Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Spring 2010
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly 30:3 (Spring 2010).
Abstract
Agnes Lake Hickok rode horses, walked on slack wires, and trained various animals. If that was not enough, she was also a smart, diligent entrepreneur who became the first woman to own and operate a circus in the United States. The circus business brought her a busy schedule, some profitable opportunities, and wide acclaim as an entertainer who traveled with legendary performers P. T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill Cody. Although Agnes Lake Hickok did not necessarily invent circus shows, she certainly helped to popularize this form of entertainment in the nineteenth century and prepared the next generation of performers, including her daughter, Emma Lake, whose equestrian renown rivaled that of Annie Oakley.
Agnes Lake Hickok is primarily a compensatory biography meant to salvage the story of a German immigrant child who built a career managing and appearing in traveling shows. Agnes and her first husband, Bill Lake, performed steadily through the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s, maintaining financial security and drawing large crowds even during the Civil War. Her second marriage, in 1876, to the celebrated Wild Bill Hickok catapulted her already well-known reputation into the realm of national attention. They were only married five months, however, before he was killed (although they had courted for nearly five years once they met in Abilene, Kansas, in 1871), so the authors point to Agnes Lake Hickok's own stamina and creativity during her remaining thirty years as justification for finally noting her place in history.
Comments
Copyright © 2010 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.