OAKLEY, Annie – (1860-1926) was the sharpshooting star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, a Western-themed circus that entertained millions from 1883 to 1915.
The Feb. 9, 1899, issue of the Milford Leader reported, “On Thursday and Friday of this week, Messrs. Warford and Apgar, our sporting hotel keepers, will hold one of the biggest live bird shoots that has ever been held in this place (Frenchtown).”
Those Messrs. were Johnson Warford, the Warford House innkeeper, and William Apgar of the National Hotel, and the venue would be “the flat,” now Borough Park. (The Warford House is now the Frenchtown Inn.)
“Miss Annie Oakley and a number of noted professional shots will be here and a good time generally is expected among the shooters. We predict a success for the affair because Mr. Warford and Mr. Apgar are both 'pushers,' and they know how to shoot as well as run a hotel.”
It was not a very long trip for Oakley, who resided in Nutley from 1892 through the turn of the century.
In the event, zero-degree temperatures and high winds canceled most of the shooting match, but not all of it. The top bird shooters were Oakley, Warford, Apgar and someone named Rehrig.
Apgar's daughter Ruth showed me an Annie Oakley postcard that the sharpshooter had given to her sister Daisy.
From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia"
I remember Ruth Apgar. She was an old lady when my family moved to Frenchtown in 1960. My mom knew Ruth from years before.