Journal Notes

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The Sharpshooter and the Showman

Step into the exhilarating world of Wild West entertainment with The Sharpshooter and the Showman, a riveting new book that explores the remarkable lives of May Manning Lillie and Gordon “Pawnee Bill” Lillie. As trailblazers in the world of Wild West shows, the Lillies built a spectacle that rivaled even Buffalo Bill Cody’s legendary performances, captivating audiences across the United States and Europe.

From May’s transformation from a Philadelphia Quaker to a fearless sharpshooter to Gordon’s deep connection with the Pawnee people, their story is one of ambition, resilience, and innovation. The Sharpshooter and the Showman reveals the struggles and triumphs of their show business empire, their commitment to fair treatment of performers, and their lasting impact on Western heritage.

The era of Wild West Shows revealed America at its most enterprising. Join Pawnee Bill and May Manning Lillie as they embark on a wild, sometimes tragic, but often joyful ride together. Theirs was a love story that rose to every challenge and seized every opportunity that came their way. They made headlines in newspapers, won fans among European royalty, and captured the heart of Americans from New England to California. This is their remarkable—and true—story.

The Sharpshooter and the Showman: May Lillie, Pawnee Bill, and Their Wild West Show written by New York Times bestselling author Chris Enss who has earned numerous awards including nine Will Rogers Medallions, two Laura Downing Journalism award, and the Willa Cather Award from Women Writing the West.

“After reading The Sharpshooter and the Showman: May Lillie, Pawnee Bill, and their Wild West Show, I regret not being able to see Pawnee Bill and May Lillie leading the Wild West Show into the arena. What a great book! I was captivated by the Lillie’s story, a true partnership in every sense of the word.”
– Michael D. Williams, director of the Oklahoma Territorial Museum and Carnegie Library

“Without a shade of exaggeration, this Wild West ride of Pawnee Bill and May Lillie gave me goosebumps! I was hooked just reading the introduction.”
– Lynn Eldridge, award-winning romance author of Hearts and Mountains

“Pawnee Bill and his sharpshooting wife, May Lillie, brought the wonder of different cultures, including the Wild West, to the USA and Europe. Their long marriage was a miracle of understanding, deep love, and support that allowed them to reach their dreams and keep creating new ones. Go on the adventure with them as they overcome tragedy, and build extraordinary bonds, from their ranch in Oklahoma to European royalty. Enjoy this fun and inspired read!”
– Meredith Blevins, eight-time Magellan gold, award-winning travel writer, award-winning author of The Hummingbird Wizard

“In The Sharpshooter and the Showman, Author Chris Enss shows how May Lillie and Pawnee Bill not only recreated the Wild West but also lived it to the fullest. A powerful and enthralling dual biography written by a masterful historian and writer.”
– Preston Lewis and Harriet Kocher Lewis, award-winning authors of Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time

The Sharpshooter and the Showman: May Lillie, Pawnee Bill, and their Wild West Show is available at local retailers, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, and from Farcountry Press at farcountrypress.com.

I’m traveling tomorrow to the Blackhawk Museum to give a presentation about women of the West and specifically about pioneer women physicians. I’m excited to share what I learned researching and writing the book The Doctor Was A Woman. I couldn’t help but notice a theme that ran through the majority of the stories I found. As far back as 1890 in the Gold Country, women patients were seeking doctors’ recommendations on how to stop the aging process. Women of a certain age were hoping to find a crème or a lotion to remove the dark circles under their eyes and reduce wrinkles on their face and neck.

The invention of the “bust improver” in 1887, with pads of assorted sizes that could be inserted into a slit in the fabric, solved any enhancement issues. The corset helped women who wanted a waist-measurement that did not exceed the number of years of her age was a problem solver as well. How to get rid of dark circles and wrinkles was still a mystery.

Some doctors suggested women slather their face with donkey milk or duck fat to eliminate crow’s feet and turkey’s neck. Women complained the prescription did nothing to eradicate the wrinkles. It did, however, attract cats. A trade off most ladies disliked immensely.

Advertisements for Pears Soap featuring the beautiful actress Lilly Langtry, promised women who used the product a “nice youthful complexion, young looking hands, a reduction in wrinkles, and happiness galore.” In the print ads, Lilly boasted about the wonderful results she had washing with Pears Soap daily and encouraged women with stubborn wrinkles to wash their face two and three times a day. Langtry was a successful, wealthy, twenty-eight-year-old and many women were annoyed that someone who obviously didn’t struggle with wrinkles at her age would be giving advice on how to halt the process or gain happiness.

