Isaac Putnam Smith, a Sergeant in Company G, 84th New York Infantry (14th Brooklyn), who was an expert rifle shot, was born in 1836. Adopting the stage names, and rank, of Wild Ike and Col. Ike Austin, Smith earned the great sum of 100 pounds a week performing with the St. Leon Circus in Australia. Later, he leased a pavilion at the Bondi Beach aquarium, where his stray shots would vanish over the Pacific. Wild Ike wowed crowds in Australia, England, Europe, India, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, performing such feats as knocking the ash from a cigar held in a companion's mouth, piercing a deck of cards held in a bystander's hand, and snuffing out lighted candles. Ike's aim finally failed, his wife left and his fame faded. He spent his last 10 years in a nursing home for the poor and went to a pauper's grave. Parker and his friends found their way to Smith's grave through word-of-mouth tales, obituaries after his death in 1908, and an 1899 U.S. government pension list. They honored him with a headstone supplied by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Smith now has a tombstone of Alabama marble and a place of honor in Rookwood Cemetery, Australia.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com