Agnes Lake Hickok: Queen of the Circus, Wife of a Legend

by Linda A. Fisher, Carrie Bowers

The first woman in America to own and operate a circus, Agnes Lake spent thirty years under the Big Top before becoming the wife of Wild Bill Hickok—a mere five months before he was killed. Although books abound on the famous lawman, Agnes’s life has remained obscured by circus myth and legend. Linda A. Fisher and Carrie Bowers have written the first biography of this colorful but little-known circus performer. Agnes originally found fame as a slack-wire walker and horseback rider, and later as an animal trainer. Her circus career spanned more than four decades. Following the murder of her first husband, Bill Lake, she was the sole manager of the “Hippo-Olympiad and Mammoth Circus.” While taking her show to Abilene, she met town marshal Hickok and five years later she married him. After Hickok’s death, Agnes traveled with P. T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill Cody, and managed her daughter Emma Lake’s successful equestrian career. This account of a remarkable life cuts through fictions about Agnes’s life, including her own embellishments, to uncover her true story. Numerous illustrations, including rare photographs and circus memorabilia, bring Agnes’s world to life.

416 pages, Hardcover

First published March 2, 2009

Reviews

[Susanne Gulde · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book--there's so much history of German immigrants settling in and around Cincinnati in the 19th century. Agnes's life was fascinating and the book has a lot of detail about circus life and how Agnes and her circus family traveled; especially interesting to me was the schedule of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky show dates. The book contains photographs and illustrations of circus posters, along with newspaper quotes, many of them showing that Agnes and her daughters were renown for their equestrian skills.
I found the information of her life with James "Wild Bill" Hickok brief and confusing--not because of the authors' writing but because documentation is sparse and personal accounts of the time conflicting.
I found this book to be a good look at the people and places of that time period.