We’ve all read and heard that it was Samuel Colt’s 45 that tamed the West. Did you know that gun manufacturing wasn’t Colt’s first venture into business? And did you know that Samuel Colt was a failure at gun manufacturing before he was a success. To get the whole story copy and then paste the following link in your web browser:

            http://youtu.be/h9BHMhCKQtY

Everybody knows about Buffalo Bill Cody.  Here’s something about him that most people don’t know.  And I’m sure it will surprise you.

Buffalo Bill Cody was the consummate showman.  Anytime he had the opportunity to get publicity, he took it…even making up stories about himself, and embellishing those that actually happened.  But there was one accomplishment that didn’t get much publicity.  That was that Buffalo Bill Cody won the Congressional Metal of Honor.  Part of the reason was that, he had it, and then he lost it, and then he got it back.  I’ll explain.

In May of 1872, with novels of his exploits in circulation, Cody was scouting for the 3rd Cavalry.  He was guiding an advance unit of 6 men when, a mile away, Cody spotted the Indians they were pursuing.  He led the soldiers to within 50 yards of the Indians before gunfire erupted.  It wasn’t a major battle, but in the process Cody killed one Indian and the other men killed two others.

On the basis of the report that was written up about that encounter, on May 22, 1872, Buffalo Bill Cody was awarded the Congressional Metal of Honor.  Right after this, Buffalo Bill quit his job as scout and started touring in the play The Scouts of the Plains.

But this wasn’t the end of the story of Buffalo Bill’s Metal of Honor.  In 1916, just prior to his death, Congress took a look a the people who had received the Metal of Honor and rescinded Buffalo Bill’s along with 910 others.  The reason given was that Buffalo Bill was a civilian employee at the time of his gallantry.

But, in the spirit of  “all’s well that ends well,” in 1989, 72 years after his death Congress took another look, and restored Buffalo Bill’s Congressional Metal of Honor.

Today one of the first things every newly married couple does, once the get back from their honeymoon, is to set up housekeeping.  As we shall see, some 150 years ago, setting up housekeeping was a bit different.

Bethenia Owens and Lagrande Hill got married on May 15, 1854. She was fourteen years of age. Skipping any honeymoon, they immediately moved into their newly purchased home.  It was a log cabin that was 12 feet by 14 feet in size.

The door was so low that a man had to stoop to go in and out.  The cabin had neither floor nor chimney and wide cracks admitted both drafts and vermin…which included snakes and lizards.

Their furniture consisted of a pioneer bed, made by boring three holes in the logs of the wall in one corner, in which to drive the rails.  That way the bed required only one leg.  The table was a rough shelf, fastened to the wall.  The cupboard was three shelves on the wall.

Her dishes were tin ware.  The cooking utensils comprised of a pot, tea-kittle, frying-pan and coffee-pot.  In addition Bethenia had a butter churn, a wash tub and board, twenty gallon iron pot for washing purposes, water bucket and tin dipper.

Her father gave her money to buy groceries, which she did the afternoon of her wedding.  Her mother contributed a good straw bed, pillows and blankets.

Bethenia considered this a most excellent start in life.

Unfortunately, this marriage that started out so excellently didn’t end that way.  Bethenia’s husband beat her, and at the age of eighteen she left him.  What did she do then?  She went back to her parent’s home, learned to read and write, went to school and ended up becoming the first woman physician in the West.