Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Buffalo Bill #2

1 comments:

Jim Stockley said...

I don't think the man in the middle is 'Bronco Charlie Miller' - every copy if this picture that I have ever seen identified this person as Texas Jack Omohundro (1846-80) standing behind Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody.

Shortly after the Civil War Omohundro adopted a five year old boy whose parents had been killed by Native Americans. He called him Texas Jack Jr.

(from Wikipedia) Texas Jack Jr became a sharpshooter and rough rider in shows around the world, including South Africa. By 1899 he was in England with a show called "Savage South Africa".... A couple of years later he returned to Africa and started: "Texas Jack's Wild West Show & Circus".

In 1902, Will Rogers met Texas Jack, hoping to get some kind of job wrangling the tents or the horses, but when Jack asked him if he could do a rope trick, Rogers obliged and was hired as an entertainer.

Texas Jack Jr died in Kroonstad, South Africa, in 1905. He was survived by his common law wife, Lyle (or Lil) Marr, who was a sharpshooter in his show. [She later married Walter Boswell]