Annie Oakley was an Old West sharpshooter who gained fame appearing in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Tour, a traveling show. But as much as she was considered a Western star, she was not born in the Old West. Here are some interesting facts you might not have known about her.
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Annie Oakley starred as a sharpshooter in
Buffalo Bill's Wild West traveling show |
Annie Oakley was her stage name. Her birth name was Phoebe Ann Mosey, but her family called her Annie. Some historians show the family name as Moses or Mozee, but the census records show as Mosey.
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A historical marker at the cemetery
where the Mosey family is buried |
Annie's father died when she was four. She first started shooting at age six and by age eight was expertly hunting and killing small game. She learned to shoot once to the head so the body and skins would be clean so she could sell them to local shopkeepers. The money she earned helped to support the family until her mother remarried.
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A young Phoebe Ann Mosey (Annie Oakley),
around six years old |
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| The farm where Annie was raised in Darke County Ohio |
After contracting pneumonia at age ten, Annie and her sister were hospitalized in an infirmary that was also a home for indigents - the poorhouse. With so many children to take care of, Annie's mother told the infirmary that it was best if they stayed in the state-run home. When her sister recovered, she wanted to go home. But the childless owners of the infirmary took Annie into their home. The wife was hoping to tame her wild ways and teach her ladylike tasks like sewing and embroidery. One day, the owners got a visit from a farming couple who said that they needed a live-in caregiver for their baby son while they worked on their farm. They said they would pay a handsome salary of fifty cents a week ($9.77 in 2019 dollars) and they promised to provide a formal education to whoever was chosen for the job.
The owners immediately agreed to give up ten-year-old Annie. Shortly after Annie went to live with the farming couple, they began to physically and mentally abuse her. She tried to run away many times and was beaten when she was caught.
Two years after she went to live with them, she escaped during the night. Her mother and her new husband took Annie back to live with them on the farm, and Annie went back to hunting and selling her kills.
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| Annie around age 16 |
At age 15, Annie earned enough money from hunting and selling fresh game that she was able to pay off the mortgage on the family farm.
For sixteen seasons, they traveled around the world, with Annie as billed as an expert female sharpshooter. Annie wowed audiences with her one of a kind act that many tried to duplicate but few succeeded, especially the trick where she hit targets by aiming backward using a hand mirror to look over her shoulder.
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Annie Oakley shooting over her shoulder
at a target while using a mirror |
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| William Randolph Hearst, Newspaper Owner |
Annie Oakley sued millionaire newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst for reporting a horrendous and false story in two of his newspapers that Annie Oakley was a cocaine addict who was arrested for stealing a black man’s pants. When more than 50 other newspapers picked up the story, Annie Oakley went into attack mode trying to clear her name.
It turned out that a burlesque performer using the stage name of Ann Oakley was the one who was arrested. Most of the newspapers printed retractions, but William Randolph Hearst refused to do so. Instead, he went into his own attack mode and hired a private eye to get any dirt that could be found on Annie Oakley. He found only that her marriage date was in question, but nothing else.
Annie sued 55 newspapers for libel and by 1910, she had won settlements from 54 of them. She did win a $27,500 settlement from Hearst (which is 741,318 in 2019), but the total of her legal expenses outweighed all of the settlements she received so that she lost money trying to clear her name.
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| Annie Oakley endorsed some products early in her career |
While Oakley was dealing with her libel suits against William Randolph Hearst's newspapers, Frank Butler became a spokesperson for the Union Metallic Cartridge Company. (an ammunitions company) and Annie continued to lend her name to products. When Annie retired in 1913 from her last Wild West Show, the couple settled into retirement and helped to raise money for the Red Cross for World War I. Annie did occasional demonstrations but her professional performing ceased.
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Canada Dry was only one of many food products Annie Oakley endorsed.
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In 1912, the Butlers built a brick ranch-style house in Cambridge, Maryland. It is known as the Annie Oakley House and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. In 1917, they moved to North Carolina and returned to public life. Until she became too ill to do so, Annie continued to go hunting with her dog whenever possible.
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| Signed by Annie Oakley, she enjoyed hunting with her dog. |
Working in a man's world, Annie Oakley played to very rowdy audiences. However, she never lost sight of her femininity and made it a point to appear in embroidered skirts and blouses. What most patrons didn't know was that the stitching on her costumes was by her own hand during down times between cities. It was a skill she most likely learned in her youth from the infirmary owners.
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| Annie personally did all the embroidery on her clothes |
Annie Oakley died on November 3, 1926, at the age of 66, after a three-year illness of pernicious anemia, which is caused by a lack of Vitamin B-12. She was cremated
according to her wishes and her ashes were placed in one of her shooting trophies, then given to her husband, Frank. Some say that to go on without her was too much for Frank Butler to bear. He died 18 days later on November 21, 1926. The trophy was placed next to his body in his coffin and was buried with him. He is buried near the Mosey family plots.
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| Annie Oakley, around 62 years old |
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Annie Oakley with her husband Frank, and their dog.
This is one of the last public pictures of Annie Oakley |
