The Active Historian

Are you ready to meet the woman who United States President Theodore Roosevelt called “The Golden Girl of the West?”

Lucille Mulhall was born in St. Louis, Missouri on October 21, 1885. Lucille was the daughter of Colonel Zack and Mary Agnes Mulhall. Her family moved to Oklahoma when she was four years old.

By age ten, Lucille was an expert at throwing a rope, branding calves and riding! Her mother insisted she have a well-rounded education which included piano lessons and an appreciation for poetry.

By age thirteen, she was appearing in the Wild West show her father operated. Other performers in the show included Will Rogers, Ellison Carroll, and Tom Mix – to name a few. Will Rogers later went on to say that Lucille was “the direct start of what has come to be known as the cowgirl…”

In 1900, Lucille and her brother became featured performers in the Wild West show. She was called the “Queen of the Range” after tying a steer in 30 seconds.

In 1906, her father’s show, “Mulhall’s Congress of Rough Riders and Ropers” dissolved. So, she took her talents to the vaudeville circuit.

Lucille’s show was called, “Lucille Mulhall and Her Ranch Boys” and they traveled across the United States.

She married Martin Van Bergen in March 1907 and they had one son, William Logan Van Bergen who was born two years into their marriage on January 29, 1909. Lucille returned to the vaudeville circuit while Martin took care of their son. She spent a lot of traveling for work and Martin eventually filed for divorce in March 1914.

In 1912, Lucille Mulhall was invited to participate in the very first Calgary Stampede and took second place in the ‘Cowgirls’ Fancy Roping’ winning $200. The Calgary Herald reported, “Miss Mulhall ran her [Florence Ladue, 1st] a very close second and won repeated applause by her graceful and smooth handling of the twirling loop, and by her roping of a rider by flipping the rope with her foot.” (Calgary Herald, September 6, 1912)

By 1914, Lucille was known as “the World’s Greatest Horsewoman.” People flocked to rodeos to see her and attendance records were often broken.

By 1916, she had formed her own rodeo company called, ‘Lucille Mulhall’s Round-Up.’ She was the only female rodeo producer at the time which was a BIG deal. She employed women and obviously allowed them to compete. “Other cowgirls reported her to be kind and helpful as they competed against her.” (Hanshew, 40)

On April 24, 1919, Lucille married Thomas Loyd “T.L.” Burnett in Logan, Oklahoma. She was 33 years old at the time. They were married for a couple of years before they divorced.

Lucille loved performing and did so with her vaudeville act from 1920-1930. Additionally, she appeared in the Passing of the West program and for the 101 Ranch Wild West show run by the Miller Brothers of Oklahoma.

Her father, Colonel Zack Mulhall passed away in September 1931.

Lucille Mulhall retired from performing and competing to return to her family’s ranch in Mulhall, Oklahoma. She made occasional appearances at events in Oklahoma through the 1930s.

In April 1935, Lucille Mulhall and Major Gordon Lilly (better known as “Pawnee Bill”) led the ’89er Days Parade in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Tragically, Lucille Mulhall passed away in a car accident on December 21, 1940. She is buried in the Roselyn Cemetery in Mulhall, Oklahoma.

Lucille Mulhall’s legacy speaks for itself. In 1975, Lucille Mulhall was inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. You can see her wrist cuffs and whip on exhibition in The Cowboy’s “American Cowboy Gallery.” (Pictured below)

In 1977, Lucille Mulhall was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.

Concluding Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed reading about Lucille Mulhall’s story and will join me next time as we continue ‘breaking trail’ to discover stories in American Western history.

---

Sources

Secondary Sources

Chris Enss. Along Came A Cowgirl: Daring and Iconic Women of the Rodeo & Wild West Shows. [Pages 4-13]

Tracey Hanshew. Oklahoma Rodeo Women.

Richard Rattenbury. Arena Legacy: The Heritage of American Rodeo. [Page – 9]

Websites

Joyce Gibson Roach, “Mulhall, Lucille,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.

“Lucille Mulhall.” National Rodeo Hall of Fame. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

“Lucille Mulhall.” National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.

“Lucille Mulhall.” Texas Trail of Fame.

“Lucille Agatha Mulhall.” Find A Grave.

“William Logan Van Bergen.” Find A Grave.

Primary Sources

Marriage Licenses

“Lucille Van Bergen.” Marriage Records. Oklahoma Marriages. Various Oklahoma County marriage collections. (Film Number: 000378325)

Photographs

“Texas Rodeo Performers [Lucille Mulhall].” Erwin E. Smith. 1920s. Gelatin dry plate negative. Erwin E. Smith Collection of the Library of Congress on Deposit at the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. LC.S6.543 (Public Domain).

