| Calamity Jane "Calamity Jane" was born Martha Jane Canary in Princeton, Missouri probably on May 1,1852. The legends as well as her own inventions confuse the facts of her rough and raucous life. Jane was a hard drinking woman who wore men's clothing, used bawdy language, chewed tobacco, and was proficient with guns. The extent of her lawless behavior was limited to disorderly conduct, drunkenness and prostitution. When she was quite young, her family moved westward on a wagon train. Her mother died en route and her father died in Salt Lake City. Forced to be on her own, this muscular, big-boned girl wandered the West, working as a cook, a dance-hall girl, and a prostitute, doing whatever necessary to earn a living. In 1875, she worked at E. Coffey's "hog farm" near Fort Laramie. Deadwood, 1876 In the spring of 1876 she ended up in booming mining town Deadwood, South Dakota where she got a job as a bullwhacker, hauling goods and machinery to the outlying camps. Deadwood is where she met Wild Bill Hickok and supposedly had a torrid love affair with him. The extent of their relationship is debated. Some theories include a marriage in September 1870 and a child, Jean Hickok McCormick, born September 25, 1873, given up for adoption. On August 3, 1876, Wild Bill Hickok was playing poker at Mann's Saloon #10 when Jack McCall slipped up behind him and shot him through the brain. Calamity Jane liked to say she tracked down the killer and had him arrested. The next day, McCall faced a miners court and pleaded self-defense. They declared him not guilty. Later, he was arrested for the Hickok killing by a Federal Marshal and brought to trial in a real court. McCall was found guilty. On March 1, 1877, McCall was hanged. He was buried with the rope still around his neck. | |
|