I feel the same way every time I see a commercial about wrinkle cream starring a teenager. Or hear a twenty something model lecture me about avoiding meat and eating only lawn clippings and Greek yogurt. What makes advertisers think the opinion of these supermodels has more weight or importance simply because they happened to hit the pick six in the genetic lottery?

It seems our entire existence is spent yearning for what we don’t have, and we’re convinced that whatever it is we’re missing is the one thing keeping us from perfect bliss. Which the makeup manufacturers would have you believe resembles a Revlon commercial where everyone is in a thong bikini cavorting on the beach while applying rejuvenating cream on their nonexistent drying pores. I don’t think it’s possible to have baby dolphin smooth skin unless you’re a dolphin. And I personally look like a sumo wrestler in a thong.

And as for happiness… What makes people happy anyway? I’ve concluded that most people are only really happy not when something good happens to them, but when something bad doesn’t happen to them.

Happiness is not settling for less, but just not being miserable with what is. I have always lived by the creed that it’s not the approval or accolades or possessions that make you smile, but simply making the left turn even though you were the third car in the intersection.

Now, where’s that duck fat?

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No Place for a Woman: The Struggle for Suffrage in the Wild West

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No Place for a Woman: The Struggle for Suffrage in the Wild West

In 1911, actress, playwright, and suffragette Vida Sutton coined the term “suffragent.” A suffragent referred to a man who was big enough to see that women should be given the right to vote. “This type of man is one of the most powerful allies of the cause of women,” Vida explained to a reporter for the New York Times. “He not only does no hinder but does all that he can to help.”

From the time the woman suffrage movement was first launched in 1846, there were many prominent suffragents who played significant roles in helping women secure the right to vote.

At the urging of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, California Senator Aaron Augustus Sargent introduced the first federal woman suffrage amendment in 1878. The amendment was reintroduced in every succeeding Congress until adopted in 1920. “I believe the time is rapidly coming when all men will conclude that it is no longer wise or judicious to exclude one half of the intelligence and more than one half of the virtue of the people from the ballot box,” Sargent remarked in April 1878.

San Francisco mayor Adolph Sutro echoed those sentiments in March 1896. “I believe equality is the basic principle of our government – hence women should assume all the responsibilities that arise out of her moral and mental endowments as a citizen,” Sutro told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Woman’s advent as a voter will be the means through which the government may be perpetuated, as embodying justice, equality, and righteousness.”

Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist, orator and lecturer, was present at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention of 1848 and advocated for women’s rights along with abolition and the rights of African Americans. At a meeting of the National Council of Women in 1895, he reminded an enthusiastic crowd of what he had written about the issue in 1848. “A discussion of the rights of animals would be regarded with far more complacency by many of what are called the wise and the good of our land than would be a discussion of the rights of women… We hold women to be justly entitled to all we claim for man.”

To learn more about the suffragents read

No Place for a Woman: The Struggle for Suffrage in the Wild West

I’m slow on the uptake sometimes. I’m generally so focus on my job writing and telling others about the amazing work women of the American frontier did to settle the wild west, I miss when people are insulting me. Since January, I’ve participated in two speaking events with women who genuinely believe females are just a bit better off now than they we were before the 19^th Amendment was ratified in August 1920.

Prior to being introduced as the keynote speaker at one event, the host announced how she’d hoped the gathering would have been a celebration of the election of the first woman president of the United States. The audience groaned with sadness they weren’t celebrating that fact. The host then remarked how ashamed all women who did not vote for Kamala Harris should be. “We need a woman in office,” she insisted, “and women need to vote for the female candidate that is running.”

I am sure the gathering heard my eyes rolling. It was a ridiculous statement and one that took me by surprise. The notion that I’m supposed to vote for someone solely on the basis that they were a woman and ignore whether or not she was a worthy candidate is outrageous. I’d be happy to vote for a woman, but she has to be qualified. Could a woman act cooly and decisively in the event of a national crisis? It depends on the woman. Tulsi Gabbard, yes. Meryl Streep, no. And I like Meryl Streep.

Questions from the audience after my talk centered around what I thought about women in the America struggling to get ahead like they did between 1860 and 1900. I couldn’t produce a single example of women in 2025 NOT having the opportunity to pursue whatever they please in this country. In the early West, women’s choices were limited. They could be a teacher, laundress, or prostitute. How those upper middleclass women could think for a minute that they lacked opportunity today was staggering to me. Of course, none of them could provide any concrete examples to support their argument.