“[Rodeo performer Lucille Mulhall on mount][Rodeo performer Lucille Mulhall on mount].” Erwin E. Smith. Nitrate negative. Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX. LC.S59.290. (Public Domain)

“Texas rodeo performers [Col. Zack Mulhall standing, Lucille Mulhall mounted second from right].” Erwin E. Smith. 1920s. Gelatin dry plate negative. Erwin E. Smith Collection of the Library of Congress on Deposit at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. LC.S6.540. (Public Domain)

“Texas rodeo performers [Prairie Rose Henderson, sitting third from left, and Lucille Mulhall, standing fifth from left].” Erwin E. Smith. 1920s. Gelatin dry plate negative. Erwin E. Smith Collection of the Library of Congress on Deposit at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. LC.S6.542. (Public Domain)

Newspapers

“Miss Lucille Mulhall.” The St Louis Republic (St. Louis, MO), July 25, 1904.

“Col. Zack Mulhall’s.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, MO), August 14, 1904.

“Lucille Mulhall.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York), April l4, 1905.

“Miss Mulhall, Belle of Oklahoma, Lariat Expert.” Courier-Post (Camden, New Jersey) April 22, 1905.

“Lucille Mulhall, at the Orpheum.” Omaha World-Herald (Omaha, NE), February 3, 1907.

“Girl Cowpuncher…” The Kentucky Post (Covington, KY), August 29, 1907.

“She Rides Astride And Has All Cowboys Faded In Steer-Tying.” Detroit Free Press (Detroit, MI), September 19, 1907.

“Lucille Mulhall.” The Pittsburgh Post (Pittsburgh, PA), September 22, 1907.

“Lucille Mulhall Is Product Of The Plains.” The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), September 29, 1907.

“The Mulhalls, Who Have Gone In For The Wild West Circuit.” The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, MO), April 15, 1910.

“Mulhall’s Wild West.” Kansas City Journal (Kansas City, MO), April 17, 1910.

“Col. Zack Mulhall’s Great Wild West Show.” Knoxville Sentinel (Knoxville, TN), September 20, 1910.

“Spirit of Wild West Will Hold Sway at Orpheum.” Oakland Enquirer (Oakland, CA), September 16, 1911.

“Dashing Cowgirls Here For Stampede.” Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) , August 28, 1912.

“She Makes Them Sit Up.” Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), September 5, 1912.

“Yesterday Graced By Presence Of Royalty and Featured With Numerous Championship Events.” Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), September 6, 1912.

“Stampede Results in Detail.” Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), September 9, 1912.

“Miss Lucille Mulhall, Star of ‘Cheyenne Days,’ At The Empire.” The Rock Island Argus (Rock Island, IL), November 25, 1912.

“Miss Lucille Mulhall.” The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT), August 31, 1913.

“Pantages.” Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), July 9, 1914.

“Tempting Bills Offered In Spokane Theaters.” Spokane Chronicle (Spokane, WA), July 17, 1914.

“Wild West Life Shown at Pantages.” The Vancouver Sun (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), August 3, 1914.

“‘Cowgirl’ And Her Band Bring Plains To The Stage.” Oakland Enquirer (Oakland, CA), September 12, 1914.

“Guthrie Opera House.” The Guthrie Daily Leader (Guthrie, OK), January 1, 1915.

“Lucille Mulhall.” Muskogee Times-Democrat (Muskogee, Oklahoma) April 24, 1915.

“”Lucille Mulhall Champion Roper of the World.” Clearwater Record (Clearwater, NE), September 3, 1915.

“How the War Has Boomed Broncho Busting.” The Birmingham News (Birmingham, AL), October 3, 1915.

The Lawton News (Lawton, Oklahoma) August 28, 1917.

“Colonel Mulhall, Famous Ranchman Called By Death.” Clinton Daily News (Clinton, OK), September 18, 1931.

“Thousands View Huge Spectacle.” Oklahoma Weekly Leader (Guthrie, OK), April 25, 1935.

“Lucille Mulhall Noted Cowgirl, Dies in Crash.” Rutland Daily Herald (Rutland, VT), December 23, 1940.

*All newspaper clippings in this blog post were pulled from newspapers.com. All digitized primary sources were found on ancestry.com unless stated otherwise. I am not affiliated with either website. I just wanted to let you know where I found my digitized sources.

*Blog Cover Photo: “[Rodeo performer Lucille Mulhall on mount][Rodeo performer Lucille Mulhall on mount].” Erwin E. Smith. Nitrate negative. Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX. LC.S59.290. (Public Domain)