Wedding Day for the Lillies

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The Sharpshooter and the Showman: May Lillie, Pawnee Bill, and their Wild West Show

Newlyweds May Manning and Gordon Lillie watched the countryside pass by from a window of the passenger car onboard their Kansas bound train. A brilliant sun shined down on the open landscape. The gentle undulating plains were broken occasionally by valleys and hills. Those hills rolled like a casually laid quilt, rising, and falling in soft waves. May was mesmerized by the grand scenery. Gordon, who had seen the view often and like others who witnessed it routinely took it for granted, admired the terrain as though seeing it for the first time. May’s enthusiasm was infectious.

The Lillies married at the Siloam Methodist Church of Philadelphia on August 31, 1886. May’s parents had made all the arrangements including selecting the location for the wedding. She had been christened in the Siloam Church and her mother and father believed it was the appropriate setting. Many guests attended the nuptials and showered the couple with sincere best wishes. Gordon considered marrying May a remarkable “turning point” in his life.

An hour after the pair exchanged vows, they were off to Gordon’s ranch near Wellington, Kansas. “I was now Pawnee Bill’s wife,” May explained to reporters in 1936, “and in the words of Ruth, ‘Whither thou goest, I will go,’ was my motto.” Seventeen-year-old May was both excited and nervous about leaving home. She shared her trepidation with her husband. Gordon wanted to do all he could to put her mind at ease.

“May had misgivings about the West,” he recalled in his memoirs. “She was going into a new country where there were none of the society and conveniences of Philadelphia and I didn’t want her to be disappointed. When the train reached Wichita, I telegraphed some friends that I would reach Wellington that evening and I wanted them to make our arrival as exciting as possible.

“Fifty or sixty gentlemen and ladies turned out with a band to receive us and gave us a serenade. When we got off the train, May looked around and said, ‘Where’s the carriage?’ A spring wagon rattled around the corner of the depot and I said, ‘That’s it.’ We all got into the wagon and drove to South Wellington to the home of my sister, Effie, who gave us a fine reception.”

Local newspapers featured articles about the newly wedded couple expressing their good wishes and welcoming May to the area. “Gordon Lilly [sic], called ‘Pawnee Bill’, by his acquaintances of this city, arrived yesterday with his bride,” read an article in the September 7, 1886, edition of the Wellington Sunday Press. “He has received an appointment in the territory and after taking in the fair will repair to his destination.”

The September 7, 1886, edition of the Daily Postal Card also reported on the happy occasion. “Gordon Lilly, [sic] ‘Pawnee Bill,’ formerly of Wellington and well known in the city, a noted Indian interpreter, but lately of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West company, arrived in the city yesterday from Philadelphia, accompanied by his bride, of a few days, a charming lady whose maiden name was Mary E. Manning. She is a cousin of Secretary Manning, and her father is a practicing physician in the Quaker City.

“Mr. Lilly and wife proceeded yesterday to the home of the former thirteen miles southeast of the city. Gordon has received a government appointment and will be stationed in the Indian territory. He will hence soon tie himself with his wife to that country of which he is so familiar.”

To learn more about the famous Lillies read The Sharpshooter and the Showman