William F Cody Louisa Arta and Orra Cody

Louisa Maud Frederici Cody (May 27, 1844 – October 21, 1921) was the wife of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. She married on March 6, 1866, on her family farm in Arnold, Missouri, and remained in a rocky relationship for 51 years until Cody's death in 1917. The couple had met when Cody traveled to

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

due to his Union Army duties at the close of the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. They married soon after, the

wedding A wedding is a ceremony in which two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnicity, ethnicities, Race (human categorization), races, religions, Religious denomination, denominations, Cou ...

taking place shortly after their interactions in 1865, with Cody taking time out from

scouting Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

and horse-driving to marry Louisa. Louisa, often referred to as "Lulu" by her husband, was a proud woman who would not simply grant Cody a divorce in 1904, which led to trial in 1905. The case was given in Louisa's favor after a judge deemed "incompatibility was not a grounds for divorce." Louisa and Cody had four children: Arta Lucille (1866–1904), Kit Carson (1870–1876), Orra Maude (1872–1883), and Irma Louise (1883–1918). Louisa would outlive all of her children, with Arta dying shortly before the proceedings of the divorce. Louisa and the children lived separate from Cody as he traveled. Remaining in North Platte, Nebraska, Louisa purchased most of the family's property in her own name. She did this in hopes that if Cody hit a spell of bad financial luck, which he often did, she would be able to provide him with a small fortune. Detailing her life and issues with her husband, Louisa's ''Memories'' ''of Buffalo Bill'' (c. 1923) shows her devotion to her husband, regardless of his alleged relationships with actresses and women in the Wild West shows. Louisa loved to sew and often sewed her husband's and children's clothes; this was a result of her training in a

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as a young girl. Noted as always being practical, Louisa is noted by Lottie Kocken (a girl who was part of the Buffalo Bill Excursion in 1878) as being upset when Cody would send her a large bouquet of flowers because "she needed the money more than flowers." Jessie Blackenburg Renyolds also remembered Louisa, commenting that "Willie just couldn't hold onto money, for he was a grand spender, and she has to fix it so he couldn't mortgage everything." When Kit Carson died in 1868, that was believed to have been the final straw for Cody, who was wanting to spend his money and gain the affections of any woman but his wife. Cody filed two

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to an officia ...

s, with one

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claiming that the cause behind them was Louisa's "

nagging Nagging, in interpersonal communication, is repetitious behaviour in the form of pestering, hectoring, harassing, or otherwise continuously urging an individual to complete previously discussed requests or act on advice. The word is probably borro ...

." The first filing of divorce was withdrawn due to the death of Orra Cody in 1883. The second went to

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...

Cheyenne, Wyoming Cheyenne ( or ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Wyoming, most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming. It is the county seat of Laramie County, Wyoming, Laramie County, with 65,132 reside ...

, in 1905, flooding headlines and tearing communities into the crossfire and demanding they pick sides. Cody and Louisa

While the divorce

scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way a ...

raged on between the two in the

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and in the papers, Louisa continued to maintain the house and her living children. When asked to put the suit on hold temporarily in order to attend the

funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

of Arta, Louisa refused, demanding that she remain married and the suit be dropped. On March 23, 1905, the

district court District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations, some call them "small case court" usually as the lowest level of the hierarchy. These courts generally work under a higher court which exercises control over the lower co ...

of Sheridan did not grant Cody his divorce. Louisa then paid her real estate

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

es in

Lincoln County, Nebraska Lincoln County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2020 census, the population was 34,676. Its county seat is North Platte. Despite the county's name, the state capital city of Lincoln is not in or near Lincoln Coun ...

on 1,200 acres of land and numerous houses assessed under her name and on 700 acres that had been in Cody's name; the result was more than $600, making her one of the largest tax payers in the county. Louisa and Cody reconciled in 1910 and she often attended his Wild West shows until his death in 1917. Louisa died in 1921, and was buried with her husband on

Lookout Mountain Lookout Mountain is a mountain ridge at the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the southeastern Tennessee state line in Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain was the scene of the 18th-century "La ...

Bibliography

External links

* The Buffalo Bill Center of the West: https://centerofthewest.org/explore/buffalo-bill/ Retrieved May 4, 2016 * The McCracken Research Library Digital Collections on Buffalo Bill: http://library.centerofthewest.org/cdm/ Retrieved May 5, 2016. * The William F. Cody Archive: http://codyarchive.org/ Retrieved May 2, 2016.
''The Papers of William F. Cody''"
Retrieved May 1, 2016. {{Authority control 1844 births 1921 deaths People from St. Louis People of the American Old West Buffalo Bill

Bibliography

Further reading

External links