Lesson 57 Annie Oakley- Little Sure Shot
-Where did Annie Oakley grow up? Phoebe Ann Mosey was born on a small farm near
Woodland, Ohio on August 13, 1860. Her family was poor, but she had a happy childhood growing
up in a small log cabin with her six brothers and sisters. Everybody called her by her nickname
Annie.
-Around the age of six, hard times came to Annie's family when her father died. Annie had to go
and live at the local poor house where she sewed clothes.
-A few years later she was sent to work for a local family. The family was mean and treated Annie
like a slave. Eventually Annie escaped and made her way back home to her mother.
-Learning to Shoot-
Once home, Annie learned to hunt game. She became an excellent shot. She was able to feed her
family and help her mother pay the bills by selling game to restaurants and hotels.
With all this practice Annie became an excellent shot.
-Winning a Contest-
At the age of fifteen, Annie entered into a shooting contest in Cincinnati. She took on a traveling
sharpshooter named Frank Butler.
-The two shooters took turns shooting over twenty times. Each time both hit the target. Finally,
Frank Butler missed, but Annie hit.
-The little country girl had beaten the famous sharpshooter. This was the start of something big.
-After the contest, Frank and Annie became friends. Soon they were courting and they eventually
married.
-Annie began to travel with Frank and perform shooting exhibitions. It was during this time
that she became known as "Annie Oakley".
-Joing Buffalo Bill-
In l885, Annie and Frank joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. This show was famous
throughout the world. The show had all sorts of entertainment including horse peformances
and the Pony Express
- The shows also had re-enactments of Indian attacks, and also presented the famous Native
American Chief Sitting Bull, however Annie Oakley became the star of the show.
-What tricks did she perform?
Annie performed all sorts of amazing tricks including shooting a cigarette from her husband's
lips, hitting dimes thrown into the air, and splitting a playing card at the edge.
-She would put out burning candles and shoot the corks off of bottles. Some of these tricks she
would perform while standing on the back of a galloping horse. Her ability with a gun was truly
amazing.
-Becoming famous
As part of the the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, Annie became very famous. She traveled to
Europe where she performed in the Paris Exposition in 1889.
She also performed for many famous European leaders like Queen Victoria of England and
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.
Later life and death-
-In 1901, Annie was injured in a train accident. Not long after that she retired from the Wild
West Show. She continued to work as an actress and writer until she died November 3, 1926
at the age of 66.
Interesting facts about Annie Oaklye
-She had a number of nicknames including "Little Sure Shoot", "Watanya Cicilla" and "Miss
Annie Oakley".
-Annie called the mean family that treated her like a slave the "wolves".
-She once wrote a letter to President William McKinley offering her services to the government
during the Spanish-American War. He didn't take her up on it.
-The King of Senegal once asked Annie to come to Africa and help protect his village from wild
beasts.
-Did Sitting Bull adopt Annie Oakley?
Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull became especially close during his few years touring with the Wild
West show and adopted her as a replacement for a daughter he had lost. He was the one to
give her the Lakota name "Watanya Cicilla" or "Little Sure Shot".
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