Fall 2012 Docket.p65 - Berrien County Historical Association

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Page 2 Berrien County Historical Association Board and Staff Margaret Poole, President Robert Sykora, Vice President Sara Bell, Treasurer Emily Foster, Secretary William Ast III Gary Campbell Ted Chamberlain Robert Feldman Frances Porter Snyder Robert Myers Kristen Patzer Umphrey Board of Directors Don Gillespie John Kamer Marian Tripplett Michael Wood Staff Executive Director Curator Museum Store Manager BCHA Mission Statement The mission of the BCHA is to collect, preserve, and interpret the history of Berrien County through exhibits, tours, publications, and educational and community outreach programs for public benefit. Learn more about the BCHA by visiting www.berrienhistory.org. The Docket Fall 2012, Vol. 28, No. 3 The Docket is published quarterly by the Berrien County Historical Association, 313 N. Cass Street, P.O. Box 261, Berrien Springs, Michigan 49103. (269) 471-1202. Editorial Staff Frances Porter Snyder, executive director Robert C. Myers, curator Kristen Patzer Umphrey, museum store manager The Docket is a benefit of membership in the BCHA. Annual membership dues to the BCHA are: $20 for individuals, $30 for families, and $40 yearly for institutions. Supporting memberships are: $40 Contributing, $50 Sustaining, $100 Patron, and $500 Benefactor. © Berrien County Historical Association, 2012 Dear Friends, Director’s Comments By Frances Porter Snyder Color season is upon us. Many of us look forward to the beautiful maple trees sharing their splendid red and gold leaves. We know that our clear blue skies, gorgeous trees and cool days will give way to “Old Man Winter.” Somehow, we still revel in the joys of the autumn season. At the History Center at Courthouse Square, we try to enhance every season with special exhibits, programs and events. In September, we enjoyed our “Smoky Mountain Holiday” motor coach tour. It was so much fun to catch up with friends who have traveled with us before and to become acquainted with new companions. We hope both will travel with us again as new acquaintances soon become old friends. We enjoyed beautiful sites, excellent food and great comradeship. What more could we ask? Our annual signature fund raising event is October 25, 2012. This year, Annie Oakley will be our special guest. “Little Sure Shot,” as she was known, will share what it was like to be the first American female superstar as a performer in Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. The evening includes a social hour with live music, a great dinner prepared by Mendel Center chefs, door prizes, a silent auction and a special program with Annie Oakley, portrayed by Kim Hanley. Advance reservations are required. Please call Kristen at the History Center for tickets at (269) 471- 1202. Every ticket includes a tax deductible donation that will be used for History Center programs. You may also donate an item for the silent auction. The auction is lots of fun and also generates income for the History Center. Call Kristen for more information. Courthouse Square will participate in Berrien Springs’ “Kindle the Christmas Spirit” on December 6, 2012. Everyone is welcome to join in the fun. There will be music, a treelighting, horse and wagon rides and many other activities. The Berrien Springs Trinity Lutheran School will perform in the 1839 Courthouse at 6:00 p.m.; afterward, the Trinity Lutheran Praise Team will lead a carol sing along in the courtroom. Most businesses will offer free refreshments and gifts for kids. Everyone is welcome to attend the event. This colorful season is always filled with sports events, back-to-school activities and hopefully, some time to just look at the glorious color around us. We hope you will have time to attend “Annie Oakley: Little Sure Shot” and later, “Kindle the Christmas Spirit.” As I close, I am reminded of the State of Michigan’s official motto: If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you. Look about you. There is beauty everywhere. Francie Frances Porter Snyder Executive Director
Aim at the high mark and you will hit it. No, not the first time, not the second time and maybe not the third. But keep on aiming and keep on shooting for only practice will make you perfect. Finally you’ll hit the bull’s-eye of success. ~ Annie Oakley Page 3 Annie Oakley was born Phoebe Ann Mozee on August 13, 1860, the daughter of Ohio Quakers. Her father died in 1866 and although Annie’s mother remarried, her stepfather soon died too. Poverty forced Annie’s mother to place her and her older sister in the Darke County (Ohio) Infirmary in the spring of 1870. She was soon “bound out” to a local family to help care for their infant son, on the false promise of fifty cents a week and an education. She endured two years of near-slavery with a family that abused her mentally and physically. She returned to her own home in 1872 after her mother had married for a third time. Annie’s talent with a rifle began to develop when she was a child. She started shooting and hunting by age eight to help support her family, selling game animals to local residents as well as restaurants and hotels in southern Ohio. She managed to pay off the mortgage on her mother’s farm when she was just fifteen years old. In 1875, traveling show marksman Francis E. Butler placed a $100 bet with Cincinnati hotel owner Jack Frost that he, Butler, could beat any local fancy shooter. Frost set up a shooting match between Butler and Annie. Butler lost the match on the 25 th shot but gained a wife: he began courting Annie, and they married on August 23, 1876. Annie and Frank began performing together and joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1885. Their fellow performer Sitting Bull gave the diminutive five-foot tall Annie the nickname “Watanya Cicilla,” which Buffalo Bill translated as “Little Sure Shot” in his public advertisements. Annie toured Europe, where she performed for Queen Victoria, King Umberto I of Italy, Marie François Sadi Carnot of France, and other heads of state. In one exhibition, Oakley knocked the ashes off a cigarette held by the newly crowned German Kaiser Wilhelm II. After the outbreak of World War I, Oakley wrote a letter to the Kaiser requesting a second shot. The Kaiser did not reply. Ever-growing fame made Annie Oakley America’s first female superstar. In her most famous trick, she repeatedly split a playing card, edge-on, and put several more holes in it before it could touch the ground, while using a .22 caliber rifle at a range of ninety feet. Oakley pioneered the idea of women serving in combat operations for the United States Army when she wrote a letter to President William McKinley just before the Spanish-American War to offer the services of a company of fifty women sharpshooters in the event of war. McKinley turned her down, but Theodore Roosevelt named his volunteer cavalry the “Rough Riders” after the “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World” in which Annie was a major star. Oakley was badly injured in a railroad accident in 1901. She recovered after five spinal operations, but left the Buffalo Bill show and in 1902 began a quieter acting career in a stage play written especially for her, The Western Girl. Oakley played the role of Nancy Berry and used a pistol, rifle and rope to outsmart a group of outlaws. Annie also spent her time and money promoting women’s rights and other causes. Her shooting expertise only increased with age, and in a 1922 shooting contest the sixty-two year-old Oakley hit one hundred clay targets in a row at a range of 16 yards. Annie died in Greenville, Ohio, at age sixtysix on November 3, 1926. A devastated Francis Butler simply stopped eating and died just eighteen days later. Representatives settling Annie’s estate discovered that she had spent her entire fortune on her family and her charities. Oakley was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas. Her remarkable life was celebrated in the 1946 Herbert and Dorothy Fields musical Annie Get Your Gun.
Page 1: Vol. 28, No. 3 Fall 2012 Signature
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Fall 2012 Docket.p65 - Berrien County Historical Association

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