157

OLD TIMES

Reminiscences of Early Days in Meet:
County - Buffalo Bill's Boy.
hood-Interesting
History.

A fine, well-printed book of 305 pages is on our tables - a volume which can not fail in interesting any thinking person who takes it up to read, and the opening chapter of which will possess peculiar interest for the residents of this county general, and for the pioneer settlers of Scott county in particular. The book is "The Life of Hon. William F. Cody Known as Buffalo, Bill, the famous hunter scout, and guide." It contains a portrait of its hero, and eighty pictures of the scenes he describes, with portraits of generals under which he has served, of famous frontiersmen who have been his companions, and of Indians who are noted for prowess. But to that first chapter - it so belongs to this city and vicinity that we give it almost entire:

My debut upon the world's stage occurred on February 20th, 1845. The scene of this important event in my adventurous being in Scott County in the State of Iowa. My parents, Isaac pus Mary Ann Cody, who were numbered among the pioneers of Iowa, gave to me the name of William Frederick. I was the fourth child in the family, Martha, and Julia, my sisters, and Samuel, my brother, had preceded me, and the children who came after me were Eliza, Nellie, Mary and Charles, born in the order named.

At the time of my birth, the family resided on a farm which they called "Nopsinekee Place"--an Indian name--and here the first six or seven years of my childhood was spent. When I was seven years old, my father moved the family to the Little town of LeClaire, located on the banks of the Mississippi, fifteen miles above the city of Davenport. Even at that early age, my adventurous spirit led me into all sorts of mischief and danger, and when I look back upon my childhood days I often drowned while my neck broken while stealing apples in neighboring orchards.