David Franklin Powell

Born on May 25, 1847, David Franklin Powell was an American pharmacist, physician, and field surgeon who was also known as D. Frank Powell and "White Beaver." He became closely associated with Buffalo Bill Cody and built a reputation that blended frontier medicine, public performance, and promotion.

Powell was more than a colorful Western personality. Sources describe him as a maker of patent medicines and a sometime politician, and he served three terms as mayor of La Crosse, Wisconsin. He also ran twice for governor of Wisconsin, showing how comfortably he moved between spectacle and public life.

For readers, one of the most interesting parts of his legacy is that he both wrote and appeared as a character in dime novels. That mix of real-life adventure, self-mythmaking, and popular storytelling makes him an unusual authorial figure from the late nineteenth century. He died on May 7, 1906.