William Frank Carver
Encyclopedia
William Frank "Doc" Carver (May 7, 1851 – Aug. 31, 1927) was a late 19th century sharpshooter and creator of a popular diving horse
attraction. He was born at Winslow, Illinois
, to William Daniel Carver, a physician, and Deborah Tohapenes (Peters) Carver (1829–1907). The parents had migrated to Illinois
from Pennsylvania
in 1849. He had a younger brother, William Pitt, who became a farmer in Kansas, and a sister, May, who was born in May 1856 and who died before the age of two. There seems to be no creditable information regarding Carver’s childhood, as the contradictions in stories he told classify them as entertainment rather than fact. For most of his adult life Carver gave the year of his birth as 1840, but it is likely he did so in order to add the time frame needed to create stories of frontier experience for his admiring audiences after he became a showman. Carver’s biographer, Raymond Thorp, wrote that Carver left home at a young age to assert his family’s right to land in Minnesota
that the Sioux had supposedly granted his grandfather, Jonathan Carver
, and that during this period of time he lived with the Santee Sioux. This contention, however, like the other claims made by Carver about his early life and never investigated by his biographer, does not stand the scrutiny of recognized historians.
, and North Platte, Nebraska
. Although he later attempted to distance himself from his early profession as a dentist, the name “Doc” clung for life. It was at Fort McPherson that he first met Buffalo Bill Cody, Texas Jack Omohundro
, and other well-known figures of the day. In November 1872 he moved to the newly organized Frontier County, Nebraska
, in the company of Ena Raymonde, a southern belle from Georgia
, whose brother W. H. “Paddy” Miles had recently established a trapper’s camp known as Wolf’s Rest on the Medicine Creek
. Carver took a claim near Wolf’s Rest, and it was here that he began to acquire the target shooting, horseback riding, and hunting skills that would lead to his later success as a world-class marksman. Ena Raymonde, a recognized markswoman, who had been challenged to shoot by Buffalo Bill Cody and Texas Jack Omohundro, is credited with playing a part in teaching Carver to shoot. An entry from Raymonde's 1872 journal not only reveals insights into Carver as a young man but portrays the prevailing enthusiasm for shooting sports in the 19th century: “Sunday afternoon we all…went to see a prairie-dog town! We went at half-speed or better all the way. Shot about 200 rounds; the Dr. doing the most of the business of shooting if not killing...”
Although Carver’s actual years as a plainsman were relatively short, he was on the western Nebraska
frontier during an exciting era. Conflict between the whites and the Native Americans in the immediate area was decreasing but not eliminated. A remnant band of Lakota Sioux known as the Cut-off Sioux was encamped on the Medicine Creek several miles to the east of Carver’s cabin, and although his claim of having killed the Cut-offs’ old war chief Whistler and two of his braves in late 1872 does not coalesce with the evidence, Carver was certainly in the area during a time of potential and, in some cases, real hostility between the whites and Native Americans.
It was a common practice during the late 19th century for well-heeled men, both from the East and from abroad, to travel to the West to engage in hunting expeditions, and Carver undoubtedly had the opportunity to participate in several of these hunts. Buffalo Bill Cody wrote in his 1879 autobiography that Dr. W. F. Carver, who, in Cody’s words, “has recently acquired considerable notoriety as a rifle-shot,” had joined a hunt at which Cody had been engaged as the guide by the Englishman Thomas P. Medley. Late in 1874 Carver spent two weeks doing dental work at Fort Sidney
, following which he moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming
, where he continued to practice dentistry.
