If you mention the name of William Cody, aka Buffalo Bill, then it might conjure up images of America’s Old Wild West, rather than the rolling hills of Derbyshire. Whilst touring around Europe the famous Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show made many visits to Derbyshire, including Derby, Chesterfield, Glossop, and Ilkeston. With cowboys, stagecoaches, horses, and a large group of Native Americans, it would have been quite the sight to behold for the locals.
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show first came to England in 1887 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. From then on, the audiences became captivated by the exotic sights of life in the American West, something which was a slowly dying phenomenon. With such exciting things to see, wherever it went it was nearly always a sell-out show. In the 1903 tour alone, which was when the show came to Derby, the troupe performed 333 shows. When you look at the sheer scale of it, it’s easy to see why.
On 22 October 1903, the Wild West Show came to Derby, for one day only. The four trains containing 800 people, 500 horses and all the equipment pulled in at the station, having just come up from Loughborough. Their venue was to be Osmaston Park, which back then was still part of the Osmaston Hall estate. The arena, was estimated by the Derby Daily telegraph, was to be around 400 feet by 180 feet wide, and capable of seating 14,000 people. All the seats were also covered over in case of bad weather.
It was time to unload and set up the living camp that visitors could walk around to gauge what real life was like on the American frontier. Within half an hour of arriving, both the dining hall and kitchen were set up so that breakfast could be served. Where do you even start to feed such a large number of people? A large quantity of steaks, chops, bacon, and eggs, which had come on an overnight delivery equating to 1,400 pounds of meat! Further supplies in the delivery included 700 pounds of potatoes, 300 pounds of vegetables and 450 pounds of bread, as well as milk and butter, which were all purchased locally. That’s a lot of food!
By the time of the 1903 tour, there was also the addition of the Congress of Rough Riders, which Cody had included since the Chicago World Trade Fair. They were a group of cattle riders from around the world, who also hoped to showcase their riding skills. The audiences of Derbyshire would have been treated to Gauchos, Cossacks, Arabs, and Turks, as well as the already famed cowboys and Native Americans.
On that same tour, there were many other events of note connected with Derbyshire. As local legend states, two of the Native Americans died whilst in Chesterfield and were buried in Boythorpe Cemetery. I haven’t investigated those claims, so perhaps that might be something for someone else to follow up, should you so wish. When the troupe arrived in Derby, there was also an incident involving a Native American known by the name of Charlie Little Soldier. He was found drunk on the streets an hour before the start of the show and was locked up overnight to sleep it off. He appeared in court the next day and was treated leniently, being sent on to Burton-upon-Trent for the next performance. The last show of the tour was in Burton, so perhaps a good idea. Supposedly Buffalo Bill himself drank a pint of Bass Ale. Of course, this is one of those tales that can’t be corroborated, but it is entirely likely that this was some publicity stunt by the brewery, with the hopes of increasing sales.
There was a lot going on for the final show in Burton. It would have been the day everyone got paid their wages and everything would have had to have been packed up and things organised for the troupe to make their way to Liverpool, so they could make the return journey home to America. Once all things were organised, the many trains used would have been sent to storage, using the same sidings as the other famous American export at this time, P.T. Barnum’s Circus, of the Greatest Showman fame.
Perhaps the most surprising thing of all is the possibility that Buffalo Bill might have had Derbyshire ancestry. In his memoirs, Cody says that his mother was descended from the Bunting family, who were early Quakers who had emigrated to America. Once they reached their new home, they settled in the newly founded Darby in Pennsylvania, as it reminded them of their Derbyshire home from old. Genealogists have supposedly traced this family back to the Matlock area. If true, what a curious thing to think that William Cody returned to Derbyshire with his world-famous Wild West Show, the county his ancestors who had left so many years before.
Bibliography:
‘Buffalo Bill at Glossop’, Glossop-dale Chronicle and North Derbyshire Reporter, 7 October 1904
‘Buffalo Bill at Nottingham’, Derby Daily Telegraph, 25 August 1891
‘The Congress of Rough Riders of the World and International Manhood’, The Buffalo Bill Project, http://buffalobillproject.unl.edu/research/roughriders/congress.php
Advert for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, Derbyshire Courier, 10 October 1903
Peter Seddon, ‘Derbyshire in the life of Buffalo Bill – the remarkable visit of William Cody’s Wild West Spectacular’, Great British Life, 28 January 2012, https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/people/22633114.derbyshire-life-bufalo-bill—remarkable-visit-william-codys-wild-west-spectacular/
Zena Hawley, ‘The day Buffalo Bill steamed into Derby with 800 personnel and 500 horses’, Derby Telegraph, 25 July 2020, https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/day-buffalo-bill-steamed-derby-4362494
Derbyshire Record Office 
I have searched a lot and can find no evidence of lakota indians being buried in Chesterfield. Certainly not in Boythorpe as it was not open in 1903.
Information that has been passed down the Kirk family of Chesterfield, that William Cody became friends with the family. One branch of the family had butchers shops in Chesterfield. When two members of his troop died they refused to have them buried in the cemetery and they were buried on “Kirk land” and William Cody gave a horse (or horses) to the Kirk family.
Thank you for an interesting record. My ancestors where Buntings from Crich and although we have looked at the Bunting family in that area, we have not found any reference to the Cody name.