When her husband was murdered Agnes carried on, the first woman in America to own her own circus company. Hickok’s friends noted that once he spoke up for the Widow Lake at the city council meeting, “a look, a smile, or a kind word from her could win him.”. They performed together until Bill was tragically murdered in 1869. They met behind closed doors and emerged to announce they would be married. She moved on, touring, and he dabbled in show business a couple of times, at least once with Buffalo Bill Cody, but didn't care for the theater life. He left law enforcement after accidentally killing a deputy in Abilene, Kansas, in October 1871 — a deputy who was also a good friend. The happy event occurred March 5, 1876, in Cheyenne, says Dr. Phil Roberts of the University of Wyoming, writing for My Web Times. In Abilene, Kansas, Agnes now widowed, met the dashing bachelor and town marshal known as “Wild Bill” Hickok. He served the Union honorably during the Civil War in various capacities, including scout and spy. "The longer he is dead, the worse I feel." She was buried next to her first husband in Cincinnati. A month or so later, he left their honeymoon in Cincinnati for the goldfields of the Black Hills in the Dakota Territory, where he hoped to make enough money to send for her. Mrs. Agnes Hickok.

She could ride like a man, but never forgot she was a woman. Unfortunately, their happy home would never come to be. Hickok was singularly gifted, a remarkably accurate shot, even as a youngster, and with a natural love for horses. They married on March 5, 1876, per Cowgirl Magazine, when Wild Bill was 39 and Lake was 50. She was self-sufficient and emotionally stable. They even did a stint abroad, performing for one season in Germany in 1862. She was more than ten years older than Wild Bill Hickok when they married on March 5, … When they returned from overseas, Agnes and Bill Lake decided to start their own circus.

In the plot beside him lies the remains of another Wild West legend, Calamity Jane, whose dying wish supposedly was to be buried next to Wild Bill. Despite her family's disapproval, Lake began training as a performer herself, and she soon became a talented equestrienne, tightrope walker, and lion tamer.
During one time in 1861, Bill and another man named Davis Tutt, and they both happened to share mutual feelings towards the same girl. There were others roaming the American frontier in those days, also going by a diminutive of William, also proclaiming themselves Wild. Agnes Lake Hickok lived to be 81 years old. The couple planned to reunite sometime in the near future, and in the interim, they exchanged letters. The not-so-young couple didn't get to spend much time together before their marriage was tragically cut short. Family matters kept her from Deadwood until September 1877. Once he had earned a fortune she could either join him there or he would return to her, for a happily-ever-after. The couple had a daughter, who also became an accomplished performer and horseback rider. She learned the business top to bottom, saved her money, and with her husband bought a circus company. According to Gothic Western, when she was just 12 years old, young Agnes saw her first circus performance when a touring show came to Cincinnati, and it enthralled her.

In February 1876 she left her summer circus layover and traveled to Wyoming.

And in their letters, his wife would always refer to him as "James.". However, it was five years later when they met … The untold story of Wild Bill Hickok's only wife, according to the Times of Ottawa, Illinois. James was the fourth of six children. But it stuck to Hickok — born James Butler Hickok on May 27, 1837, in Illinois, says Biography. Various versions of this encounter include the two people being instantly attracted to one another. It isn't known if he invited her, or if two adults finally gave in to their feelings for one another. She visited the grave and stayed there for several hours, then made arrangements for a headstone before leaving. Talk of love and marriage came after courtship by correspondence. Agnes Lake Hickok, Wild Bill’s Wife. In Martha’s biography, she revealed about he… A woman who knew her way around a horse and respected the animal was appreciated. Whereas most women at that time might have been quick to marry the legend and not the man, she suggested they get to know one another better by writing letters. Lake was far from an unrespectable woman. It's even more unlikely Wild Bill was involved with Jane because he was already preoccupied with another strong-willed, independent woman: his first and only wife, Agnes Thatcher Lake. While in Deadwood, South Dakota, Wild Bill Hickok became a regular poker player at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon. ("Wild William" packed alliteration, though not punch, to be honest.)

He and Agnes kept in touch, writing letters, reports True West Magazine — he referred to her as Mrs. Lake at first, later transitioning to Agnes, while she always called him James. James Butler Hickok was born May 27, 1837, in Homer, Illinois, (present-day Troy Grove, Illinois) to William Alonzo Hickok, a farmer and abolitionist, and his wife, Polly Butler. Hickok was a changed man. The couple honeymooned in Cincinnati. Calamity Jane had a reputation as what was then known as a "lewd" woman, and Wild Bill did not typically associate with drunkards or loose women, according to Gothic Western. COWGIRL inspires the Modern Western Lifestyle, Ticket Info For The Inaugural Wrangler National Finals Breakaway Roping. Agnes was not overawed by Wild Bill’s celebrity. According to the cowboy slang of the day, “Hosses an’ smart ‘wimmen will shore make a man go whistlin’, provided he’s still young ‘nough to pucker.”, Nothing was more appealing to an Old West lawman than a damsel in distress. The Messmanns settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where they made their living as farmers. Born in the Alsace region of Eastern France in 1826, the young girl known then as Agnes Messmann immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of four, according to the Times of Ottawa, Illinois. In 1876 in Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, Hickok married Agnes Lake Thatcher, a former circus performer.

