American Experience

1860

August 13: Annie Oakley is born Phoebe Ann Moses on the family farm in Darke County, Ohio, fifth of seven surviving children. Her Quaker parents, Jacob and Susan, have moved from Pennsylvania, where they ran an inn. In Ohio, the family supports itself with subsistence farming.

November: Abraham Lincoln is elected president, and in December South Carolina becomes the first Southern state to secede from the Union. The Civil War will begin in April 1861, and many men from Darke County will serve in the military, but Jacob Moses is too old for active duty.

1866

Winter: On a trip to the local general store, Jacob is caught in an early blizzard and, half-frozen, barely makes it back to the farm. He soon dies of pneumonia, plunging the family into financial crisis.

1868

According to later stories, eight-year-old Annie takes her father's old rifle from above the fireplace, packs it with powder, heads off to the woods, and shoots a squirrel. Her horrified mother forbids her to fire a gun again.

1872

Spring: After two years of hard labor and abuse, Annie runs away from the wolves and rejoins the Edingtons, who take her in and teach her to sew.

1876

August 23: Annie and Frank marry. He continues to tour with his shooting act, eventually pairing up with a male partner named Baughman.

1882

May 1: His contract with the circus finished, Butler finds a new partner John Graham and returns to performing in theaters in an act they call "America's own rifle team and champion all around shots." One night before a performance in Springfield, Ohio, Graham falls ill, and Butler, needing someone to replace him, turns to Annie. She causes an immediate sensation with her shooting prowess, and soon Butler and Graham has been replaced by Butler and Oakley, as Annie is now referring to herself. The married couple join the vaudeville circuit, but in contrast to the behavior of the more risqué female players, Oakley dresses conservatively and lets her rifle do the talking. Butler handles the business and promotional aspects of their act, while Oakley becomes the star on stage.

1884

March: Butler and Oakley perform in St. Paul, Minnesota, in front of an audience that includes famous Native American warrior Sitting Bull, who had defeated General George Armstrong Custer at the battle of Little Big Horn in 1876. Part of Oakley's act involves shooting out the wick of a burning candle, and Sitting Bull is so impressed by her prowess that he wants to meet her, offering $65 for a photograph of the two of them together. The meeting goes so well that Sitting Bull "adopts" Oakley, giving her the Indian name "Watanya Cicilla," or "Little Sure Shot." Ever the savvy businessman, Butler places an advertisement in a trade publication talking up the meeting.

April: After a couple of years on the vaudeville circuit, Butler and Oakley sign with the Sells Brothers Circus for a 40-week engagement. That year the circus visits 187 towns in 13 states, journeying some 11,000 miles. The two welcome the steady pay but grow tired of the incessant travel under difficult conditions.

December: The Sells Circus season concludes in New Orleans at the Industrial and Cotton Exposition, leaving Butler and Oakley without a job for the winter. Also in town is Cody's Wild West show, and the Butlers ask him for a job. But Buffalo Bill already has a champion shooter named Captain Bogardus, so he turns them down.

1886

The Wild West show spends the summer performing on Staten Island. Almost 360,000 people attend, taking a ferry from Manhattan past the brand-new Statue of Liberty, set to be dedicated that fall, and then riding a newly constructed rail line four miles to the event grounds. A 15-year-old female sharpshooter named Lillian Smith joins Cody's show and quickly becomes Oakley's rival. Oakley responds by lopping six years off her own age, now telling the press that she was born in 1866.

Winter: Cody takes his show indoors, debuting the revamped Wild West in front of 6,000 people at Madison Square Garden on the day before Thanksgiving.