in 1876 where he honed his shooting skills. At about this time he coined the moniker “Evil Spirit,” accompanied by a “camp-fire tale” that the name had been given to him by Spotted Tail
, the famous chief of the Brule Lakota, because Carver had felled a rare white buffalo. In December 1877 the "Evil Spirit" issued a challenge to all comers; he would use a rifle and the challenger could use a shot gun, and the targets would be glass balls thrown from the newly invented Bogardus glass ball trap. He also contended that he could hit more targets from horseback than a challenger could hit while standing on the ground. One of the first significant awards Carver won was for breaking 885 glass balls out of 1000 at San Francisco on February 22, 1878. The gold badge was capped with the image of a grizzly bear and bore an inscription that proclaimed Dr. W. F. Carver as “Champion Rifle Shot of the World.” Following his success in California, Carver went on tour giving exhibitions of shooting prowess, which included endurance contests as well as target competitions. An article from the July 6, 1878 New York Times illustrates the reception Carver received:
Carver also joined the ranks of western figures that embellished their frontier credentials by writing books. In 1878 he put out a book titled Life of Dr. Wm. F. Carver of California: Champion Rifle Shot of the World, which, though it contains entirely fictionalized versions of his early life, does include extracts from the press coverage of his first shooting tour across the country.
On August 20, 1878, while in New Haven, Connecticut
, Carver was married to Josephine Dailey, whom he had met on a previous trip. Very little is known about the marriage as Carver’s biographer only mentions Josephine in several brief references in the first few years following the marriage. It appears she was a marginal presence in Carver’s life throughout his early years as a showman and apparently they later separated. It is known that the Carvers had two children, Al and Lorena, both of whom were eventually involved in their father’s diving horse act.
who was recognized across the country and around the world as the champion trap shooter. Bogardus was Carver’s senior by seventeen years, however, and had little to gain and much to lose by accepting a challenge from the newcomer.
In 1879 Carver set sail for a tour of Europe
, where he shot in numerous exhibitions and matches, using shotgun, rifle, and pistol and shooting from horseback or from foot. He shot before the ordinary citizens as well as nobility, the most notable being the Prince of Wales
(later Edward VII). Although he traveled to France
, Belgium
, Germany
, and Austria
, most of the tour was in the British Isles
, where he was booked for a long-term engagement at the magnificent Crystal Palace, London
, in the wealthy Sydenham Hill
district.
Regardless of the considerable success he was having in Europe, the desire to stage a match with the great Bogardus was ever-present. So anxious was Carver to shoot against Bogardus that in 1881, in a challenge printed in the London Sportsman, he offered to pay $250 toward expenses if Bogardus would travel to London for a match. Bogardus ignored this challenge. Carver returned to the United States in the fall of 1882 and again threw down the gauntlet. Early in 1883 Captain Bogardus finally acquiesced and agreed to a live pigeon shoot at Louisville, Kentucky
. The proposed match created a great deal of excitement in the shooting world and a crowd of nearly 1000 gathered to watch two of the world’s finest shooters compete. The Louisville Commercial ran the following article on February 21, 1883:
Doc Carver won the match 83 to 82, giving Bogardus the nudge needed to issue a challenge for further matches. In Chicago, Illinois, they shot two matches, one at live birds and one at clay pigeons, Carver winning both matches. From there they traveled to St. Louis, Missouri
, where they found a message waiting for them from the Ligowsky Clay Pigeon Company. If they used Ligowsky’s clay pigeons, the company would award a $7500 purse for the series of 25 matches. The match using clay pigeons that they had already shot in Chicago was counted as one match, another match was shot while they were in St. Louis, and from there they traveled to 23 more cities. Carver won 19 of the 25 matches and secured his position as one of the world’s best marksmen.
, on May 17, 1883. Their series of shooting matches completed, both Carver and Bogardus joined the show in Omaha. The show was an immediate success, but the relationship between the two showmen, Carver and Cody, was contentious from the beginning. At the end of the season they parted ways and divided the assets by the flip of a coin. Cody then formed a partnership with the promoter and showman Nate Salsbury, and the show continued as “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.”
