Wild Bill Hickok Wild Bill Hickock
James Butler Hickok was born on May 27, 1837, in Troy Grove, Illinois. He began his career as a peace officer in Monticello, Kansas at the age of 21. When the American Civil War broke out, Hickok joined the Union Army in 1861, serving first as a wagon master and then as an agent with the Provost Marshal’s office in Springfield, Missouri. As a detective he caught soldiers not reporting for duty and horse thieves, investigated liquor license fraud, and tracked down counterfeiters. In 1864, Hickok was appointed by General John Sanborn as his personal scout and spy, working in Missouri and Arkansas where guerilla tactics by Union and Confederate forces were often savage. He emerged from war duty as a man both feared and admired. From then on Hickok was known as Wild Bill.

With a readership looking for romantic adventure stories from the frontier, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine published a much-inflated account of Wild Bill’s exploits in 1867. Hickok’s fictionalized fame from this and other publications preceded him in his frequent moves around the West. In quick succession he was a government agent again, a guide for General William Sherman, General George Custer’s scout, a federal deputy in Hays City, Kansas, and the marshal of Abilene, Kansas. By 1872, he had killed seven men, the last an accidental shooting of a friend. It was at this point that Hickok left law enforcement.

Hickok’s fame continued to bring him income. He was a guide for tourists and hunters and, in 1873, the master of ceremonies in Sidney Barnett’s Grand Buffalo Hunt. That show quickly failed, but Buffalo Bill Cody convinced Wild Bill to perform in his Combination Theatrical Troupe. His acting career was short-lived, and Hickok moved on, first to Cheyenne, then to St. Louis, and back to Cheyenne again where he decided to marry Agnes Lake Thatcher in March 1876.

Intending to make some quick money in the boomtown of Deadwood, Hickok came to the Black Hills around July 12, 1876. He was little interested in placer mining and spent the majority of his time gambling. Three weeks after arriving in Deadwood, Hickok was shot from behind at Nuttall & Mann’s Saloon No. 10 while playing cards. He was buried in the Ingleside Cemetery and three years later was moved to Mount Moriah Cemetery.