________________________________________
FROM THE AKRON CITY DIRECTORIES:
1950
Chief Big Buffalo, works - Glendale Cemetery, room - 62 1/2 S. Howard St.
1955
Chief Big Buffalo, room - 62 1/2 S. Howard St.
________________________________________
The inscription on his gravestone says he was the Chief of his tribe and that he has gone to his "Happy Hunting Ground". I am trying to get more information on this man and will enter it when I do. If anyone out there knows anything about him, please e-mail me at: [email protected].
___________________________________
UPDATE: FROM A STORY ABOUT GLENDALE CEMETERY IN THE AKRON BEACON JOURNAL:
Chief Big Buffalo was a Cherokee chief who actually entertained with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show at the turn of the century. He died destitute but recieved a gravestone because a $100.00 bond was found in his boarding room. How did he end up broke in Akron, Ohio?
__________________________________
UPDATE: 2008 Big Buffalo entertained with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show up untill Cody's death. Afterward, he worked for other shows to scrape out a meager living. He was working with a carnaval when it came to Akron, Ohio. Big Buffalo was elderly and his health was failing and when the show left Akron, he stayed here. He worked odd jobs, one of them being groundskeeping and leaf raking at Glendale Cemetery. When Big Buffalo got sick and died one night in his room, the administrator at Glendale felt so bad that he gave a grave freely for his burial. I've heard two explanations on how he got his gravestone. One is from the $100.00 savings bond found in his room. Another is that a local stone cutter donated the stone for Big Buffalo's grave.
He lived to be 95-years old. Think of the stories he had to tell.
__________________________________
Note from Anonymous. Thank you!
Chief Big Buffalo was Oglala Sioux.
__________________________________
THANKS TO Karen Carmack Stadler for the following article:
FROM THE AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, Sept. 13, 1956; Page 37
Final Tribute To A Proud Cherokee
Granite Stone Now Marks Chief Big Buffalo's Grave
By Helen Waterhouse
A granite gravestone fitting tribute to a proud Indian Chief stands today over the last resting place of Chief Big Buffalo who died here almost friendless and alone April 26.
The stone was purchased with the savings of the 95-year-old Cherokee.
Weeks after his death in an obscure S. Howard st. rooming house, the landlord of the place found a $100 postal savings bond among the tattered accumulation of belongings in the Chief's room.
Henry King, who owns the rooming house, turned the bond over to Clarence Blosser, court appointed administrator of the Indian's estate. Since the Chief left no heirs, it was decided to get a marker for his grave.
"Chief of his tribe, Chief Big Buffalo, 1861-1956, Gone to His Happy Hunting Grounds" the stone is inscribed.
Edgar Warren, superintendent of Glendale Cemetery, long a personal friend of the Chief, supervised the setting of the gravestone Wednesday.
Warren had befriended the Indian, who earlier made name and fame for himself, traveling about the country in the Bob Ripley shows, playing a one-string violin and a couple of saws.
The chief also was with Col. William Cody - Buffalo Bill - in Cody's famous show many years ago.
A faded New York Times clipping found among his effects told how he had appeared before three presidents in his day, Wilson, Taft and Coolidge and had played his saws and home-made violin for each. He had also appeared in Broadway shows.
"In fact, it was the late Sen. Taft who arranged for him to come to Akron in the first place to put on a show." Warren relates. "He liked the city so well he decided to settle here. I employed him as a janitor at the office building here in the cemetery but he was then too old to do much."
On Wednesday, Chief Big Buffalo's famous violin also reached a last resting place. Following a brief dedication ceremony at the grave, where Blosser presented the $100 postal bond to Warren for the gravestone, a member of the Summit County Historical Society accepted the violin for preservation.
City planning engineer, Leonard Hiebel, vice president of the society in charge of acquisitions, took the quaint looking maple wood instrument to which a big horn is attached to the John Brown Museum.
