1852 - 1903
Martha Cannary Burke also know as Calamity Jane was a frontiers-woman, a show woman and a teller of tall stories and adventurous yarns, some true, some not so true. But she was a woman who was making it big in the mans world of the rough and tough Wild West.
Not much is really known of her childhood or early teenage years except that she was born Martha Jane Cannary sometime around 1852 in Mercer County, Princeton, Missouri, where she was the eldest of two brothers and three sisters. Her parents Robert W. and Charlotte Cannary moved to Virginia City, Montana in 1865-66 where her mother died along the way of "washtub" Pneumonia.
In the spring of 1866 her father took them all to Salt Lake City, Utah and apparently started a farm on 40 acres of land. But a year later he became ill and died and Jane, being the eldest at 17 years old took over as the head of the family and they all packed up to go to Fort Bridger in Wyoming Territory. It was from there they travelled on the Union Pacific Railroad to Peidmont, Wyoming.
Calamity Jane later wrote in her
autobioghraphy..
Jane initially took whatever jobs were available including a cook, dishwasher,
rail road worker, nurse and even being the head of an ox ploughing team. She lived in mining camps and
became known as a sharpshooter and horsewoman. It was in 1874 that she finally found a
job that she liked and that was as a scout for the soldiers at Fort Russell.
In 1875 when she was 23 years old she rode the
pony express for the U.S. Cavalry under General George Crook which carried mail
between Custer, Montana and Deadwood, South Dakota. Once she was ordered
to carry dispatches to the Big Horn River, and whilst carrying these important
dispatches, she swam the Platte River and quickly travelled over 90
miles of rough terrain while still wet and cold to deliver them. As
a result, she became ill with pneumonia, but as she was a strong willed
woman she managed to recuperate in just a few short weeks.
She also joined an expedition into the Black Hills of Dakota,
the expedition was led by General George Crook against the Sioux and Northern
Cheyenne. She was the only woman among 1300 men.
She had gained a big reputation amongst all who knew her and even those that
didn't for chewing tobacco, spitting, drinking and smoking
like the rest and the best of them. She was not conventional
and dressed in men's clothing and claimed that she was equal to any man, she
stated that if any man offended her that they would be " courting calamity " and hence acquired
her name of Calamity Jane. She was as tough as
any man if not more and often and got quite drunk and used to pull out a six gun
and start shooting up the saloon which more often than not got her packed out of
the town by the locals and the sheriff.
She
later rode to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, where she later joined a wagon train
headed north and this is where she first met the famous frontiersman and
later lawman James Wild Bill Hickok, this is contrary to her later claims of
meeting up with him earlier. Jane greatly admired Wild Bill and became
infatuated with him and was deeply obsessed with the mans personality and his
life. So much so that she later claimed to have married him and that she
also had a child by him.
This was after Hickok was murdered by being shot in the back of the head by a
coward named Jack McCall during a poker game on
August 2,
1876. Jane said that their child
'Jane' of whom she later put
up for adoption by a Mr. Jim O'Neil and his wife,
was born on
September 25,
1873. No
records have yet been found to exist which prove the birth of this child, and it
is thought that Jane fabricated the whole story. During the period that the
alleged child was born, she was actually working as a scout for the Army as
stated earlier. Further evidence against her story is that at the time of his
death, Hickok had just married Agnes Lake Thatcher, formerly of Cheyenne,
Wyoming.
In 1876 Jane settled in
the Black Hills area of Deadwood, South Dakota and claimed that upon hearing
about Hickok's death, she went after Jack McCall, but as she was so upset and
wasn't thinking right, she accidentally left her guns behind and carried a meat
clever instead. She never actually managed to confront McCall, who was
eventually found guilty hanged for the murder anyway. Jane
continued living in the Deadwood area for some time, and a story that was
actually verified was that she once helped save several passengers of
an overland stagecoach express by shooting at several Indians who were
pursuing the stage. John Slaughter who was the stage coach driver, was
killed during the pursuit and Jane took over the reins and drove the stage
safely on to its destination at Deadwood. It was also documented that in
late 1876, Jane nursed the majority of victims of a smallpox epidemic that
struck in the Deadwood area.
Later on in life
Jane
toured with Buffalo Bills Wild West Show as a sharpshooter. In 1891 aged 39 she married a
man by the name of Clinton Burke. Calamity Jane was an alcoholic which led to her ruin and in
later life she was reduced to working part time in side shows, She also
sold her memoirs for extra much needed cash.
In her last years she toured the west in a
burlesque show and appeared at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
She finally travelled back to Deadwood where she died at the age of 51 in poverty and relative
obscurity in 1903. Below is a photo taken in 1885 when she was 33
years old
The photo below was taken several years later
and show her in a kitchen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Calamity Jane lived every day to the full, she
was an adventurer and told great stories. Often some of her stories remain
a little questionable, some of her associations with the west's more famous and
notable characters cannot always be verified. After the death of General
George Armstrong Custer in the Battle of Little Big Horn, June, 25th 1876, Jane
claimed that she served under him during her enlistment at Fort Russell and
during the Indian campaigns in Arizona. Below is the last photo of Calamity Jane at the
grave-site of Wild Bill Hickok in 1903.
When the records of this were researched many
years ago it was shown that Jane was never listed as a serving person with Custer. Her imagination and strive for adventure
it was said, got the better of her at times. The irony of all this now though, is that
Calamity Jane is just as famous as Custer and Hickok and in many ways,
overshadows many other notables of the Wild West era. I'm sure Calamity would like to say " cheers"
to everyone, as the old photo taken in the 1870's says.
Calamity Jane is
buried in Deadwood, South Dakota next to the grave of James Butler Wild Bill
Hickok. The locals of Deadwood decided to carry out Jane's wishes to be
buried next to Hickok. They stated that Hickok never had any time for her or
at least never showed it but the locals
thought it befitting if she did indeed "layup next to him for a
while"...meaning...all eternity. R.I.P Calamity Jane
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On September 6th, 1941,
the U.S. Department of Public Welfare granted old age assistance to a Jean
Hickok Burkhardt McCormick who claimed to be the legal offspring of Calamity
Jane and Wild Bill Hickok, after presenting evidence that they had indeed
married. A marriage that took place at Benson's Landing, Montana
Territory, on
September 25,
1873. The
documentation being written in an old Bible and apparently signed by two
reverends along with numerous witnesses. The claim of Jean Hickok McCormick was
later deeply questioned by the surviving Hickok family who stated "it was
quite spurious." Maybe the only two people who will even know
the truth are Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok.
Please
We also had many exciting times fording streams, for many of the streams in our
way were noted for quicksand and boggy places, where, unless we were very
careful, we would have lost horses and all.
Mother died at Black Foot, Montana, 1866, where we buried her. I left Montana in
Spring of 1866, for Utah, arriving at Salt Lake City during the summer."
To
This Website.
To History Links
To Main Links