Doc Carver reorganized and put his own show, also billed as the “Wild West,” on the road. As the two shows criss-crossed the country for the next few years, Carver and Cody engaged in legal wrangling over a variety of issues. The foremost points of dispute were the use of the Wild West name and Carver’s assertion that Cody still owed him $27,000 that Carver claimed he had invested in the original show. July 1885 found both shows in Connecticut
and the New York Times reported: “An interminable row has broken out in this State between Dr. Carver, the marksman, and Buffalo Bill. They have been running rival shows under the same title of ‘Wild West’…” A trial, intended to end the suits and countersuits, was set for July 20, 1885. Cody failed to appear, however, so Carver agreed to dismiss his suit for $10,000 cash and Salsbury’s offer to pay the court costs. The two old friends remained bitter enemies for the rest of their lives.
His show broken up, Carver did not have the financial resources to reorganize. For the next few years he appeared as a featured act in several outdoor shows. By 1889 he had secured financial partners and organized his own show, “Wild America.” Carver launched a world-wide tour and though he covered much of the same circuit as Cody, the two shows avoided each other until August 1890 when Carver’s show arrived in Hamburg, Germany, ahead of Cody’s. Carver’s claim to exclusive use of the available electric lights left Cody’s show in the dark and added further hostility to the fierce competition between the two showmen. In December 1890 Carver shipped his “Wild America” troupe to Australia
, where it was received with enthusiasm.
In conjunction with the outdoor exhibition, Carver had added a dramatic play, and on his return to the United States in early 1892 launched a tour of both productions across the country. An economic depression, however, had spread across the country by the early 1890s. In addition, a number of similar shows were touring the country, and they were no longer an entertainment novelty. For these and other reasons, Carver’s show disbanded sometime in 1893. Doc Carver had continued to give shooting exhibitions and to challenge competitors while on tour both in the United States and abroad. After seventeen years as the “Champion Shot of the World” Carver gave one of his last public exhibitions in Lincoln, Nebraska
, in 1896. Noting that Carver refused to tell his age, but that he looked fifteen years younger than his real age, the State Journal reported: “Dr. W. F. Carver, the champion shot of the world, has been giving exhibitions of his wonderful skill in rifle, shotgun and horseback shooting this week at Lincoln park that mystified, surprised and astonished the audience present…”
in August 1894. Carver told several versions of a story describing an exciting escape from bandits, which inspired the diving horse act, but those who remembered him in Nebraska, said he got the idea after plunging horseback off a bank into a deep hole in the Medicine Creek. Over the next few years the other acts were eliminated, and the horse diving exhibition became Carver’s primary endeavor. Included in the touring company was his son Al, who helped train and take care of the horses, and his daughter Lorena, said to be the first rider. By the time his future daughter-in-law Sonora Webster joined the show in 1924, Carver had two diving teams on the road, each performing in a different city.
In June 1927, Doc Carver attended an Old-Timers’ Convention in Norfolk, Nebraska
, where he enjoyed reuniting with other frontiersmen. Following the convention he traveled to Omaha, Nebraska, and it was while there that Carver received word that his favorite horse had drowned following a dive into the Pacific Ocean
. Sonora later wrote that the loss of the horse coupled with failing health seemed to diminish Carver’s desire to live. W. F. “Doc” Carver died on August 31, 1927, at Sacramento, California
, and was buried beside his mother and sister in Winslow, Illinois. Sonora remembered that although Doc Carver was a stern and taciturn man, he loved his horses and was unfailingly insistent that they be given the best of care.
Following Doc Carver’s death, the diving horse show continued with Al Carver at the helm. In October 1928 Al Carver and Sonora Webster were married. A short time later Al signed a contract for a season’s engagement at Atlantic City's Steel Pier
, and the diving horse act became a permanent fixture there for several years. Sonora Webster Carver
lost her eyesight in 1931 when her horse "Red Lips" dove into the tank off-balance, causing her to hit the water face first. She failed to close her eyes quickly enough, resulting in detached retinas. Though now blinded, Sonora continued with the act for eleven years. Sonora’s younger sister, Arnette Webster (later French) had joined the show in 1930 and started diving in 1931.