Accounts of the surprise marriage on March 5 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, describe Hickok as being “meek and gentle as a lamb,” seemingly conquered by love. They agreed to part temporarily; Agnes, to take care of circus business, while James returned West, to the Black Hills, ostensibly to prospect around the boomtown of Deadwood, South Dakota. While the feud between Hickson and Tutt came from their other matters, the unknown lady remains as one of Bill’s first love, or we can also say attraction as well. "I can see him day and night before me," Agnes wrote to James's family. Quite to the contrary, she was a world-renowned performer and manager of the popular Lake's Circus. She died in New Jersey in 1907, and was laid to rest in Cincinnati, next to her first husband. She had run away with the circus herself, marrying one of the performers and eventually becoming a trick rider and singer, plus an aerialist, performing even while pregnant. © 2020 COWGIRL Magazine/Modern West Media, Inc. | COWGIRL™ is a registered trademark of Modern West Media, Inc. All rights reserved.. Wild Women of the West: Agnes Lake Thatcher, Proudly powered by Newspack on WordPress.com, Western legends, such as Wild Bill Hickok, found successful business women attractive. Lake was far from an unrespectable woman. It's even more unlikely Wild Bill was involved with Jane because he was already preoccupied with another strong-willed, independent woman: his first and only wife, Agnes Thatcher Lake. She died, age 81, in August 1907. When Lake confronted the man, he shot Bill dead.
("Wild William" packed alliteration, though not punch, to be honest.) But it stuck to Hickok — born James Butler Hickok on May 27, 1837, in Illinois, says Biography. The couple eloped and were married in Louisiana. Contemporaneous newspaper accounts of “Wild Bill” Hickok’s marriage to Agnes Lake in 1876 reported a favorable view of their relationship. His father was said to have used the family house, now demolished, as a station on the Underground Railroad. Wild Bill Hickok is laid to rest at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, South Dakota. She met Hickok that summer in 1871 and according to bystanders, both were smitten. Quite to the contrary, she was a world-renowned performer and manager of the popular Lake's Circus. The summer before, a traveling circus came to town, owned and operated by Agnes Thatcher Lake, as Tom Clavin tells in Wild Bill: The True Story of the American Frontier's First Gunfighter. Later on, reports suggest that Bill was married to a woman named Martha Jane Cannary. On August 2, 1876, as James played poker, Jack McCall shot him in the back of the head, killing him instantly. Both moved on, and they did not reunite until five years later, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The truth about the widow of Wild Bill Hickok. And in their letters, his wife would always refer to him as "James." Time was of the essence; he was fast approaching 39, and she was 49. However, things changed when Bill fell in love with a woman named Agnes Thatcher Lake.

It wasn’t easy being married to the deadliest pistoleer in the Old West, but Agnes Lake Hickok wasn’t one to shy away from difficulty. Agnes Thatcher Lake was world renowned in the second half of the 19th century as a tightrope walker, lion tamer and equestrian. As an older woman, she wasn’t interesting in competing for Hickok’s attention on the same level as others.

Hickok was murdered, shot in the back of the head by the drunkard Jack McCall in a Deadwood barroom while playing cards. After the war he continued as a scout, but earned most of his fame as a Kansas peace officer, gambler and, by some accounts, the first gunfighter. They were putting on a show in Granby, Missouri, when Bill encountered a man who had snuck into the show without paying for a ticket, according to the Times. The eleven year age difference between Agnes and Wild Bill was a plus. Agnes continued in the circus business and remarried. It didn't happen. Despite the fact that Lake was 11 years his senior, they were immediately attracted to each other. Nobody seems quite sure when he became "Wild Bill." She was known as the "Circus Queen," touring throughout the southern and eastern United States with her husband and their band of 240 performers, acrobats, and animals. Bill was holding aces and eights, now known as the Dead Man's Hand. Just two months after tying the knot, Hickok left Cheyenne for the Black Hills of the Dakotas in search of gold, hoping to soon be able to make arrangements to set up a ranch home for himself and his new bride. The circus delighted Agnes so much that in her teen years she decided to run off with Bill Lake, a circus clown she met while he was performing at the big top in her hometown. Agnes met Wild Bill two years after her husband's death, when they both happened to be passing through Abilene, Kansas in 1871.

Agnes was a talented equestrian and confident in her ability. William Hickok died in 1852, when James was 15.

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