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"The little-known secrets behind the men & women who shaped America"

9-year-old girl supports family with her hunting ability          Send a link to a friend

By Paul Niemann

[October 18, 2007]  Phoebe Moses lived an interesting life. As a 9-year-old girl, she hunted for food to support her family. As a teenager, she starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. When she was 21, she beat a man in a shooting contest and then married him. In 1903, she was accused of having a cocaine habit. She also spent her entire fortune on the charities that she supported.

There's one other thing about her that's significant: If she hadn't been such a good shot, there might never have been a World War I (known then as "The Great War" since it was the only world war up to that point in history).

Phoebe (that's pronounced "Phoebe") was her given name, but it was her stage name by which you know her.

Phoebe was the fifth of seven children born in a log cabin to Jacob and Susan Moses in 1860, a Quaker couple living in rural western Ohio. She couldn't read, but she sure could shoot.

She lost her father when she was just 6 years old. A few years later, she began hunting for food to help feed the family. She was such a good aim that she could shoot the head off a running quail.

She was so good at hunting that she was able to support the family by selling her game to local residents. Local hotel owners preferred the animals that Phoebe shot because she always shot it in the head, meaning that there would be no buckshot left in the animal. She did well enough to pay off the mortgage on the family home in just three years!

This petite woman -- who stood only 5 feet tall as an adult -- went on to become one of the "Wild West's" biggest celebrities. She could split the edge of a playing card with her first shot and then shoot five more holes in that same card before it hit the ground.

In 1881, the spunky little Phoebe competed against a famous shooter named Frank Butler in a contest near Greenville, Ohio. Now, Butler was considered one of the top three marksmen in his day, but he was no match for Phoebe Ann Moses. He lost when he missed his 25th shot, but things still turned out well for him. Frank and Phoebe began dating, and they married the following year.

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So she became Phoebe Ann Butler, the greatest American woman to ever shoot a gun, right?

Wrong. This woman, who would go on to perform with Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill, would take a nickname of her own; actually, it was more of a stage name than a nickname. She took her stage name after the Cincinnati neighborhood in which she and Frank lived.

Phoebe Moses became known as Annie Oakley.

After they were married, she worked as Frank's assistant in his show, but they both realized that Annie Oakley had more talent than he did (their first clue should have been when she beat him in the shooting match earlier). So he became her assistant.

You've heard the story of William Tell shooting the apple off a man's head? Well, Annie Oakley once shot a cigarette out of the lips of Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II, prompting one person to sarcastically remark that if she had been a worse shot, there might never have been a World War I.

And what happened with the accusation that she had a cocaine habit?

Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst published a story that Annie Oakley was arrested for stealing to pay for cocaine. It turned out that a burlesque performer was the guilty one and, when arrested, she told the police that her name was Annie Oakley. When the real Annie Oakley took Hearst to court and won, he refused to pay up. She went on to win 54 out of 55 libel suits against newspapers that reprinted the story.

Why only 54 out of 55? It turns out that Annie Oakley was better at shooting guns than she was at winning lawsuits.

[Text from file received from Paul Niemann]

Paul Niemann may be reached at niemann7@aol.com.

Copyright Paul Niemann 2007

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