Calamity Jane

Calamity Jane at the age of 33. Photo by H.R. Locke.

Martha Jane Canary-Burke, better known as Calamity Jane (May 1, 1852-August 1, 1903), was a frontierswoman and professional scout most well-known for her claim of being a close friend of Wild Bill Hickok, but also having gained fame fighting Native Americans.

Early life

"Calamity" Jane was born Martha Jane Canary in Princeton, Missouri, the oldest of six children, having two brothers and three sisters. Jane was described as being attractive, with dark eyes. Her mother supplimented the family income by taking in washing from nearby mining camps she died from pneumonia in 1866 and her father died one year later in 1867. She lived for a time in Virginia City, Nevada. She received little to no formal education, but was literate. After her father's death she took on the role as head of the household. At the age of sixteen she decided to moved her family to Fort Bridger, in Wyoming. She then moved them to Piedmont, Wyoming. She settled her siblings into life there, and strived to find a home that would be welcoming.

Once the family was settled she moved on to a rougher, mostly outdoor adventurous life on the Great Plains. In 1870, she signed on as a scout, and adopted the uniform of a soldier. It is unclear whether she was actually enlisted in the United States Army at the time. From then on she mostly lost touch with her younger siblings, preferring to live a more wild and unsettled life. Calamity Jane, as she would become known, did live a very colorful and eventful life. However, as historians have since discovered, she was gifted storyteller with a wonderful imagination and sometimes altered the facts to make her adventures more exciting to the listener.

Calamity's Career

Jane went to Fort Russell in 1870 where, she joined General George Custer as a scout and went to Arizona for the "Indian Campaign." This was the beginning of Calamity Jane's habit of dressing like a man. They rode South to Arizona to begin a campaign to put Indians on reservations.

In 1872, she returned to Fort Sanders, Wyoming, where she was ordered out to the Muscle Shell Indian outbreak. That campaign, in which Generals Custer, Miles, Terry and Crook were engaged, lasted until the fall of 1873. It was during this time that "Calamity Jane" reportedly earned her name.

They were stationed at Goose Creek, Wyoming. The troops were sent out so handle an Indian uprising. Several days later on the way back to their camp, they were ambushed by a large group of Indians. Captain Egan who was in command, was shot and was thrown fronm his horse. Calamity Jane immedietely upon seeing Captain Egan fall gallopped over to him and lifted him up onto her horse and brought him to safety. Captain Egan soon recovered and said, "I name you Calamity Jane, the heroine of the plains.

In the spring of 1874 she was sent to Fort Custer. In the fall of that same year, they were ordered to Fort Russell where she remained until the spring of 1875. The troops were then ordered to the Black Hills to protect the settlers and the miners from the Indians they stayed there until they arrived at Fort Laramie for the winter.

She was ordered She was sent North in the spring of 1876 with General Crook to join Generals Miles, Terry and Custer at the Big Horn River. During this march, she swam the Platte river near Fort Fetterman to deliver dispatches from General Crook to a local outpost. Contracting a severe illness, she was sent back in General Crook's ambulance to Fort Fetterman where she was hospitalized for fourteen days.

She was involved with a number of campaigns in the long-running military conflicts with Native Americans. One story, told by her, has her acquiring the nickname "Calamity Jane" in 1872 by rescuing her superior, Captain Egan, from an ambush near Sheridan, Wyoming, in an area known then as Goose Creek, Wyoming. Another story it is said that she acquired it as a result of her warnings to men that to offend her was to "court calamity". Calamity Jane accompanied the Newton-Jenney Party into the Black Hills in 1875, along with California Joe and Valentine McGillycuddy.

Deadwood, South Dakota and Wild Bill Hickok: 1876-1884

In 1876, Calamity Jane settled in the area of Deadwood, South Dakota, in the Black Hills, and she became friendly with Wild Bill Hickok and Charlie Utter, having traveled with them to Deadwood in Utter's wagon train. Calamity greatly admired Hickok (to the point of infatuation), and she was obsessed with his personality and life. However, all of the accounts given by her about their relationship were totally fabricated.