__________________________________
FROM THE AKRON CITY DIRECTORIES:
1950
Chief Big Buffalo, works - Glendale Cemetery, room - 62 1/2 S. Howard St.
1955
Chief Big Buffalo, room - 62 1/2 S. Howard St.
________________________________________
The inscription on his gravestone says he was the Chief of his tribe and that he has gone to his "Happy Hunting Ground". I am trying to get more information on this man and will enter it when I do. If anyone out there knows anything about him, please e-mail me at: [email protected].
___________________________________
UPDATE: FROM A STORY ABOUT GLENDALE CEMETERY IN THE AKRON BEACON JOURNAL:
Chief Big Buffalo was a Cherokee chief who actually entertained with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show at the turn of the century. He died destitute but recieved a gravestone because a $100.00 bond was found in his boarding room. How did he end up broke in Akron, Ohio?
__________________________________
UPDATE: 2008 Big Buffalo entertained with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show up untill Cody's death. Afterward, he worked for other shows to scrape out a meager living. He was working with a carnaval when it came to Akron, Ohio. Big Buffalo was elderly and his health was failing and when the show left Akron, he stayed here. He worked odd jobs, one of them being groundskeeping and leaf raking at Glendale Cemetery. When Big Buffalo got sick and died one night in his room, the administrator at Glendale felt so bad that he gave a grave freely for his burial. I've heard two explanations on how he got his gravestone. One is from the $100.00 savings bond found in his room. Another is that a local stone cutter donated the stone for Big Buffalo's grave.
He lived to be 95-years old. Think of the stories he had to tell.
__________________________________
Note from Anonymous. Thank you!
Chief Big Buffalo was Oglala Sioux.
__________________________________
THANKS TO Karen Carmack Stadler for the following article:
FROM THE AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, Sept. 13, 1956; Page 37
Final Tribute To A Proud Cherokee
Granite Stone Now Marks Chief Big Buffalo's Grave
By Helen Waterhouse
A granite gravestone fitting tribute to a proud Indian Chief stands today over the last resting place of Chief Big Buffalo who died here almost friendless and alone April 26.
The stone was purchased with the savings of the 95-year-old Cherokee.
Weeks after his death in an obscure S. Howard st. rooming house, the landlord of the place found a $100 postal savings bond among the tattered accumulation of belongings in the Chief's room.
Henry King, who owns the rooming house, turned the bond over to Clarence Blosser, court appointed administrator of the Indian's estate. Since the Chief left no heirs, it was decided to get a marker for his grave.
"Chief of his tribe, Chief Big Buffalo, 1861-1956, Gone to His Happy Hunting Grounds" the stone is inscribed.
Edgar Warren, superintendent of Glendale Cemetery, long a personal friend of the Chief, supervised the setting of the gravestone Wednesday.
Warren had befriended the Indian, who earlier made name and fame for himself, traveling about the country in the Bob Ripley shows, playing a one-string violin and a couple of saws.
The chief also was with Col. William Cody - Buffalo Bill - in Cody's famous show many years ago.
A faded New York Times clipping found among his effects told how he had appeared before three presidents in his day, Wilson, Taft and Coolidge and had played his saws and home-made violin for each. He had also appeared in Broadway shows.
"In fact, it was the late Sen. Taft who arranged for him to come to Akron in the first place to put on a show." Warren relates. "He liked the city so well he decided to settle here. I employed him as a janitor at the office building here in the cemetery but he was then too old to do much."
On Wednesday, Chief Big Buffalo's famous violin also reached a last resting place. Following a brief dedication ceremony at the grave, where Blosser presented the $100 postal bond to Warren for the gravestone, a member of the Summit County Historical Society accepted the violin for preservation.
City planning engineer, Leonard Hiebel, vice president of the society in charge of acquisitions, took the quaint looking maple wood instrument to which a big horn is attached to the John Brown Museum.
