Phoebe Ann Moses, better known as “Annie Oakley,” made a name for herself as one
of the best sharpshooters in the world throughout her lifetime.
In the process, she overcame a childhood filled with abuse and adversity to become not only
an enormously successful entertainer, but a role model for women and young girls.
Born in 1860, Annie’s father, Jacob, died of pneumonia when she was six years old.
Her mother, Susan, briefly remarried, but her second husband likewise died shortly thereafter.
Struggling to provide for her seven surviving children (she had nine total up to this point),
Susan sent two of her children, the 8-10 year old Annie (her exact age at this time is not
definitively known) and Sarah, off to the county “poor house,” called the Darke
County Infirmary.
From here, Annie was sent to work for a family she would later refer to simply as “the
wolves.”
During her time in the wolf-den, she was severely abused and functioned as a virtual slave for
the family.
After two long years of this, she decided she’d had enough and fled back to the infirmary.
Supposedly the numerous scars on Annie’s back convinced Nancy Edington, the wife of
the superintendent of the infirmary, to see to it that Annie was not sent back when the
“he-wolf” came to collect her.
After he was sent away and told in no uncertain terms Annie would never be given back to him,
Oakley later stated, “That night I slept untroubled for the first time in long months.”
Annie remained with the Edingtons for an unclear amount of time, learning to sew and make clothes
until her mother married one Joseph Shaw, and she was able to return home.
Not a financial burden at all, as it turns out, Annie almost immediately began supporting
her poverty-stricken mother, step-father, and six surviving siblings by utilizing her
talents with a gun.
Beyond putting food on the table via shooting and trapping various game, she was also able
to sell some of it to certain local businesses, earning enough money to pay off the approximately
$200 mortgage (about $4500 today) on her mother’s small farm by age 15.
Due to the somewhat unorthodox (particularly for the era) role the young teen took on as
her family’s provider, Annie was forced to put her education on the back burner, rarely
attending school.
Perhaps because of this, later in life she made countless donations to charities that
helped orphans and women in need get educated.
It was around this time (the exact date is disputed, either 1875, when Annie was 15,
or 1880, when she was 20) that Annie entered a Thanksgiving Day shooting competition, going
up against famed marksman Frank E. Butler, 13 years her senior.
One by one Butler outshot the local competition, until he went up against Annie.
She hit all 25 of her targets, while he only managed 24 of 25.
Rather than be sore about losing to the young lady (and losing a $100 bet in the process,
about $2200 today), he went the other way and started courting her.
Less than a year later, the pair married, either in 1876 or 1881.
In 1885, the happy couple joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.
A small-time star on the vaudeville circuit up to this point, her time with Buffalo Bill’s
show ultimately vaulted her into superstardom across the U.S. and parts of Europe, with
her staple tricks including things like shooting a playing card edge on at great distance,
then putting several bullet holes through its face as it flew wildly through the air
to the ground; shooting out candle flames; and shooting cigarettes and cigars from her
husband’s lips.
This brings us to 1898.
Although women were making small strides toward equality, they were still a long ways off
on countless fronts.
Most pertinent to this article, women were forbidden to join the military in any potential
combat role.
That’s not to say none of them tried.
By the 20th century, a handful of women, disguised as men, had joined U.S. war efforts in combat
roles under false names.
Once the disguised women were found out, however, they were immediately discharged, usually
dishonorably.
The fact that women were highly discouraged from engaging with the enemy did not deter
Annie Oakley.
When it appeared that the United States was on the brink of war with Spain around the
turn of the century, Annie offered her services to train a team of female sharpshooters for
the war.
In her letter to President McKinley, she wrote:
Dear Sir, I for one feel confident that your good judgment will carry America safely through
without war.
But in case of such an event I am ready to place a company of 50 lady sharpshooters at
your disposal.
Every one of them will be an American, and as they will furnish their own arms and ammunition,
will be little, if any, expense to the government.
Very truly,
Annie Oakley
Whether or not Oakley received a response from the President or whether her offer went
completely ignored is unclear, but the President certainly didn’t enlist Oakley’s help.
Annie_Oakley2Oakley extended the same offer to the government during World War I, but
again, the services of one of the greatest sharpshooters in the world were declined.
Undeterred, Annie and her husband helped the war efforts by joining the National War Work
Council of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) where the sharp-shooting couple held
exhibitions and presented lectures at Army posts to help soldiers hone their shooting
skills.
Despite her advanced years and being seriously injured in a car accident in 1922, Annie continued
to perform and set various sharp shooting records almost up to her death in 1925 at
the age of 66, dying of pernicious anemia.
Her husband of approximately a half a century, Frank Butler, died just 18 days after her,
supposedly refusing to eat anything after his wife’s death.
The pair left behind almost nothing of the small fortune they’d accumulated in their
lifetime, having previously donated the bulk of it to support various charities, particularly
those focused on helping women and orphans.
Annie Oakley was exceptionally careful with her public image throughout her lifetime.
Whereas other female sharpshooters tried to make a name for themselves by altering their
appearance to please their male admirers, Annie very purposefully made her own modest
costumes, striving to look attractive while still maintaining a sense of dignity in her
appearance.
Needless to say, in the early 20th century when William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers
reported that Annie Oakley was serving time in prison for “stealing the trousers of
a negro in order to get money with which to buy cocaine,” she was less than pleased.
Of course, she never did anything of the sort; a burlesque performer who called herself Annie
Oakley was supposedly the real culprit.
The facts didn’t stop newspapers across the nation from publishing the false, sensationalized
story.
Furious, Annie filed 55 libel suits against the newspapers and ended up settling or winning
54 of them.
However, the amount she was awarded, while significant, reportedly didn’t even cover
her legal bills.
While nobody took Oakley up on her offer to put together a team of sharp shooting women
to fight in a war, other women managed to get into combat more discretely.
One such was Deborah Sampson who spent 17 months disguised as Robert Shurtliff, a male
Continental Army soldier who fought in the Revolutionary War.
While fighting alongside her male counterparts, Sampson was seriously wounded.
In order to keep her true identity hidden, she was forced to cut a musket ball out of
her own leg so no doctor would discover her secret.
A second musket ball was too deep for her to remove, so she simply stitched herself
back up.
When her true identity was found out after she became severely ill near the end of the
war, expecting a severe reprimand of some sort, she was surprised to find that she was
given an honorable discharge and enough money to make her way home.