History is cool, when u study it deeply...............

Early life[edit]

Annie Oakley was born Phoebe Ann (Annie) Mosey^[4][5][6] on August 13, 1860, in a cabin less than 2 miles northwest of Woodland, now Willowdell, in Darke County, Ohio, a rural western border county of Ohio.^[7] Her birthplace log cabin site is about five miles east of North Star. There is a stone-mounted plaque in the vicinity of the cabin site, which was placed by the Annie Oakley Committee in 1981, 121 years after her birth.

Annie's parents were Quakers of English descent from Hollidaysburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania: Susan Wise, age 18,^[8][9] and Jacob Mosey, born 1799, age 49, married in 1848. They moved to a rented farm (later purchased with a mortgage) in Patterson Township, Darke County, Ohio, sometime around 1855.

Born in 1860, Annie was the sixth of Jacob and Susan's nine children.^[10] Her siblings include Mary Jane (1851-1867), Lydia (1852-1882), Elizabeth (1855-1881), Sarah Ellen (1857-1939), Catherine (1859-1859), John (1861-1949), Hulda (1864-1934) and a stillborn infant brother in 1865.^[11] Annie's father, who had fought in the War of 1812, became an invalid from overexposure during a blizzard in late 1865 and died ofpneumonia in early 1866 at age 65.^[12] Her mother later married Daniel Brumbaugh, had one more child, Emily (1868-1937), and was widowed for a second time.

Because of poverty following the death of her father, Annie did not regularly attend school as a child, although she did attend later in childhood and in adulthood.^[13] On March 15, 1870, at age nine, Annie was admitted to the Darke County Infirmary, along with elder sister Sarah Ellen. According to her autobiography, she was put in the care of the Infirmary's superintendent, Samuel Crawford Edington and his wife Nancy, who taught her to sew and decorate. Beginning in the spring of 1870, she was "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. The couple had originally wanted someone who could pump water, cook, and who was bigger. She spent about two years in near-slavery to them where she endured mental and physical abuse. She would often have to do boys' work. One time the wife put Annie out in the freezing cold, without shoes, as a punishment because she had fallen asleep over some darning.^[14] Annie referred to them as "the wolves". Even in her autobiography, she kindly never told the couple's real name.^[15] According to biographer Glenda Riley, "the wolves" could have been the Studabaker family.^[16] However, the 1870 U.S. Census suggests that "the wolves" were the Abram Boose family of neighboring Preble County.^[17][18] Around the spring of 1872, Annie ran away from "the wolves". (According to biographer Shirl Kasper, it was only at this point that Annie had met and lived with the Edingtons, returning to her mother's home around the age of 15.)^[19] Annie's mother married a third time, to Joseph Shaw, on October 25, 1874.^{[citation needed]}

Annie began trapping at a young age, and shooting and hunting by age eight to support her siblings and her widowed mother. She sold the hunted game to locals in Greenville, such as shopkeepers Charles and G. Anthony Katzenberger, who shipped it to hotels in Cincinnati and other cities;^[20] as well, she sold the game herself to restaurants and hotels in northern Ohio. Her skill eventually paid off the mortgage on her mother's farm when Annie was 15.^[21]

Debut and marriage[edit]

The Amateur Circus at Nutley(1894) by American illustrator Peter Newell. The scene depicted in the center is of Annie Oakley, standing on horseback, demonstrating her shooting ability.

Annie soon became well known throughout the region. On Thanksgiving Day 1875,^[22] the Baughman & Butler shooting act was being performed in Cincinnati.

Traveling show marksman and former dog trainer Frank E. Butler (1847–1926), an Irish immigrant, placed a $100 bet per side (worth $2,148 today) with Cincinnati hotel owner Jack Frost, that he, Butler, could beat any local fancy shooter.^[23] The hotelier arranged a shooting match between Butler and the 15-year-old Annie saying, "The last opponent Butler expected was a five-foot-tall 15-year old girl named Annie."^[22] After missing on his 25th shot, Butler lost the match and the bet. Another account mentions that Butler actually hit on his last shot, but the bird fell dead about two feet beyond the boundary line.^[24] He soon began courting Annie, and they married on August 23, 1876. They did not have children.^[22]

According to a modern-day account in The Cincinnati Enquirer, it's possible that the shooting match may have actually taken place in 1881 and not 1875.^[24] Unfortunately, it appears the time of the event was never recorded. Biographer Shirl Kasper states the shooting match took place in the spring of 1881 near Greenville, possibly in North Star as mentioned by Butler during interviews in 1903 and 1924. Other sources seem to coincide with the North Fairmount location near Cincinnati if the event occurred in 1881.^[24]The Annie Oakley Center Foundation mentions Oakley visiting her married sister, Lydia Stein, at her home near Cincinnati in 1875.^[25] That information is incorrect as Lydia didn't marry Joseph C. Stein until March 19, 1877.^[26] Although speculation, it is most likely that Oakley and her mother visited Lydia in 1881 as she was seriously ill fromtuberculosis.^[27] The Bevis House hotel was still being operated by Martin Bevis and W.H. Ridenour in 1875. It first opened around 1860 after the building was previously used as a pork packaging facility. Jack Frost didn't obtain management of the hotel until 1879.^[24][28] The Baughman & Butler shooting act first appeared on the pages of The Cincinnati Enquirer in 1880. They signed with Sells Brothers Circus in 1881 and made an appearance at the Coliseum Opera House later that year.^[24][29]

Regardless of the actual date of the shooting match, Oakley and Butler were married a year afterward. A certificate is currently on file with the Archives of Ontario, Registration Number 49594, reporting Butler and Oakley's being wed on June 20, 1882 in Windsor, Ontario.^[30] Many sources say that the marriage took place on August 23, 1876 in Cincinnati,^[25] yet there is no recorded certificate to validate that date. A possible reason for the contradicting dates may be that Butler's divorce from his first wife, Henrietta Saunders, was not yet final in 1876. An 1880 U.S. Federal Census record shows Saunders as married.^[31] Sources mentioning Butler's first wife as Elizabeth are inaccurate; Elizabeth is actually his granddaughter, her father being Edward F. Butler.^[32] Throughout Oakley's show-business career, the public was often led to believe that she was five to six years younger than her actual age. Claiming the later marriage date would have better supported her fictional age.^[25]