Al and Sonora Carver retired in 1942. The act finally closed as a result of pressure from animal rights groups in the 1970s. Sonora Carver, however, always contended that the horses were never forced to dive and, in fact, enjoyed the act. Sonora Carver died in September 2003, age 99. Her early career inspired the 1991 Disney movie Wild Hearts Can't be Broken
starring Gabrielle Anwar
and based on Carver's memoir A Girl and Five Brave Horses
.
Diving horse
A diving horse is an attraction that was popular in the mid 1880s, in which a horse would dive into a pool of water, sometimes from as high as 60 feet up.-History:...
attraction. He was born at Winslow, Illinois
Winslow, Illinois
Winslow is a village in Stephenson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 338 at the 2010 census, down from 345 at the 2000 census-Government:Mayor of Winslow is James Basswood. Treasurer is Lynn Towers. Clerk is Marty Campbell...
, to William Daniel Carver, a physician, and Deborah Tohapenes (Peters) Carver (1829–1907). The parents had migrated to Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
from Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
in 1849. He had a younger brother, William Pitt, who became a farmer in Kansas, and a sister, May, who was born in May 1856 and who died before the age of two. There seems to be no creditable information regarding Carver’s childhood, as the contradictions in stories he told classify them as entertainment rather than fact. For most of his adult life Carver gave the year of his birth as 1840, but it is likely he did so in order to add the time frame needed to create stories of frontier experience for his admiring audiences after he became a showman. Carver’s biographer, Raymond Thorp, wrote that Carver left home at a young age to assert his family’s right to land in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
that the Sioux had supposedly granted his grandfather, Jonathan Carver
Jonathan Carver
Jonathan Carver was an American explorer and writer. He was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts and then moved with his family to Canterbury, Connecticut. He later married Abigail Robbins and became a shoemaker. He is believed to have had seven children.In 1755 Carver joined the colonial militia at...
, and that during this period of time he lived with the Santee Sioux. This contention, however, like the other claims made by Carver about his early life and never investigated by his biographer, does not stand the scrutiny of recognized historians.
A plainsman
Carver was trained as a dentist, hence the nickname "Doc". It was as a dentist that Dr. Carver migrated to the West in 1872, where he practiced dentistry at Fort McPherson, NebraskaFort McPherson, Nebraska
Fort McPherson was originally called Cantonment McKean, and was popularly known as Fort Cottonwood. The Fort was an Indian Wars-era U.S...
, and North Platte, Nebraska
North Platte, Nebraska
North Platte is a city in and the county seat of Lincoln County, Nebraska, United States. It is located in the southwestern part of the state, along Interstate 80, at the confluence of the North and South Platte Rivers forming the Platte River...
. Although he later attempted to distance himself from his early profession as a dentist, the name “Doc” clung for life. It was at Fort McPherson that he first met Buffalo Bill Cody, Texas Jack Omohundro
Texas Jack Omohundro
John Baker Omohundro , also known as "Texas Jack," was a frontier scout, actor, and cowboy.He was born at Pleasure Hill, near Palmyra, Virginia, to John B. and Catherine Omohundro. In his early teens, he left home, made his way alone to Texas, and became a cowboy...
, and other well-known figures of the day. In November 1872 he moved to the newly organized Frontier County, Nebraska
Frontier County, Nebraska
-History:Frontier County was formed in 1872. It was named for its location along the frontier border in the late 19th century.-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 3,099 people, 1,192 households, and 828 families residing in the county. The population density was 3 people per square...
, in the company of Ena Raymonde, a southern belle from Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, whose brother W. H. “Paddy” Miles had recently established a trapper’s camp known as Wolf’s Rest on the Medicine Creek
Medicine Creek
The Medicine Creek is a tributary of the Republican River in Nebraska- References:* USGS - Water Resources of the United States...
