Wild Bill Hickok Biography, Age, Weight, Height, Friend, Like, Affairs, Favourite, Birthdate & Other

Wild Bill Hickok was an American frontiersman who helped bring order to the frontier West. Born as James Butler Hickok, he was one of the early Heroes of the West known for his skills as a gunfighter, scout and professional gambler. Born and raised on a farm in rural Illinois, he grew up to be a tough teenager who often picked up fights with other boys.

Following a violent fight with a boy named Charles Hudson, Hickok thought that he had killed his opponent and thus fled from home to evade arrest. He moved west and joined General James Lane’s Free State (antislavery) forces in Kansas. During this time he also worked as a stagecoach driver. When the American Civil War broke out, he joined the Union Army and also spied for them.

By this time he had become a remarkable marksman and a skilled professional gambler. His exploits during the war greatly added to his reputation and he was catapulted to the status of a legendary hero of the West. After the war, he was appointed sheriff in Hays City and marshal of Abilenecities notorious for being havens for lawless men. Hickok, however, changed that and helped to establish law and order in these cities which further cemented his reputation as a folk hero.