The most recent book panel I participated was just as silly. This time the moderator of the talk wanted to know from the authors on the panel about women who dared to speak. The implication was that in America in 2025, women are still shrinking violets with no voice and no one to hear them when they do speak out. Again, if we were in Afghanistan, I’d agree. But not here and not now. It’s difficult to have a discussion with women who honestly believe they have been objectified by men and then watch at least one of those women walk back to their booth at the book festival I was attending called “Hotties of History.”

I have come to this conclusion. It takes zero politically correct so-called victims to screw in a light bulb, because they are perpetually in the dark.

The women I write about in No Place for a Woman: The Struggle for Suffrage in the Wild West rose above their circumstances to fight for seventy years to gain the right to vote. Those women are the true heroines and worth admiring.

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1854 – Republican Party formally organized in Ripon, Wisconsin

It’s an honor to have The Doctor Was A Woman recognized by Foreword Review

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No Place for a Woman: The Struggle for Suffrage in the Wild West

The 19^thAmendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote in America, was first proposed and rejected in 1878 , then reintroduced every year for the next 41 years. In 1984, Mississippi became the last state to ratify it.

Wyoming was the first U.S. state to give women the right to vote. Women there had been voting since 1869 in Wyoming Territory, which only agreed to join the Union if this right was maintained. Congress threatened to deny statehood over the issue, but Wyoming wouldn’t back down.

The original 1776 constitution of New Jersey gave “all inhabitants” who were “worth 50 pounds” the right to vote. This was vague, so in 1797, women with 50 pounds or more to their names were explicitly allowed to vote. This right only applied to single women. Married women did not count since their husbands legally controlled all the property they owned. In 1807, the law was changed once again, restricting the vote to only free white male citizens.

Not all suffragists were women, and not all anti-suffragists were men. Numerous men were committed suffragists, and some were imprisoned and force-fed just like their female comrades. Many prominent women also proclaimed disapproval for the suffrage movement, arguing that women did not want to vote and that it would mean competition with men rather than cooperation.

Susan B. Anthony (and 15 other women) voted illegally in the presidential election of 1872.

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No Place for a Woman: The Struggle for Suffrage in the Wild West.

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Object Matrimony:

The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier

People in the American West have been using the mail-order system to find a spouse since Russell, Majors, and Waddell created the Pony Express. Ads were placed in the newspaper Matrimonial News and interested parties would send a letter to the ad they found most appealing. The following are a few ads from the May 1873 edition of the publication.

“Young lady of good family and education would like to correspond with some gentleman of means, one who would be willing to take her without a dollar, as she has nothing to offer but herself.”

“I am 33 years of age and as regards looks can average with most men. I am looking for a lady to make her my wife as I am heartily tired of bachelor life. I desire a lady not over 28 or 30 years of age, not ugly, well educated and musical. Nationality makes no difference, only I prefer not to have a lady of Irish birth. She must have at least $20,000.

“A lady, 23, tall, fair and good looking, without means, would like to hear from a gentleman of position wanting a wife. She is well educated, accomplished, amiable, and affectionate.”

“A bachelor of 40, good appearance and substantial means, wants a wife. She must be under 30, amiable and musical.”

To learn more about the serious business of finding a husband or wife by mail in the wide-open days of the Old West read

Object Matrimony:

The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

Visit www.chrisenss.com now for more information and to enter to win a copy of the book along with a $100 gift certificate from

David’s Bridals

Enter now to win a copy of

Object Matrimony:

The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier

In the Old West, men and women in hopes of finding a companion placed advertisements in publications specifically designed for lonely hearts.  Here are a few of those inspired ads from 1887.

“A few lady correspondents wanted by a bashful man of 36, of fair complexion. 5 feet 5 inches tall, weight 130 pounds. Would prefer a brunette of fair form about five feet, between 18 and 25 years of age. Object, improvement, and if suited matrimony.”

“Wanted to correspond with a young lady matrimonially inclined who would make a young man a good wife: am of good standing and good family, strictly temperate, a professional man and will make a kind husband.”

“I am fond of fun, age 18, height 5 feet 5 inches, weight 140 pounds, have auburn hair, dark eyes; I want a gentleman correspondent from 20 to 25.”

“I am fat, fair, and plan on losing no weight. I’m 48 years old, 5 feet high. Am a No. 1 lady, well fixed with no encumbrances: am in business in city, but want a partner who lives in the West. Want an energetic man that has some means, not under 40 years of age and weight not less than 180. Of good habits. A Christian gentleman preferred.”

To learn more about the serious business of finding a husband or wife by mail in the wide-open days of the Old West read

Object Matrimony:

The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier

Enter now to win a copy of the book along with a $100 gift certificate from

David’s Bridals