. Carver took a claim near Wolf’s Rest, and it was here that he began to acquire the target shooting, horseback riding, and hunting skills that would lead to his later success as a world-class marksman. Ena Raymonde, a recognized markswoman, who had been challenged to shoot by Buffalo Bill Cody and Texas Jack Omohundro, is credited with playing a part in teaching Carver to shoot. An entry from Raymonde's 1872 journal not only reveals insights into Carver as a young man but portrays the prevailing enthusiasm for shooting sports in the 19th century: “Sunday afternoon we all…went to see a prairie-dog town! We went at half-speed or better all the way. Shot about 200 rounds; the Dr. doing the most of the business of shooting if not killing...”
Although Carver’s actual years as a plainsman were relatively short, he was on the western Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
frontier during an exciting era. Conflict between the whites and the Native Americans in the immediate area was decreasing but not eliminated. A remnant band of Lakota Sioux known as the Cut-off Sioux was encamped on the Medicine Creek several miles to the east of Carver’s cabin, and although his claim of having killed the Cut-offs’ old war chief Whistler and two of his braves in late 1872 does not coalesce with the evidence, Carver was certainly in the area during a time of potential and, in some cases, real hostility between the whites and Native Americans.
It was a common practice during the late 19th century for well-heeled men, both from the East and from abroad, to travel to the West to engage in hunting expeditions, and Carver undoubtedly had the opportunity to participate in several of these hunts. Buffalo Bill Cody wrote in his 1879 autobiography that Dr. W. F. Carver, who, in Cody’s words, “has recently acquired considerable notoriety as a rifle-shot,” had joined a hunt at which Cody had been engaged as the guide by the Englishman Thomas P. Medley. Late in 1874 Carver spent two weeks doing dental work at Fort Sidney
Fort Sidney
Fort Sidney is a historic fort located in Sidney, Nebraska, United States. The 37th Infantry Regiment established "Sidney Station" at a point midway between the Platte Rivers, where the modern community of Sidney, Nebraska, now stands. Initially the installation was a block house on a bluff with...
, following which he moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...
, where he continued to practice dentistry.
Shooting career
Carver migrated to CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1876 where he honed his shooting skills. At about this time he coined the moniker “Evil Spirit,” accompanied by a “camp-fire tale” that the name had been given to him by Spotted Tail
Spotted Tail
Siŋté Glešká was a Brulé Lakota tribal chief. Although a great warrior in his youth, and having taken part in the Grattan massacre, he declined to participate in Red Cloud's War, having become convinced of the pointlessness of opposing the white incursions into his homeland; he became a...
, the famous chief of the Brule Lakota, because Carver had felled a rare white buffalo. In December 1877 the "Evil Spirit" issued a challenge to all comers; he would use a rifle and the challenger could use a shot gun, and the targets would be glass balls thrown from the newly invented Bogardus glass ball trap. He also contended that he could hit more targets from horseback than a challenger could hit while standing on the ground. One of the first significant awards Carver won was for breaking 885 glass balls out of 1000 at San Francisco on February 22, 1878. The gold badge was capped with the image of a grizzly bear and bore an inscription that proclaimed Dr. W. F. Carver as “Champion Rifle Shot of the World.” Following his success in California, Carver went on tour giving exhibitions of shooting prowess, which included endurance contests as well as target competitions. An article from the July 6, 1878 New York Times illustrates the reception Carver received:
Dr. W. F. Carver, the man who can put a bullet through a silver quarter while the coin is flying through the air, is an enlarged and revised edition of Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack. Being fresh from the broad plains of the untrammeled West, he has that delightful air of unconventionality to be found only in the land of the setting sun...
Dr. Carver is, no doubt, the best short-range marksman in the world. He gave his second exhibition at Deerfoot Park yesterday, and astonished everybody who saw him. He is as fine a specimen of fully developed manhood as ever walked on Manhattan Island. More than six feet high, every part of his body is built to correspond. His chest is so deep that it would take a powerful rifle to send a bullet through it. His shoulders are broad and high, and, altogether, he is exactly the man that ordinary people wouldn’t put themselves out of the way to pick a quarrel with...