__________________________________
________________________________________
FROM THE AKRON CITY DIRECTORIES:
1950
Chief Big Buffalo, works - Glendale Cemetery, room - 62 1/2 S. Howard St.
1955
Chief Big Buffalo, room - 62 1/2 S. Howard St.
________________________________________
The inscription on his gravestone says he was the Chief of his tribe and that he has gone to his "Happy Hunting Ground". I am trying to get more information on this man and will enter it when I do. If anyone out there knows anything about him, please e-mail me at: [email protected].
___________________________________
UPDATE: FROM A STORY ABOUT GLENDALE CEMETERY IN THE AKRON BEACON JOURNAL:
Chief Big Buffalo was a Cherokee chief who actually entertained with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show at the turn of the century. He died destitute but recieved a gravestone because a $100.00 bond was found in his boarding room. How did he end up broke in Akron, Ohio?
__________________________________
UPDATE: 2008 Big Buffalo entertained with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show up untill Cody's death. Afterward, he worked for other shows to scrape out a meager living. He was working with a carnaval when it came to Akron, Ohio. Big Buffalo was elderly and his health was failing and when the show left Akron, he stayed here. He worked odd jobs, one of them being groundskeeping and leaf raking at Glendale Cemetery. When Big Buffalo got sick and died one night in his room, the administrator at Glendale felt so bad that he gave a grave freely for his burial. I've heard two explanations on how he got his gravestone. One is from the $100.00 savings bond found in his room. Another is that a local stone cutter donated the stone for Big Buffalo's grave.
He lived to be 95-years old. Think of the stories he had to tell.
__________________________________
Note from Anonymous. Thank you!
Chief Big Buffalo was Oglala Sioux.
__________________________________
THANKS TO Karen Carmack Stadler for the following article:
FROM THE AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, Sept. 13, 1956; Page 37
Final Tribute To A Proud Cherokee
Granite Stone Now Marks Chief Big Buffalo's Grave
By Helen Waterhouse
A granite gravestone fitting tribute to a proud Indian Chief stands today over the last resting place of Chief Big Buffalo who died here almost friendless and alone April 26.
The stone was purchased with the savings of the 95-year-old Cherokee.
Weeks after his death in an obscure S. Howard st. rooming house, the landlord of the place found a $100 postal savings bond among the tattered accumulation of belongings in the Chief's room.
Henry King, who owns the rooming house, turned the bond over to Clarence Blosser, court appointed administrator of the Indian's estate. Since the Chief left no heirs, it was decided to get a marker for his grave.
"Chief of his tribe, Chief Big Buffalo, 1861-1956, Gone to His Happy Hunting Grounds" the stone is inscribed.
Edgar Warren, superintendent of Glendale Cemetery, long a personal friend of the Chief, supervised the setting of the gravestone Wednesday.
Warren had befriended the Indian, who earlier made name and fame for himself, traveling about the country in the Bob Ripley shows, playing a one-string violin and a couple of saws.
The chief also was with Col. William Cody - Buffalo Bill - in Cody's famous show many years ago.
A faded New York Times clipping found among his effects told how he had appeared before three presidents in his day, Wilson, Taft and Coolidge and had played his saws and home-made violin for each. He had also appeared in Broadway shows.
"In fact, it was the late Sen. Taft who arranged for him to come to Akron in the first place to put on a show." Warren relates. "He liked the city so well he decided to settle here. I employed him as a janitor at the office building here in the cemetery but he was then too old to do much."
On Wednesday, Chief Big Buffalo's famous violin also reached a last resting place. Following a brief dedication ceremony at the grave, where Blosser presented the $100 postal bond to Warren for the gravestone, a member of the Summit County Historical Society accepted the violin for preservation.
City planning engineer, Leonard Hiebel, vice president of the society in charge of acquisitions, took the quaint looking maple wood instrument to which a big horn is attached to the John Brown Museum.
