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Gordon W. Lillie ... Pawnee Bill

Pawnee Bill

Gordon William Lillie was born February 14, 1860, to Susan and Newton Lillie in Bloomington, Illinois. Newton Lillie owned and operated a flour mill and was considered one of the prosperous citizens of Bloomington. Gordon ,the oldest of four children (Lena, Effie, and Albert), worked in the flour mill after school and on weekends. Gordon spent his free time reading dime novels about the Old West and Buffalo Bill. To him Buffalo Bill was the epitome of the wild western adventurer and Gordon wanted to pattern his life in the same style.

After the flour mill burned down the entire family moved west to Kansas, where they had relatives. Taking what equipment survived the fire, the Lillies settled near Wellington. They built a small shanty with a dirt floor, and started farming. They set up another flour mill to grind corn and Mrs. Lillie taught the younger children at home. She soon turned that duty over to Gordon. But Gordon still wanted to set out on his own to see the west.

When the Pawnee Indians were being moved from their homeland in Nebraska to Indian Territory in the 1870’s, several of them made a winter camp near Wellington. Gordon spent many hours with them, learning their skills and language. He met Blue Hawk, a tribal elder, and they became good friends.

At the age of 15, Gordon joined a cattle drive out of Wichita. After some misadventures in the cattle town, Gordon decided to visit Blue Hawk instead. He got a job in the rock quarry and helped build the first Indian agent’s home. He went with the Pawnee on their annual buffalo hunt and learned to live among the Indians. He joined Trapper Tom McCain’s fur trading company and worked in that capacity for a time. During the next few years, Gordon became a teacher to the Pawnee Indians and an interpreter and secretary to Major Bowman, the Indian agent. It was during this time that Gordon became known as Pawnee Bill – a name the Pawnee Indians gave to him.

In 1883 Buffalo Bill wrote to the Pawnee Agency asking for several Indians to travel with his newly organized Wild West Show. Pawnee Bill and six Pawnees joined Buffalo Bill’s show. While traveling with the show in Philadelphia, Gordon met May Manning, a 15-year-old Quaker girl who was watching the parade. Gordon courted her for two years and they were married in Philadelphia in 1886. When Gordon was not traveling with the show, he and his cousins and brother were raising cattle on the plains of Indian Territory.

Gordon also was advised by friends of his wife’s family to start his own Wild West Show, so he began recruiting backers. He organized the "Pawnee Bill Wild West Show” in 1888; May performed as "Champion Girl Horseback Shot of the West.” The show went broke after the first season. The opening paragraph in the original Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show Program read, The scenes you are about to witness are laid in Oklahoma, the home of the wily Pawnees, during the turbulent days, before the advent of the railroad and the telegraph. The actors are genuine frontier heroes who have, in many cases, participated in the occurrences which they reproduce for you today with mimic realism.

But Gordon re-organized again as "Pawnee Bill’s Historical Wild West Indian Museum and Encampment Show” which was financially successful. He took the show to Europe, but then went bankrupt there. Gordon regrouped once again and the show toured Holland and entertained royalty there and in France. The show returned to the United States where Mexican Joe became a part of the organization. The show was once again successful.

In 1901 Pawnee Bill sensed the need to expand and number and types of acts or exhibitions in the performance arena, as circus companies and other wild west shows began stiff competition for the entertainment dollar. Pawnee Bill countered by adding ethnic groups gathered on his world tours. There were museum side shows featuring Arabian Acrobats, the Human Pin Cushion, the Fire King, a contortionist, an India rubber man, a snake charmer, a knife/battle ax fight, the Big-Footed Boy, the Spotted Sisters, performing Sioux, African and American songs, dance, and acrobatic feats. American Indians were always an important and popular show attribute and remained his best attraction. Other ethnic groups, including "Mexicans, Gauchos, Arabs, and Cossacks,” added excitement and pageantry.

In 1902 Pawnee Bill established the Buffalo Ranch on Blue Hawk Peak, land he had purchased from Blue Hawk. He traveled to Washington, D.C., to promote a congressional bill to develop a wildlife refuge. He also expanded his show and became serious competition for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.

The expanded show, "Pawnee Bill’s Wild West and Great Far East” represented an amazing aggregation of performers, circus type side shows, and animals. In a 1906 show program, much emphasis was placed on the diverse ethnic groups associated with the show: "Men and women of every tribe of every nation, Cossacks, sandwich islanders, Cinggalhese, Japanese, Bushmen, Arabs, Chinese, South Aftricans, Arabians, Filipinos, South Sea Islanders, Hindos, Mexicans . . .”

This "Mastodonic Exposition” was often called "The Ethnological Congress.” Assembling people from so many different cultures and requiring that they all work together was quite an accomplishment, considering that many of the cultures represented were currently or recently at war with on another.

In 1907 Pawnee Bill named his show "Pawnee Bill’s Wild West and Great Far East Show.” At about this time Buffalo Bill’s show was having financial difficulty and in 1908 Pawnee Bill purchased one-third interest in his show. Gordon bought the remaining interest soon after and gave Buffalo Bill a partnership. They traveled together as the "Two Bill’s Show” until 1913, when the venture again went bankrupt.

The combined show ended in Denver on July 20, 1913 during the grand entry when six deputy sheriffs, one armed with a writ, entered the show grounds and informed Pawnee Bill that the entire property of the Wild West and Far East Show had been attached, including the ticket wagon with all its private papers and business records and $6,000 in cash. Buffalo Bill had continued to make loans, many unknown to his partner.

Thus Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Pawnee Bill’s Far East shows died. Buffalo Bill went to North Platte to be confronted by his family and more creditors. Pawnee Bill returned to his home in Pawnee, where he continued business in several areas of interest. Buffalo Bill died in 1917. Pawnee Bill wrote, "Time smoothes everything. Buffalo Bill died my friend.” The Wild West Show also died.

Gordon and May built their dream home on Blue Hawk Peak and moved into the dwelling in 1910. May became manager of the Buffalo Ranch while Gordon was traveling with the combined show. In 1916 they adopted a child and named him Billy. During this time Pawnee Bill also opened a refinery in Yale, Oklahoma, purchased interest in a refinery in Tulsa, became interested in raising cattle, had his own movie production company located on the ranch, had his own publishing company, and was very active in civic and local affairs. In 1930 Pawnee Bill built and operated "Old Town,” a tourist attraction featuring log cabins, tepees, saloons, gun fights, and other attractions from the Old West.

Gordon and May celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1936. May died shortly after as a result of an automobile accident. Their son, Billy, had died in an accident in 1925. Pawnee Bill spent the remainder of this days at the Buffalo Ranch. He died in his sleep in 1942. He was considered by many to be one of the last "legends” of the Old West that he loved so much.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Old West You're no idiot, of course. You know that Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, ane Belle Star could shoot'em up just as well as Wild Bill Hickok, Jesse James, and Buffalo Bill Cody. But when it comes to saddling up and learning the entire history of the Old West, you feel like one tired cowpoke. Don't hang up your spurs just yet! The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Old West presents a vivid panorama of American history, from the earliest settlers to the cowboys' final sunset.

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