The scene of yesterday’s shooting is worthy of description. A... table, on which were four rifles, several boxes of cartridges, and half a dozen score-books. Fifteen or 20 feet in front of this, again, a barrel and a man, the man taking the glass balls out of the barrel and throwing them in the air, and Dr. Carver breaking them with the bullets as fast as they appeared. Somebody was always at work loading a rifle. The marksman could fire them faster than the loaders could load. And they were the most remarkable rifles – breach-loaders, of course. When they were opened at the end one cartridge was shoved in after another, till it seemed as if the first one must surely be somewhere up by the muzzle...
He seldom misses what he fires at. Most of the time was taken up in shooting glass balls, filled with feathers. The balls were of the thinnest film of glass, slightly tinted, so as to be seen easily in the air, and when they broke, the feathers scattered in every direction...
Carver also joined the ranks of western figures that embellished their frontier credentials by writing books. In 1878 he put out a book titled Life of Dr. Wm. F. Carver of California: Champion Rifle Shot of the World, which, though it contains entirely fictionalized versions of his early life, does include extracts from the press coverage of his first shooting tour across the country.
On August 20, 1878, while in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, Carver was married to Josephine Dailey, whom he had met on a previous trip. Very little is known about the marriage as Carver’s biographer only mentions Josephine in several brief references in the first few years following the marriage. It appears she was a marginal presence in Carver’s life throughout his early years as a showman and apparently they later separated. It is known that the Carvers had two children, Al and Lorena, both of whom were eventually involved in their father’s diving horse act.
Carver versus Bogardus
Almost from the beginning of his shooting career, Carver issued challenges to Captain Adam Henry BogardusAdam Bogardus
Capt. Adam Henry Bogardus, world champion and United States champion trap shooter, was born in Berne, New York. There, in 1854, he married Cordelia Dearstyne. They moved to Elkhart, Illinois where he became the wing shot champion of the world. He is credited with romanticizing trap shooting...
who was recognized across the country and around the world as the champion trap shooter. Bogardus was Carver’s senior by seventeen years, however, and had little to gain and much to lose by accepting a challenge from the newcomer.
In 1879 Carver set sail for a tour of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, where he shot in numerous exhibitions and matches, using shotgun, rifle, and pistol and shooting from horseback or from foot. He shot before the ordinary citizens as well as nobility, the most notable being the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
(later Edward VII). Although he traveled to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, most of the tour was in the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
, where he was booked for a long-term engagement at the magnificent Crystal Palace, London
Crystal Palace, London
Crystal Palace is a residential area in south London, England named from the former local landmark, The Crystal Palace, which occupied the area from 1854 to 1936. The area is located approximately 8 miles south east of Charing Cross, and offers impressive views over the capital...
, in the wealthy Sydenham Hill
Sydenham Hill
For other uses of 'Sydenham', see Sydenham .Sydenham Hill is a hill or ridge and a locality in South-East London and the name of a road which runs along the northern eastern part of the ridge and forms the boundary between the London Borough of Southwark and the London Borough of Lewisham. The...
district.
Regardless of the considerable success he was having in Europe, the desire to stage a match with the great Bogardus was ever-present. So anxious was Carver to shoot against Bogardus that in 1881, in a challenge printed in the London Sportsman, he offered to pay $250 toward expenses if Bogardus would travel to London for a match. Bogardus ignored this challenge. Carver returned to the United States in the fall of 1882 and again threw down the gauntlet. Early in 1883 Captain Bogardus finally acquiesced and agreed to a live pigeon shoot at Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
. The proposed match created a great deal of excitement in the shooting world and a crowd of nearly 1000 gathered to watch two of the world’s finest shooters compete. The Louisville Commercial ran the following article on February 21, 1883:
Captain A. H. Bogardus, the champion shot, arrived in the city yesterday morning, and immediately repaired to the Louisville Hotel, where his rival, Dr. Carver is stopping. Neither of them “recognized” the other, although they met several times during the morning and dined at adjoining tables. Captain Bogardus remarked to a friend in a fatherly way that the “young ‘un” seemed to be in fine form, and Dr. Carver was overheard saying as he blushed before a plate of potato salad, that “the old man was looking pretty well himself.” Once or twice they glared politely at each other, and the scene was rather amusing. Captain Bogardus would transfix a baked apple with his fork, and then cast a quick glance at Carver, who at that moment was sipping his ox-tail soup, timidly eyeing the Captain over the rim of the bowl.
