Originally featured in Points West magazine in Spring 2013
Locket given to Moses Kerngood by William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody
The year 1876 was a very difficult one for William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, and this locket represents the most trying episode of that year. The Battle of Little Big Horn took place in late June 1876, and Cody’s good friend James B. “Wild Bill” Hickok was murdered two months later. However, the event that affected him the most—and which he never got over—was the death from scarlet fever of his only son, Kit Carson Cody, on April 20. Kit was six years old.
The Cody family was living in Rochester, New York, when Buffalo Bill and Moses Kerngood, a local businessman, became good friends. It was Kerngood who met Cody at the train station when he rushed home from Boston just in time to see Kit before he passed away. To thank Kerngood for this act of kindness and his friendship, Buffalo Bill gave Kerngood this yellow and pink gold locket which contains an image of Kit. “Moses Kerngood” is engraved on the bar and the reverse of the locket is engraved, “Moses Kerngood from Buffalo Bill April 20th 1876.” The locket was purchased from the estate of Kerngood’s grandson, Frederick Schloss.
Locket with bar pin. Museum Purchase. 1.69.2718
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