b'SAMUEL F. CODYThe Incredible, Sometimes StrangerThan True Story Of The Other Cody THE TEXAS (?) COWBOY WHO BECAMETHE FATHER OF BRITISH AVIATION PART 1 By Alan RockmanJust as you may have thought you had read enough about the Codys, well, along comes another one. This Cody was certainly NO relation, blood or otherwise, to the famous Pahaska, Buffalo Bill. Nor was helarger building, with the bunkhouse, cookhouse, and staterooms, that the redskins opened their onslaught. apparently a Cody if public records are true. Late in the evening, when the full moon was on the T his is a tale of an American Cowboy and aceon the prairie, not isolated or a doomed ranch likerise, their blood curdling, war-whoops suddenly burst out, followed at once with rifle fire. Young Cody, who sharpshooter who admired and emulated thethe one in that epic John Wayne movie, The Searchers.had just come from the bunkhouse, where he and his famed scout and showman so much that he beganDespite Comanche depredations to the north on thebrothers had joined the men in a lengthy poker game, to assume the persona of Buffalo Bill\'s "other son" (KitStaked Plains, it was close enough to Ft. Worth thatwas hit at once by a chance shot from the first volleys Carson Cody, the only son of Buffalo Bill died whileif the Comanche and Kiowa rode south over 340as the braves circled the building. Hit in the leg he still a very young child) and would get into legal "hotmiles of desolate prairie and desert to strike, helpcollapsed to the ground and stayed there. Gun flashes water" for doing so. A Cowboy who would leave hiscould quickly be summoned, whether it be the Texascame from the bunkhouse, the Indians returned the native country and re-invent himself, becoming theRangers or (after the Civil War) the United Statesfire as they galloped their ponies round and round "Father of British Aviation." 4th Cavalry under Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie.their prey. One pony missed Cody by inches, but Which makes what Cody said about the ultimatethe rider, his carbine at the shoulder, did not see the This flamboyant Texas (beware, readers - if publicfate of his family, a story similar to that of the fate ofprone figure.records are correct he was not even from Texas)the Edwards family in The Searchers, highly dubious, Cowboy who so noticeably resembled Buffalosince the story he told kept changing time and timeIn mortal danger, the boy yet kept his head. Useless Bill Cody albeit with a Salvador Dali mustacheand time again. He sometimes even got the datesto try to return to the bunkhouse or reach the family (long before Dali had one) who for a short butwrong. Cody claimed that his childhood on thecabin which lay beyond and now within the circle extraordinary time conquered the skies over Britainranch was fairly idyllic with a family he loved dearly,of yelling horsemen. Desperately he started to crawl is largely forgotten in our history books despite someespecially his parents, his older sister Mandy, hisaway in the darkness, the injured leg dragging numbly pretty impressive accomplishments as a Wild Westbrothers, and the cowhands who worked at the ranch.until he was far away enough distant to rise with safety showman and a pioneer aviator. When he crash-divedHe learned to rope and ride, tended to the animals,to his feet. He looked back. The Indians had fired the to his death in 1913 his funeral was attended by thehelped with the chores, and at an early age learnedcabins, flames, and smoke flared from both. There was entire Royal Flying Corps and thousands of mourners.too, to be a crack sharpshooter. The first and the latterno shooting now. His brothers and the cowhands must A eulogy was delivered by King George V himself.as will be noted would never be in doubt, everythinghave been killed as well as his parents and Mandy, all It was a burial with all the pomp and circumstanceelse, well, that\'s another story. of whom were, so far as he knew, caught in their beds. made for a hero of Britain even though he wasHis face twisted in tears of grief as well as of pain, he American-born and bred. THE COMANCHE RAID . . . TRUE OR FALSE? limped wretchedly along until he came to a stream, Angered by the decimation of the buffalo, thewhere in the light of the now high moon, he washed But we anticipate things. There was so much to theComanche, Southern Cheyenne, and Kiowa took toand bound the wound with strips torn from his shirt. story of this Samuel F. Cody - SO MUCH MORE,the plains and raided south in what would be knownThe bullet had passed through the lower end of his both truthand fiction. So who exactly was Samuelin history as the Red River War. It was fairly limitedthigh but had luckily missed the bone. He pressed Franklin Cody? And where exactly did he come from? to the Texas Panhandle and the Indian Territoryon southwards, dawn came, and at last, he reached which would later be known as Oklahoma. Theya homestead where he was given aid and taken in a BIRDVILLE, TEXAS OR DAVENPORT, IOWA? would have been foolhardy to tackle the established,buggy to the army hospital at Fort Worth" (Gould Lee, If you were to hear it from Samuel Franklin Codysomewhat fortified towns where they would haveArthur, The Flying Cathedral, Methuen & Company, himself, he would tell you that he was born inbeen met with force. Yet according to a 13-year-oldLtd., London, 1963, pp. 25-26.).Birdville, Texas, a small town that was a frontierby the name of Samuel F. Cody, they did.suburb of Fort Worth, on March 6, 1861 (Flanagan,At least this was one of the stories Cody would later Mike, Out West, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York,One fateful day, early in 1874, the Comanche came- tell about his early life. In others, he would embellish 1987, p. 74). He was the son of Samuel Franklina-calling to the Cody ranch, just as they did to Ethanit greatly by saying that his parents and beloved sister Cody Sr., a hero of the Mexican War and a prominentEdwards\' fictional family in that John Ford-Johndid survive the raid - but whether or not he was ever rancher in his community. Birdville no longer existsWayne classic. As the British Aviation Historianreunited with them, he never would say. He would as a separate town as it was incorporated into HaltomArthur Gould Lee commented, "The Cody ranch washowever say that that was the time, when a presumed City some time ago, but even back then it was partalmost in the middle of this threatened region. Byorphan, he would sign up for the Cowboy life and of the greater Fort Worth district. While true thatnow there were two cabins, the smaller for the familybegin life riding the trail. Nice story. But outside of his Birdville was not a major town, it sure wasn\'t a dot outand the larger for the cowhands. It was against thisdecision to ride West and go the Cowboy way none 18 August 2021'