Are You Satisfied Mrs. Wild Bill?

August 23, 2017
   Got up this morning and finished a little study:

Daily Whip Out: "Are You Satisfied?"

  Went into work and finished a couple hangouts for the November issue. Went home for lunch and took another stab at Wild Bill Looms, but this one is a little different from the original premise. Chalk it up to lunchtime proclivities:

Daily Whip Out: "Wild Bill And The Number 10"

   Which brings us to another thrilling episode in Hickok's life:

Wild Bill's Wedding

 Are You Satisfied, Mrs. Wild Bill?

   In 1871, Wild Bill met Agnes Lake Thatcher, who was the widow of a circus owner. By most accounts the two sent letters to each other for several years before they were married in Cheyenne, Wyoming on March 5, 1876. The Reverend W.F. Warren, who married the couple, wrote in his register that he didn't think they "meant it." The marriage ceremony was witnessed by S.L. and Minnie Moyer. Ironically, both would also be the witnesses at Agnes's rebound marriage about a year after the death of Hickok. A photograph survives of Hickok and S.L Moyer which may have been taken at the time of the wedding (it will be in the book). Mr. and Mrs. Hickok honeymooned in St. Louis and her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. After two weeks of supposed connubial bliss, Hickok returned to Cheyenne to organize an expedition to the Black Hills where a reporter noted that "he is a trifle pale now, because of a recent illness." Hickok had eye problems.

A Love Letter From Wild Bill

   Here is a letter he wrote to his wife from the illegal mining camp of Deadwood on July 17, 1876, only a couple weeks before his assassination. I have cleaned up the spelling, punctuation and syntax:

"My own darling wife Agnes. I have but a few moments left before this letter starts [on its way to you]. I never was as well in my life but you would laugh to see me now. Just got in from prospecting [and] will go away again tomorrow [and, I] will write in the morning. . .I don't expect to hear from you but it is all the same. I know my Agnes and [I] only live to love her. Never mind Pet, we will have a home yet then we will be so happy. I am almost sure I will do well here, the man is hurrying me [to finish the letter]. Goodbye my Dear wife. Love to Emma."

—J. B. Hickok, Wild Bill

Hardly the letter one might expect from someone who didn't really "mean it."

Full disclosure: Back in 1996 when I was first hot on the trail of Wild Bill, I shot a bunch of reference photos out at Pioneer, Arizona. I took one of these reference shots taken in the church at Pioneer, for my proposed wedding sequence, and had our crack designer, Rebecca Edwards, funk it up to make it look authentic. The models are, L to R: Jenny Smith, Jim Dunham and Jerry Terrantino. 

"Pretty near all these stories are true."

—Wild Bill