Category: Western History
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Breaking Trail: Tillie Baldwin
Anna Matilda Winger was born in 1888 in Avendale, Norway. She emigrated to the United States in 1902 and lived with her aunt in New York. She was 14 years old at the time and would go on to become a very talented rodeo cowgirl despite never riding a horse before…
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Breaking Trail: Ikua Purdy
Ikua Purdy was born on December 24, 1872, at Waimea, Hawaii. He was a descendent of John Palmer Parker and Kipikane (granddaughter of King Kameameha The Great). Purdy grew up on the Parker Ranch learning to rope and ride. Many considered him a “master of the rope” by age 20.…
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Breaking Trail: Florence Hughes Randolph
Florence Hughes Randolph was born in 1898 in Augusta, Georgia. She learned how to ride on plow mules. She learned to Trick and Roman ride with Colonel King’s IXL Ranch Wild West show. In 1916, she organized Princess Mohawk’s Wild West Hippodrome. She performed with traveling carnivals. Florence defeated thirteen…
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Breaking Trail: Will Rogers
William Penn Adair Rogers, more commonly known as “Will” Rogers, was born in Indian Territory (what would later become Oklahoma) on November 4, 1879. Rogers was Cherokee. He was the eighth child of Clement Vann Rogers and Mary America Schrimsher Rogers. He was the only son to survive to adulthood…
The Active Historian 