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Notable people · Entertainment

Annie Oakley

Darke County sharpshooter who became the star attraction of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.

Born August 13, 1860, near Woodland (now Willowdell), Patterson Township
Died November 3, 1926, Greenville

Annie Oakley
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born
August 13, 1860, near Woodland (now Willowdell), Patterson Township (Darke County) source
Died
November 3, 1926, Greenville (Darke County) source
Buried
Brock Cemetery, Brock (ashes) (Darke County) source
Also known as
Phoebe Ann Mosey, Phoebe Ann Moses, Little Sure Shot, Watanya Cicilla
Known as
Entertainment
Organizations
Buffalo Bill's Wild West

Life story

Phoebe Ann Mosey was born in Darke County in 1860. After her father died in 1866 she hunted to help support the family.

At 15 she beat the marksman Frank Butler in a shooting match; she later married him. They joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1885 and performed for European royalty. She earned more than any other performer except Buffalo Bill.

Sitting Bull nicknamed her Little Sure Shot and adopted her symbolically in 1884. After a serious train accident in 1901 she moved toward acting.

She taught marksmanship to over 15,000 women and urged women's roles in the military. She hit 100 clay targets in a row at 62 and died of pernicious anemia in Greenville in 1926. Her ashes were buried at Brock Cemetery.

Ohio ties

  • Willowdell (formerly Woodland), Patterson Township (1860-1870)
    birthplace log cabin and childhood farm Darke County · source
  • Darke County Infirmary, Greenville (1870)
    admitted with sister Sarah Ellen at age nine; cared for by superintendent Samuel Crawford Edington and wife Nancy Darke County · source
  • Greenville (1870s)
    sold game to merchant Charles Katzenberger for local restaurants and hotels Darke County · source
  • Cincinnati (1875-1880s)
    traditional site of the Butler shooting match; the Oakley neighborhood is the probable source of her stage name Hamilton County · source
  • Dayton (1925-1926)
    lived with her sister Emily from December 1925 Montgomery County · source
  • Greenville (1926)
    died at a house on East 3rd Street Darke County · source
  • Brock (1926)
    burial in the family plot with Frank Butler Darke County · source

Timeline

  1. 1860 Born Phoebe Ann Mosey on August 13 in a log cabin less than two miles northwest of Woodland, Darke County. source
  2. 1866 Her father Jacob died in March, aged 67, after being caught in a blizzard the winter before. source
  3. 1870 Admitted to the Darke County Infirmary on March 15 with her sister Sarah Ellen. source
  4. 1875 Traditional date of the Cincinnati-area match in which she hit 25 of 25 birds to Frank Butler's 24; some researchers place it in 1881 near Greenville. source
  5. 1898 On April 5 wrote President William McKinley offering a company of 50 women sharpshooters for a war with Spain; the offer was not taken up. source
  6. 1901 Badly hurt in a train accident; after five spinal operations she left the Buffalo Bill show. source
  7. 1904 A Hearst paper falsely reported her arrest for theft to fund a cocaine habit; she won all but one of 55 libel suits over about six years. source
  8. 1926 Died of pernicious anemia in Greenville on November 3; Frank Butler died 18 days later and was buried beside her. source
  9. 1977 The Garst House in Greenville, home of the Darke County Historical Society museum with its Oakley collection, was listed on the National Register. source
  10. 1981 The Annie Oakley Committee placed a stone plaque near her birthplace. source

What Annie is known for

  • Star sharpshooter of Buffalo Bill's Wild West
  • Buffalo Bill's Wild West performances

Stories

The poor farm and "the wolves"

After Jacob Mosey's death the family could not support all its children, and in 1870 nine-year-old Phoebe Ann went to the Darke County Infirmary with her sister Sarah Ellen. The superintendent's wife, Nancy Edington, taught her to sew. She was then bound out to a local family on the promise of fifty cents a week and schooling, but was beaten and once locked outside in the snow. In her 1925 autobiography she wrote that she was held prisoner and never named the family, calling them only "the wolves." Biographers still disagree on who they were, with the Studabaker family and the Abram Boose family of Preble County both proposed. She eventually ran away, walking to a train depot where a stranger bought her ticket home.

Source

Game for Katzenberger's

As a girl she trapped and shot game around the family farm in Darke County. Greenville merchant Charles Katzenberger bought what she brought in and sold it on to restaurants and hotels. The money from her hunting is credited with paying off the mortgage on her mother's farm when she was about fifteen. The North Star roadside marker on the Annie Oakley Trail marks the childhood home tied to that story.

Source

Inventions and firsts

All Ohio inventions and firsts

Honors and things named for them

  • Multiple halls of fame (per Wikipedia)

Named for Annie Oakley

Family

  • husband: Frank E. Butler

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

12

Places in Ohio to see

Ohio places

Where Annie Oakley was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Annie Oakley, and what the record shows.

Often said Her birth name was Phoebe Ann Moses.

The record Records disagree. The 1860 census has "Mauzy" and the 1870 census "Ann Mosey"; her father's headstone and military record use Mosey. Annie insisted on Mosey or Mozee, while her brother John insisted on Moses, and John and sister Hulda took the Moses spelling around 1884. Most biographers write Moses; Mosey is the better-documented family spelling. source

Often said She married Frank Butler on August 23, 1876, in Cincinnati.

The record That is the date Annie gave, but no certificate confirms it. An Archives of Ontario record shows a marriage on June 20, 1882, in Windsor, Ontario. source

Often said The Butler match took place on Thanksgiving Day 1875 in Cincinnati.

The record That is the traditional account. Biographer Shirl Kasper, citing Butler's own 1903 and 1924 interviews, places it in spring 1881 near Greenville, possibly at North Star. source

  • Her grave is a burial of ashes, not a full interment.

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

  • Annie Oakley
    Annie Oakley
    Public domain
  • Title: Annie Oakley - famous rifle shot and holder of the Police Gazette championship medal Abstract/medium: 1 photomech
    Title: Annie Oakley - famous rifle shot and holder of the Police Gazette championship medal Abstract/medium: 1...
    Public domain
  • Annie Oakley
    Annie Oakley
    Public domain
  • Annie Oakley
    Annie Oakley
    Public domain
  • Brisbois cabinet card of Annie Oakley with lithographed signature. 4 1/4” x 6 1/2” overall.
    Brisbois cabinet card of Annie Oakley with lithographed signature. 4 1/4” x 6 1/2” overall.
    Public domain
  • Annie Oakley Cabinet Card Signed
    Annie Oakley Cabinet Card Signed
    Public domain
  • Annie Oakley Cabinet Card Signed
    Annie Oakley Cabinet Card Signed
    Public domain
  • Annie Oakley
    Annie Oakley
    Public domain
  • Three-quarter standing portrait of Annie Oakley cradling a rifle, wearing pearl earrings, wide-brimmed hat with star pin
    Three-quarter standing portrait of Annie Oakley cradling a rifle, wearing pearl earrings, wide-brimmed hat wit...
    Public domain
  • Annie Oakley
    Annie Oakley
    Public domain
  • Annie Oakley
    Annie Oakley
    Public domain
  • Cabinet card showing Annie Oakley wearing shooting medals on her blouse, posed with a double-barrel Parker hammer shotgu
    Cabinet card showing Annie Oakley wearing shooting medals on her blouse, posed with a double-barrel Parker ham...
    Public domain

Further reading

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.

Every link goes to the original source. Profile researched 2026-10-14.

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