__________________________________
FROM THE AKRON CITY DIRECTORIES:
1950
Chief Big Buffalo, works - Glendale Cemetery, room - 62 1/2 S. Howard St.
1955
Chief Big Buffalo, room - 62 1/2 S. Howard St.
________________________________________
The inscription on his gravestone says he was the Chief of his tribe and that he has gone to his "Happy Hunting Ground". I am trying to get more information on this man and will enter it when I do. If anyone out there knows anything about him, please e-mail me at: [email protected].
___________________________________
UPDATE: FROM A STORY ABOUT GLENDALE CEMETERY IN THE AKRON BEACON JOURNAL:
Chief Big Buffalo was a Cherokee chief who actually entertained with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show at the turn of the century. He died destitute but recieved a gravestone because a $100.00 bond was found in his boarding room. How did he end up broke in Akron, Ohio?
__________________________________
UPDATE: 2008 Big Buffalo entertained with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show up untill Cody's death. Afterward, he worked for other shows to scrape out a meager living. He was working with a carnaval when it came to Akron, Ohio. Big Buffalo was elderly and his health was failing and when the show left Akron, he stayed here. He worked odd jobs, one of them being groundskeeping and leaf raking at Glendale Cemetery. When Big Buffalo got sick and died one night in his room, the administrator at Glendale felt so bad that he gave a grave freely for his burial. I've heard two explanations on how he got his gravestone. One is from the $100.00 savings bond found in his room. Another is that a local stone cutter donated the stone for Big Buffalo's grave.
He lived to be 95-years old. Think of the stories he had to tell.
__________________________________
Note from Anonymous. Thank you!
Chief Big Buffalo was Oglala Sioux.
__________________________________
THANKS TO Karen Carmack Stadler for the following article:
FROM THE AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, Sept. 13, 1956; Page 37
Final Tribute To A Proud Cherokee
Granite Stone Now Marks Chief Big Buffalo's Grave
By Helen Waterhouse
A granite gravestone fitting tribute to a proud Indian Chief stands today over the last resting place of Chief Big Buffalo who died here almost friendless and alone April 26.
The stone was purchased with the savings of the 95-year-old Cherokee.
Weeks after his death in an obscure S. Howard st. rooming house, the landlord of the place found a $100 postal savings bond among the tattered accumulation of belongings in the Chief's room.
Henry King, who owns the rooming house, turned the bond over to Clarence Blosser, court appointed administrator of the Indian's estate. Since the Chief left no heirs, it was decided to get a marker for his grave.
"Chief of his tribe, Chief Big Buffalo, 1861-1956, Gone to His Happy Hunting Grounds" the stone is inscribed.
Edgar Warren, superintendent of Glendale Cemetery, long a personal friend of the Chief, supervised the setting of the gravestone Wednesday.
Warren had befriended the Indian, who earlier made name and fame for himself, traveling about the country in the Bob Ripley shows, playing a one-string violin and a couple of saws.
The chief also was with Col. William Cody - Buffalo Bill - in Cody's famous show many years ago.
A faded New York Times clipping found among his effects told how he had appeared before three presidents in his day, Wilson, Taft and Coolidge and had played his saws and home-made violin for each. He had also appeared in Broadway shows.
"In fact, it was the late Sen. Taft who arranged for him to come to Akron in the first place to put on a show." Warren relates. "He liked the city so well he decided to settle here. I employed him as a janitor at the office building here in the cemetery but he was then too old to do much."
On Wednesday, Chief Big Buffalo's famous violin also reached a last resting place. Following a brief dedication ceremony at the grave, where Blosser presented the $100 postal bond to Warren for the gravestone, a member of the Summit County Historical Society accepted the violin for preservation.
City planning engineer, Leonard Hiebel, vice president of the society in charge of acquisitions, took the quaint looking maple wood instrument to which a big horn is attached to the John Brown Museum.
__________________________________
Inscription
Gone to his happy hunting grounds
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