After Hickok's death on August 2nd, 1876, Calamity claimed to have been married to Hickok, and that Hickok was the father of her child, whom she said was born September 25, 1873, and whom she later placed up for adoption. There are no records to prove or disprove the birth of a child, but the story about a relationship of any kind between Calamity Jane and Hickok is false. During the period That Calamity alleged that her child was born, she was working as a scout for the Army, and Hickok was working in the Wild West Show. Hickok, on his part, was newly married at the time of his death, and by all accounts completely infatuated with his wife.

However, it is noteworthy that on September 6th, 1941 the U.S. Department of Public Welfare did grant old age assistance to a Jean Hickok Burkhardt McCormick, who claimed to be the legal offspring of Martha Jane Canary and James Butler Hickok, after being presented with evidence that Calamity Jane and Wild Bill had married at Benson's Landing, Montana Territory on September 25th, 1873, documentation being written in a Bible and signed by two reverends and numerous witnesses.

Jane also claimed that following Hickok's death, she went after Jack McCall, his murderer, with a meat cleaver, having left her guns at her residence in the excitement of the moment. However, she never confronted McCall, unless she did so by yelling at him after his arrest. Following McCall's eventual hanging for the offense, Jane continued living in the Deadwood area for some time, and at one point she did help save several passengers of an overland stagecoach by diverting several Plains Indians who were in pursuit of the stage. The stagecoach driver, John Slaughter, was killed during the pursuit, and Jane took over the reins and drove the stage on into its destination, at Deadwood. Also in late 1876, Jane nursed the victims of a smallpox epidemic in the Deadwood area.

The Wild West Show and Calamity's later life: 1884-1903

Calamity Jane while working at Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.

In 1884, Jane moved to El Paso, Texas, where she met Clinton Burke. They married in August 1885 and had a daughter in 1887. The marriage, however, did not last, and by 1895 they were officially separated.

In 1896, Calamity Jane began touring with Wild West shows, which she continued to do for the rest of her life. Throughout this periodshe became a close friend of Wild Bill Hickok.

Jane died from complications of pneumonia in 1903. In accordance with her dying wish, she is buried next to Wild Bill Hickok in Mount Moriah Cemetery, overlooking the city of Deadwood.

Several films have been made about the life of Calamity Jane, the most famous being the musical of the same name starring Doris Day. The TV series Deadwood gives a realistic depiction of Jane.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

McLaird,James D: Calamity Jane : the woman and the legend Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, 2005 ISBN 0806135913
Aikman,Duncan: Calamity Jane and the lady wildcats Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1987, 1927 ISBN 0803210205
Butler,David: Calamity Jane Burbank, CA : Warner Home Video, 1991 ISBN 0790704560
Calamity Jane: Calamity Jane's letters to her daughter San Lorenzo, Calif. : Shameless Hussy Press, 1976 ISBN 0915288273
Edson, John Thomas: Ranch war New York : HarperTorch, 2006 ISBN 0060784245
Mueller, Ellen Crago: Calamity Jane Laramie, WY. : Jelm Mountain Press, 1981 ISBN 0936204281
Ames, John Edward: The real Deadwood : true life histories of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, outlaw towns, and other characters of the lawless west New York : Chamberlain Bros., 2004 ISBN 1596090316
Lackmann, Ronald W: Women of the western frontier in fact, fiction, and film Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 1997 ISBN 0786404000
Riley,Glenda and Etulain, Richard W: Wild women of the Old West Golden, Colo. : Fulcrum Pub., 2003 ISBN 1555912958
Penrod, Diane: Miss Grundy doesn't teach here anymore : popular culture and the composition classroom Portsmouth, NH : Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1997 ISBN 0867094389

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