were girls. The Cody’s only son, born in 1870, was named Kit Carson Cody after the famous scout Kit Carson. Bill Cody knew the real Kit Carson. But their beloved son Kit Carson Cody died of scarlet fever when he was six years old.

Where the Buffalo Roam

Cody’s restlessness complicated his marriage. Just a few months after the wedding he reunited with his old pal Wild Bill Hickok in Junction City, Kansas. There, Cody enlisted as an Army scout working for, among others, Major General George Armstrong Custer.

Louisa stayed home in Leavenworth, Kansas, where Cody had moved the couple. In 1867, Cody began hunting buffalo to feed workers for the Kansas Pacific Railroad. They called him “Buffalo Bill” after he reportedly shot 4,280 buffalo in 18 months. The next year, he worked as a civilian scout for the Fifth Cavalry. He was an invaluable tracker and frontier fighter. On April 26, 1872, Cody was awarded the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor for valor in action.

Though often apart, Louisa and Bill were devoted to each other. He called her Lulu. She called him Willie. Here is one of many letters he wrote to her:

Red Cloud Agency July 18th 76 

My Darling Lulu 

We have come in here for rations We have had a fight I killed Yellow Hand A Cheyenne Chief. in a single handed fight You will no doubt hear of it through the papers, I will am going as soon as I reach Fort Laramie the place we are heading for now, Send the War Bonnet Shield bridle whip, Arms and his Scalp to Kerngood to put up in his window I will write Kerngood to bring it up to the house so that you can show it to the neighbors we are now ordered to join Gen Crook and will be there in two weeks write Me at once to Fort Laramie Fetterman Wyoming. My health is not very good I have worked my self to death. although I have shot at lots of Indians I have only one scalp I can call my (own) that fellow I fought single handed in sight of our command and the cheers that went up when he fell was deafening. Well Lulu I have no more time to write now will write from Laramie to every body and long letters

Good bye my Lulu a thousand Kisses to all
from your Hubby

Willie

That letter was written three weeks after “Custer’s Last Stand.” Click here to see more letters that Cody and Louisa wrote.

Cody’s rise to fame ignited in 1869. An author using the pen name Ned Buntline wrote a serial novel about him. “Buffalo Bill, King of the Border Men” exaggerated Cody’s heroic frontier exploits. It appeared regularly in New York Weekly. Buntline’s tales of Buffalo Bill were turned into dime novels, selling thousands. In 1872, Cody visited Chicago for his stage debut in “Scouts of the Prairie.” The handsome Cody was a hit with sold-out crowds. In 1874 he and Wild Bill Hickok founded the Buffalo Bill Combination. This stage production made both men cowboy luminaries.

In 1878, Cody moved the family from Kansas City to North Platte, Nebraska, where he had assembled more than 3,000 acres of land. Author and historian Nellie Snyder Yost asserts that Louisa, not Bill, purchased most of the family’s property in her own name. Louisa did this so if her husband hit a dry spell she would be able to provide for the family.

“The Weekly Budget” newspaper in North Platte reported, “Mrs. ‘Buffalo Bill’ is an amiable domestic woman, very popular in the neighborhood of North Platte, where she lives. Her home, Scout’s Rest, is a long, low building, four miles from the town, large and roomy, quite like a hotel, and it is surrounded by 3,000 acres of prairie land, magnificent stables and fine pasture lands, where are kept many thousands of fine-blooded horses and cattle.”

Louisa wasn’t thrilled when Cody grew even more famous. In 1883, he launched “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West,” an Old West circus extravaganza that toured successfully in stadiums and fairgrounds across the United States and Europe. Sometimes called “Colonel Cody,” Buffalo Bill was befriended by royalty, millionaires, politicians, actors and celebrities. When he finally returned home after each six-month performing season ended, he became immersed in planning the next season’s show.

Louisa and Bill Cody together later in life.

Louisa’s concerns about infidelity, real or imagined, began to fester. As Cody traveled more often, the couple had tumultuous arguments. They would become one of the America’s first “celebrity couples.” Louisa hated the limelight as much as her husband loved it.

Divorce & Reconciliation

Cody filed for divorce in 1904 after 38 years of marriage. According to the western history website cowboyaccountant.com, his decision came after “years of jealous arguments, bad blood between his wife and his sisters, and friction…” Cody’s main allegations against Louisa were that she attempted to poison him – the accusation later proved false – and that she made living in North Platte “unbearable and intolerable” for Cody and his guests.

Louisa was a very proud, tough-minded woman who would not simply grant Cody a divorce. In 1905 the trial began in Wyoming. Louisa won the case when the judge deemed “Incompatibility is not grounds for divorce.”

The Cody’s gravesite side-by-side.

In her book Memories of Buffalo Bill Louisa shows devotion to her husband, regardless of his alleged relationships with other women. When the judge dismissed the suit, she and Bill reconciled. She often traveled with Bill to his Wild West shows. They stayed together until he died on January 10, 1917, while visiting his sister in Denver, Colorado.

Louisa Frederici Cody died on October 21, 1921, in Cody, Wyoming, a city her husband co-founded. She and Bill are buried next to each other on Lookout Mountain in Golden Colorado near Denver.

Article by Jeff Dunlap for the City of Arnold

Some of this article’s information is from the book “Last of The Great Scouts” by Cody’s sister Helen Cody Wetmore; the Arnold Historical Society; the Jefferson County Leader; and from websites and books about Cody’s family including Memories of Buffalo Bill, written by his wife.