Buffalo Bill and John Croft

Buffalo Bill Cody

William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was one of the most well-known figures of the Old West. He visited Salt Lake City and Temple Square on Dec. 7, 1892.  It turns out that Mark Weiss is related to Buffalo Bill.  They are 14th cousins through a common ancestor, Jan Arundel.  (See BYU's Relative Finder.)

According to MadeinWyoming.net, 35 years prior to his visit to Temple Square, "he joined Johnston’s Army as an unofficial member of the scouts assigned to guide the Army to Utah to put down a falsely-reported rebellion by the Mormon population of Salt Lake City."

Buffalo Bill was also a friend of John Croft (July 16, 1836-October 9, 1909). Cody quite likely furnished buffalo meat to the Croft Boarding Train in Kansas.  John was likely a major factor in action taken by Colonel Cody to relinquish his water rights in the Shoshone River to the Mormon settlers against the vigorous opposition of his partner.  Cody had just started the settlement of the Town of Cody, Wyoming (1900) and had started the construction of his "Irma Hotel", named for his daughter, and was anxious to have the Morons as neightbors.  The Irma Hotel is still operating in Cody.       

When John’s grandson, Alfred Russell Croft (b.1896) was 10 years old, John said to him, “Russell, Buffalo Bill’s circus is in Ogden and I want you to take this silver dollar and go to see his 'Wild West Show'.   If I were well enough I’d go to Ogden with you and call on him in his tent.  I’m sure he would give me the best reserved seats in the show.” 

Russell wrote:
"This impressed me immensely to know that my Granddad was such a close friend of the famous Colonel William F. Cody.  years later I was to learn that Colonel Cody probably furnished buffalo meat to John Croft's Rock Island Railroad boarding train in Kansas and Colorado in the 1880s. "
 John Croft and Amelia Mitchell Croft-Pioneers of 1860, p. 27 

Playbill for the Wild West Show.

Alfred Russell Croft wrote in 1973:  "This happened about September 1904 standing at the back gate of the Croft ranch house in Enterprise, Morgan County, Utah... This is the most vivid recollection I have of grandfather John Croft.”

Alfred Russell Croft was born on July 29, 1896 in Ogden, Utah and wrote a self-published autobiography entitled OUT OF OUR PAST A Brief History of Alfred Russell Croft Sr. and Irene Hutchings Croft. (c. 1973).  Mark Weiss has one copy of the book that previously belonged to Claire Chase Weiss.  (This book might be available online as the LDS Family History Library has been creating PDF files of similar personal history books.)

Dana Palmer has compiled a wonderful short biography of John Croft with many photos found at http://dvrbs.com/people/CamdenPeople-JohnCroft.htm.

Turns out that Mark Weiss is related to Buffalo Bill.  They are 14th cousins through a common ancestor, Jan Arundel.