William Frederick Cody born in LeClair, Iowa got the moniker "Buffalo Bill" because during one 18 month period he killed 4,280 buffalo to supply meat for the workers building the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Cody was a frequent visitor to Rochester and had many friends here. One year in 1874 he was performing a stage show called Buffalo Bill, King of the Border Men at the Cook Opera House on South Avenue, later known as the Embassy Theater, near the location of today’s convention center. His wife Louise and his children got tired of all the traveling so Cody rented a house at 10 New York Street in Rochester for two years where Mrs. Cody made a home while her husband traveled with his show, returning himself to live in Rochester between performances. During the second year of residence in Rochester, their only son Kit Carson Cody died of scarlet fever at the age of five. That same year after burying their son here, the Codys packed up and left Rochester heading back west. Buffalo Bill gave up the stage for a while and took a job as General Sheridan’s Chief Indian Scout.

Buffalo Bill performed again at Rochester’s Driving Park in June 1883 and wowed over 15,000 Rochesterians with his Wild West Show which included 60 Indians, 30 cowboys, and 20 buffalo. Later that same year in October, his eleven year old daughter Orra Maude died of remittent fever at their new home in North Platte, Nebraska. The Codys returned to Rochester for her burial next to her young brother. In February 1904 the oldest of the four children, Arta, died in Spokane, Washington, three weeks after her marriage to an ex-army surgeon Dr. Charles Thorp. Arta’s body was brought to Rochester and put in the children’s plot at Mt. Hope cemetery. Buffalo Bill performed his Wild West show six more times in Rochester with his last appearance here on June 13^th 1910.

If you enjoyed this article you may wish to visit the website www.RochesterHistoryAlive.com where you can find much more information on Rochester history, and review excerpts from the new best selling local history book America's First Boomtown - Rochester, NY.