Doc Carver won the match 83 to 82, giving Bogardus the nudge needed to issue a challenge for further matches. In Chicago, Illinois, they shot two matches, one at live birds and one at clay pigeons, Carver winning both matches. From there they traveled to St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, where they found a message waiting for them from the Ligowsky Clay Pigeon Company. If they used Ligowsky’s clay pigeons, the company would award a $7500 purse for the series of 25 matches. The match using clay pigeons that they had already shot in Chicago was counted as one match, another match was shot while they were in St. Louis, and from there they traveled to 23 more cities. Carver won 19 of the 25 matches and secured his position as one of the world’s best marksmen.
Wild West show
About this same time, Carver went into partnership with Buffalo Bill Cody to put a Wild West show on the road. The grand opening of the “Wild West: Hon. W. F. Cody and Dr. W. F. Carver’s Rocky Mountain and Prairie Exhibition” was in Omaha, NebraskaOmaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
, on May 17, 1883. Their series of shooting matches completed, both Carver and Bogardus joined the show in Omaha. The show was an immediate success, but the relationship between the two showmen, Carver and Cody, was contentious from the beginning. At the end of the season they parted ways and divided the assets by the flip of a coin. Cody then formed a partnership with the promoter and showman Nate Salsbury, and the show continued as “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.”
Doc Carver reorganized and put his own show, also billed as the “Wild West,” on the road. As the two shows criss-crossed the country for the next few years, Carver and Cody engaged in legal wrangling over a variety of issues. The foremost points of dispute were the use of the Wild West name and Carver’s assertion that Cody still owed him $27,000 that Carver claimed he had invested in the original show. July 1885 found both shows in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
and the New York Times reported: “An interminable row has broken out in this State between Dr. Carver, the marksman, and Buffalo Bill. They have been running rival shows under the same title of ‘Wild West’…” A trial, intended to end the suits and countersuits, was set for July 20, 1885. Cody failed to appear, however, so Carver agreed to dismiss his suit for $10,000 cash and Salsbury’s offer to pay the court costs. The two old friends remained bitter enemies for the rest of their lives.
His show broken up, Carver did not have the financial resources to reorganize. For the next few years he appeared as a featured act in several outdoor shows. By 1889 he had secured financial partners and organized his own show, “Wild America.” Carver launched a world-wide tour and though he covered much of the same circuit as Cody, the two shows avoided each other until August 1890 when Carver’s show arrived in Hamburg, Germany, ahead of Cody’s. Carver’s claim to exclusive use of the available electric lights left Cody’s show in the dark and added further hostility to the fierce competition between the two showmen. In December 1890 Carver shipped his “Wild America” troupe to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, where it was received with enthusiasm.
In conjunction with the outdoor exhibition, Carver had added a dramatic play, and on his return to the United States in early 1892 launched a tour of both productions across the country. An economic depression, however, had spread across the country by the early 1890s. In addition, a number of similar shows were touring the country, and they were no longer an entertainment novelty. For these and other reasons, Carver’s show disbanded sometime in 1893. Doc Carver had continued to give shooting exhibitions and to challenge competitors while on tour both in the United States and abroad. After seventeen years as the “Champion Shot of the World” Carver gave one of his last public exhibitions in Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
, in 1896. Noting that Carver refused to tell his age, but that he looked fifteen years younger than his real age, the State Journal reported: “Dr. W. F. Carver, the champion shot of the world, has been giving exhibitions of his wonderful skill in rifle, shotgun and horseback shooting this week at Lincoln park that mystified, surprised and astonished the audience present…”
Diving Horses
After the breakup of his show Carver put together a smaller show, which featured various trained animals and shooting exhibitions. His biographer wrote that Carver added the diving horse act to this show at Kansas CityKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
in August 1894. Carver told several versions of a story describing an exciting escape from bandits, which inspired the diving horse act, but those who remembered him in Nebraska, said he got the idea after plunging horseback off a bank into a deep hole in the Medicine Creek. Over the next few years the other acts were eliminated, and the horse diving exhibition became Carver’s primary endeavor. Included in the touring company was his son Al, who helped train and take care of the horses, and his daughter Lorena, said to be the first rider. By the time his future daughter-in-law Sonora Webster joined the show in 1924, Carver had two diving teams on the road, each performing in a different city.
