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Cody Researcher Jean Roberts |
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Among the many people around the world passionately interested in the charismatic Samuel Franklin Cody, the aviation pioneer, possibly none tops Jean Roberts in enthusiasm. Her interest, intriguingly, evolved by sheerest accident. She and design engineer husband John Roberts and six children moved into a house named "Pinehurst" in Mychett, County of Surrey, England, in 1988. Told by the estate agent the structure had been occupied by Samuel Cody from 1906 to 1911, Mrs. Roberts said, "Unlike many who confuse Samuel Cody with Buffalo Bill Cody, I thought he was referring to Wild Bill Hickock"—yet another American theatrical cowboy. She soon got it all straight when a son, who worked at the air installation in nearby Farnborough, brought home research material on Samuel Franklin Cody. It was Cody who designed and flew the first airplane in England in 1908, while living in Pinehurst. Beyond this personal historic association with her own house, Roberts found Cody so interesting she decided to delve into his checkered history. Her study soon extended from Britain to the United States. She obtained much fresh information there, and has become a principal resource in setting the record straight on many aspects of Cody's early life. Among other documentation, she systematically collected photographs of Cody and now has hundreds of them, "unfortunately all copies of originals because I don't have a lot of money to spend," she says. Her documentation exceeds two thousand pages. At one point she hired a professional historian to help do research in America. Because Cody's journals seem to show radically different penmanship, she is attempting a handwriting analysis to determine if persons other than Cody contributed to them. Why has Roberts pursued her study for so many years? "Cody was a distinctly larger than live figure," she says. "He was a wonderful man. The more you find out about him, the more you want to know. He had so many facets to his personality and he did so many things. People liked him. He struggled. He was on his own. He had a wonderful individuality and his accomplishments were enormous." Roberts learned early on in her research that Samuel Franklin Cody was not Cody's real name and that he was not born in Birdsville, Texas, as he claimed. Nor was he born in 1861 as previous biographical notes stated. In fact, he was born Franklin Cowdery in Davenport, Iowa, in 1867, one of a family of five children. His father was a Union veteran from the American Civil War who deserted the family in 1875. Cowdery was known as "Frank" all his life (it was the name used on his funeral wreaths); apparently, he adopted the given name "Samuel" in honor of his father's Christian name. In 1889, Cowdery married Maud Lee in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and the name Samuel Franklin Cody appears on the marriage certificate. By this time Cowdery was doing cowboy shows under the name Cody, giving demonstrations of rifle and pistol sharp shooting and horsemanship. A wag in the publication "Era" commented on his show at Battersea: "What is the difference between Professor Charles Baldwin and Capt. Cody and his sister?" He answered himself: "Give up, eh? Well one is a parachutist and the other's a pair of shootists." At about the same time, Cody's serious interest in kites was first piqued by the experiments being conducted by the U.S. government at the Blue Hill Observatory, Massachusetts. At some point, in Europe, wife Maud jumped out of a balloon, using a parachute, injured herself badly, and was sent home to the U.S., never to return to Europe. Cody then met a Lela King, who had four children; she became his European common-law wife. Lela and children joined Cody in staging the Wild West show he had created and then collaborated in a lucrative Klondyke mining melodrama he wrote, produced and toured. At some point, Buffalo Bill Cody, finding great fame and fortune touring Europe with his cowboys-and-Indians shoot-em-up show, took Samuel Cody to court to enjoin him from claiming he is Buffalo Bill's son. For good measure, he halted Samuel Cody's commercial use of the phrase "Wild West Show," which Buffalo Bill had himself made famous. Samuel Franklin Cody continued his highly popular show business career into the early part of the twentieth century, using funds generated from it to finance aeronautical experiments. In 1901, he patented the now famous Cody kite, a two-celled box kite after the design of Anglo-Australian Lawrence Hargrave, but with wings added for lift. This basic Cody "bat kite," of which there are many variations, is considered to be one of the most beautiful kites ever designed. Cody's original aim was to provide a man-lifting system for observation purposes during the Boer War in South Africa. He eventually sold his services to the British military for kite development. But then, fired by the achievement of powered flight by the Wright brothers, Cody was consumed by aeronautical ambition. In 1907 he helped create a dirigible named the Nelli Secundus ("Second to None"), which he flew over London to great acclaim. (Roberts was able to show visitors to her Pinehurst home the third floor window Cody family members hung out to wave as he floated past the house in a huge airship.) Next came a powered airplane, successfully flown for the first time on October 16, 1908, at nearby Farnborough. Development of airplanes by Cody and many competitors was rapid, and soon Cody had himself naturalized as a British citizen so he could compete, often successfully, in various British air competitions offering money prizes. Cody died after a mid-air plane mishap in 1913. His funeral was attended by 50,000 people; among the hundreds of letters of condolence to his widow was one from King George V. Cody was then buried in a military cemetery near the scene of his great flying triumphs, and eventual death, the first civilian to be so honored. His grave at Aldershot, with British wife Lela buried beside him, can be viewed today. In the literature, Cody had been described as an immensely strong six-footer. In fact, examination of his clothing shows him to have been about five feet six inches tall. Since, however, he stood very straight and invariably wore high-heeled cowboy boots and a ten-gallon hat, he added inches to his appearance. Of the great strength he needed to fly various ungainly aircraft, there has never been any question raised. American wife Maud resurfaced after Cody's death in 1913. Confined to an insane asylum in Norristown, Pennsylvania, she was brought to court by her family to establish her mental condition so the substantial fortune Cody left could be obtained by the American portion of the family. Maud was still alive as late as 1920 when the case was finally settled. Roberts' efforts to document her death have been to no avail. Although Cody's clever use of publicity assured that his life in England was well documented, his doings from the time he was thirteen until he became twenty-two are a blank to Roberts. Cody himself told tales of varied exploits in the raw west of America as a youth, but they remain undocumented and, based on Cody's subsequent show business romanticizing, suspect as to accuracy. Roberts is working on the problem Unlike many scholars, Jean Roberts is generous in sharing her unique information with other Cody fans. Her enthusiastic and careful stewardship has already contributed to several biographies of Cody's remarkable life. She has received much information in her turn and hopes that somewhere in the world there is someone who will help her with clues to that void in Cody's teenage history. This article first appeared in the Drachen Foundation Newsletter (December 1996). |
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