One of the several Native Americans to join Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show was Charging Thunder, the man we see in the picture below. Does the name sound familiar? This Lakota chief joined the crew when he was only 26 years old. He married one of the American horse trainers in the crew, eventually. Ah, romance! Such a beautiful thing!
After the show, Charging Thunder became a British citizen and started working in Manchester’s Belle Vue Circus as an elephant trainer. Later on, he got sick of the circus and eventually became a factory worker, then changed his name to George Edward Williams.
Louisa Earp
In case you’re wondering, Wyatt Earp wasn’t the only Earp back in the day. Although the Earp Men were famous, there is plenty to say about the women, too. As they said, there is a woman behind every great man, and that was exactly the case for Morgan Earp. Although they seemed to be the perfect couple, no one really knew that they got married.
For some time after they got married, the two of them lived in Montana. When Morgan moved to Arizona, he left his wife Louisa behind. Since he thought it was just going to be a short trip, it ended up in disappointment because they never got to meet again.
Mark Twain
Samuel Clemens, known as Mark Twain, emerged as a literary luminary whose influence on American literature remains unmatched. Despite receiving only a fifth-grade education, Twain's voracious appetite for knowledge led him on a path of self-education. He embarked on his literary journey as a printer's apprentice, honing his craft and immersing himself in the world of words. In 1851, he seized his first writing opportunity by contributing to a local newspaper.
Twain's thirst for learning took him from his Missouri roots to the bustling streets of New York City, where he joined the printers' trade union. In his pursuit of knowledge, he frequented public libraries, dedicating countless hours to self-study after completing his daily work shifts. Twain's tireless dedication to his craft propelled him to become the iconic figure celebrated as the "father of American literature."
Herbert Hoover
While many might be tempted to look down on Hoover since he did preside over the Great Depression, it's possible that he did far more to keep people fed and alive than almost any other man in history. At five feet, eleven and a half inches, Hoover was in a prime leadership position to eradicate hunger following the Second World War.
Thanks to Hoover's knowledge of Germany, he toured many of the former Axis nations and produced reports about food requirements. The programs that emerged from the reports fed three and a half million children. Not bad for a president.
Butch Cassidy
It is hard to imagine that this young man photographed here is actually one of the most infamous outlaws and bank robbers of the Old West. Robert LeRoy Parker and his accomplice, Harry Longabaugh (aka "The Sundance Kid"), would torment the southern US states and build themselves a shameful reputation that would go down in crime history.
Parker worked briefly at a Wyoming butchery, where he would earn the name “Butch.” In 1894, Butch Cassidy was imprisoned after his first bank robbery of a San Miguel Valley Bank. This photo is a memento that survived Butch Cassidy’s first arrest and time in prison.