In June 1927, Doc Carver attended an Old-Timers’ Convention in Norfolk, Nebraska
Norfolk, Nebraska
Norfolk is a city in Madison County, Nebraska, United States, 113 miles northwest of Omaha and 83 miles west of Sioux City at the intersection of U.S. Routes 81 and 275. The population was 24,210 at the 2010 census, making it the ninth-largest city in Nebraska. It is the principal city of the...
, where he enjoyed reuniting with other frontiersmen. Following the convention he traveled to Omaha, Nebraska, and it was while there that Carver received word that his favorite horse had drowned following a dive into the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. Sonora later wrote that the loss of the horse coupled with failing health seemed to diminish Carver’s desire to live. W. F. “Doc” Carver died on August 31, 1927, at Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
, and was buried beside his mother and sister in Winslow, Illinois. Sonora remembered that although Doc Carver was a stern and taciturn man, he loved his horses and was unfailingly insistent that they be given the best of care.
Following Doc Carver’s death, the diving horse show continued with Al Carver at the helm. In October 1928 Al Carver and Sonora Webster were married. A short time later Al signed a contract for a season’s engagement at Atlantic City's Steel Pier
Steel Pier
Steel Pier is a amusement pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey, located opposite The Boardwalk from Trump Taj Mahal.The pier was owned by Trump Entertainment Resorts until 2011, when it was sold to the Catanoso Family under the "Steel Pier Associates, LLC" name. The Catanosos previously leased the...
, and the diving horse act became a permanent fixture there for several years. Sonora Webster Carver
Sonora Webster Carver
Sonora Webster Carver, February 2, 1904-September 20, 2003, was an American entertainer, most notable as one of the first female horse divers. Webster answered an ad placed by William "Doc" Carver in 1923 for a diving girl and soon earned a place in circus history...
lost her eyesight in 1931 when her horse "Red Lips" dove into the tank off-balance, causing her to hit the water face first. She failed to close her eyes quickly enough, resulting in detached retinas. Though now blinded, Sonora continued with the act for eleven years. Sonora’s younger sister, Arnette Webster (later French) had joined the show in 1930 and started diving in 1931.
Al and Sonora Carver retired in 1942. The act finally closed as a result of pressure from animal rights groups in the 1970s. Sonora Carver, however, always contended that the horses were never forced to dive and, in fact, enjoyed the act. Sonora Carver died in September 2003, age 99. Her early career inspired the 1991 Disney movie Wild Hearts Can't be Broken
Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken is a 1991 film about Sonora Webster Carver, a rider of diving horses. It is based on events in her life as told in her memoir A Girl and Five Brave Horses...
starring Gabrielle Anwar
Gabrielle Anwar
Gabrielle Anwar is an English actress. She is known for her role as Margaret Tudor on The Tudors, for dancing the tango with Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman and for her current role as Fiona Glenanne on USA's Burn Notice.- Early life :...
and based on Carver's memoir A Girl and Five Brave Horses
A Girl and Five Brave Horses
A Girl and Five Brave Horses is a memoir by Sonora Webster Carver published in 1961. It inspired the Disney film Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken which is based on, but does not exactly follow, the book. At the age of 20, Sonora Webster Carver joined William Frank Carver's Wild West Show which...
.