February 3, 1942
On this day in 1942, America lost the last of the Wild West showmen when “Pawnee Bill” Lillie died at his Oklahoma ranch.
Gordon William Lillie was a contemporary of the Western extravaganza originator, Buffalo Bill. He was by turns, Cody’s admirer, competitor and finally financial saviour. He learned the hard way, however, the legendary frontiersman was unreliable as a business partner.
By definition Lillie wasn’t born a Westerner. The oldest of four children, his family moved from Bloomington, Illinois, to Kansas when their flour mill burned down. His father, Newton, salvaged what machinery he could and rebuilt in the fledgling wheat and cow town of Wellington.
Washington Street businesses, early Wellington
It was there Lillie became fast friends with Pawnee elder, Blue Hawk. He and his followers had set up winter camp near the mill whenthe tribe 
was moved from Nebraska to Oklahoma. The young teen quickly became proficient in the Pawnee language and after a short stint as a drover, at the tender age of 15 he went looking for his old friend in Oklahoma. (Left, Pawnee elder Blue Hawk)
That same year, the government established Oklahoma’s Pawnee Agency and Boarding School. Lillie stayed for a year, helping to build the agent’s house and eventually serving as teacher, interpreter and secretary to the first agent. When he became Buffalo Bill Cody’s interpreter in 1883, he was known by everyone as “Pawnee Bill.”
He met 15-year-old Mary “May” Manning while traveling with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Exposition. A sophomore at the prestigious Smith College, Manning was the daughter of a prominent Philadelphia physician and a Quaker.
After a two-year courtship, the pair were married at her parent’s home and Lillie reportedly gave his new bride a pony and a .22 target rifle as wedding gifts. The Manning family urged their new son-in-law to start his own Wild West show.
Lillie took their advice and in 1888 began touring with the Pawnee Bill Wild West Show, advertising that May was “the greatest Lady Horseback Rifle-shot in the World.” (Left, May and Bill) The show struggled the first year but prospered after being reorganized as“Pawnee Bill’s Historical Wild West Indian Museum and Encampment Show.”
It’s success wasn’t entirely due to Lillie’s show business acumen. That same year, he was named to head of the Boomer Movement, a group intent on seeing “unassigned” Native American land opened to settlement. Eight years earlier the movement’s titular leader, David L. Payne and some two dozen Kansas farmers implemented an “intrusion” into Oklahoma’s unassigned territory. They were arrested by federal troops and sent back to Kansas.
Oklahoma “intrusion” settlement camp
A second larger intrusion several months later earned Payne an appearance before notorious“hanging judge” Isaac Parker, who imposed a 
thousand dollar fine. But Payne had no money and no property to attach and he went back to Kansas a free man.
His notoriety made him famous, rallying more public support to his side. But the former Union Army captain, (right) died suddenly in Lillie’s hometown of Wellington, Kansas, four years later at 47 after delivering a speech there.
Payne had been roundly despised by the Native Americans and Lillie’s close association with the Pawnee was viewed by many as an attempt to mollify the half-dozen tribes that had been transplanted to the territory. In April, 1889, Lillie led an estimated 4,000 settlers in a land run in Kingfisher County.
Oklahoma’s 1889 Land Rush
The extraordinary event focused a national spotlight on Lillie and helped resuscitate the Wild West Indian Museum and Encampment. It prospered for a few years before again floundering while touring Europe. Nothing if not resilient, Lillie regrouped, managing to attract huge crowds in Holland and France amid widespread acclaim.
Reinventing the enterprise for a third time on his return to the U.S., it became “Pawnee Bills Wild West and Far East,” with the addition of ethnic performers, animal acts and sideshow exhibits. By 1908, however, the West was less wild and no longer a novelty. Even Buffalo Bill’s show was languishing. Lillie rode to the rescue, buying a one-third interest and eventually the entire company. The two men toured together for five years, billing themselves as the “Two Bills.” (Above)
Lillie’s reclaimed fame allowed the couple to build their dream home on his ranch at Blue Hawk Peak, but it all came crashing down on July 20, 1913. During the show’s Grand Entry in Denver a party of deputy sheriffs made an appearance with a writ attaching the show’s assets including the evening’s gate receipts totaling $6,000. Unbeknownst to Lillie, Cody had continued to take out loans.
Cody’s Scout’s Rest ranch in Nebraska
Cody retired to his Nebraska ranch, Scout’s Rest, to face his family and a bevy of new creditors. The Lillies returned to Oklahoma. Unlike Cody, Bill had invested in land, cattle and oil. He founded a publishing company as well as a movie company, promoted Oklahoma’s Federal Highway 64 Association and established a herd of American Bison on his ranch.
Tragedy struck some years later when the Lillie’s son died at the age of eight. Billy, Jr. was just a year old when the couple adopted the Orphan Train toddler. He was accidentally hanged March 31, 1925, while he and his friends re-enacted the hanging of horse thieves.
May died tragically, as well. Returning to the ranch from celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, the couple’s car skidded off the road in New Mexico. She died of her injuries several days later. Lillie survived his wife by seven years, spending the remainder of his days at Blue Hawk Peak, dying quietly in his sleep at age 82.
Declaring that “time smooths everything” Lillie called Buffalo Bill his best friend when the showman died in 1917.
The Lillie home was placed on the National List of Historic Places in 1975. Pawnee Bill was inducted into the Great Hall of Famous Westerners at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City in 2010 and the original Wild West show is still performed annually at the Pawnee Bill Ranch the second weekend in June.
The Pawnee Bill Ranch and Museum, 1141 Pawnee Bill Road, Pawnee, Oklahoma, includes a blacksmith shop, a 1903 log cabin, a large barn and an Indian Flower Shrine containing exhibits on Pawnee Bill, Wild West shows and Pawnee tribal history. Surrounded by 500 acres, the ranch is home to a herd of bison and long horn cattle. The 14-room Arts and Crafts mansion designed by Pennsylvania architect James Hamilton contains the original furnishings, artwork and Lillie family memorabilia.
The site is administered by the Oklahoma Historical Society and has a number of day-use facilities for special events. Open summer hours April through October, 10 to 5, Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 4, Sunday and Monday. Winter hours, November through March are 10 to 5, Wednesday through Saturday and 1 to 4, Sunday and Monday.
Admission is $7 for adults, $5 for seniors, $4 for students from 6 to 18. Children five and under, veterans and active military are free with ID. For more information go to okhistory.org, e-mail pawneebill@okhistory.org, call (918) 762-2513 or write Pawnee Bill Ranch and Museum, 1141 Pawnee Bill Road, Pawnee, OK 74058.
© Text Only – 2020 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain or fair use.
*Head On West strives for historic accuracy and uses a number of sources considered reliable. When research differs on significant facts, the various points of view will be cited.