Calamity Jane | |
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| Born | Martha Jane Canary[a] (1852-05-01)May 1, 1852 Princeton, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | August 1, 1903(1903-08-01) (aged 51) Terry, South Dakota, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Spouses |
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| Children | 2 or 4 |
Martha Jane Canary (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), better known asCalamity Jane, was an Americanfrontierswoman,sharpshooter and storyteller.[2][3][4] In addition to many exploits, she was known for being an acquaintance ofWild Bill Hickok. Late in her life, she appeared inBuffalo Bill's Wild West show and at the 1901Pan-American Exposition. She is said to have exhibited compassion to others, especially to the sick and needy. This facet of her character contrasted with her daredevil ways and helped to make her a celebrated frontier figure.[5] She was also known for her habit of wearing men's attire.[6]
Much of the information about the early years of Calamity Jane's life comes from an autobiographical booklet that she dictated in 1896, written for publicity purposes. It was intended to help attract audiences to a tour she was about to begin, in which she appeared indime museums around the United States. Some of the information in the pamphlet is exaggerated or even completely inaccurate.[7]
Calamity Jane was born on May 1, 1852, as Martha Jane Canary (or Cannary)[b] inPrinceton, withinMercer County, Missouri. Her parents were listed in the 1860 census as living about 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Princeton inRavanna. Her father Robert Wilson Canary had a gambling problem, and little is known about her mother Charlotte M. Canary. Jane was the eldest of six children, with two brothers and three sisters.
In 1865, the family moved by wagon train from Missouri toVirginia City, Montana. In 1866, Charlotte died ofpneumonia along the way, inBlackfoot, Montana. After arriving in Virginia City in the spring of 1866, Robert took his six children toSalt Lake City, Utah. They arrived in the summer, and Robert supposedly started farming on 40 acres (16 ha) of land. The family had been in Salt Lake City for only a year when he died in 1867. At age 14, Martha Jane took charge of her five younger siblings, loaded their wagon, and took the family toFort Bridger,Wyoming Territory, where they arrived in May 1868. From there, they traveled on theUnion Pacific Railroad toPiedmont, Wyoming.
In Piedmont, Jane took whatever jobs she could find to provide for her large family. She worked as a dishwasher, cook, waitress, dance hall girl, nurse, and ox team driver.[10] Finally, in 1874, she claimed she found work as a scout[11] atFort Russell. During this time, she also reportedly began her occasional employment as aprostitute at theFort Laramie Three-Mile Hog Ranch.[10] She moved to a rougher, mostly outdoor and adventurous life on theGreat Plains.
Jane was involved in several campaigns in the long-running military conflicts with Native Americans. Her claim was that:
It was during this campaign [in 1872–73] that I was christened Calamity Jane. It was onGoose Creek, Wyoming where the town ofSheridan is now located. Capt. Egan was in command of the Post. We were ordered out to quell an uprising of the Indians, and were out for several days, had numerous skirmishes during which six of the soldiers were killed and several severely wounded. When on returning to the Post we were ambushed about a mile and a half from our destination. When fired upon, Capt. Egan was shot. I was riding in advance and on hearing the firing turned in my saddle and saw the Captain reeling in his saddle as though about to fall. I turned my horse and galloped back with all haste to his side and got there in time to catch him as he was falling. I lifted him onto my horse in front of me and succeeded in getting him safely to the Fort. Capt. Egan, on recovering, laughingly said: "I name you Calamity Jane, the heroine of the plains." I have borne that name up to the present time.[13]
"Captain Jack" Crawford served under GeneralsWesley Merritt andGeorge Crook. According to the MontanaAnaconda Standard of April 19, 1904, he stated that Calamity Jane "never saw service in any capacity under either General Crook orGeneral Miles. She never saw a lynching and never was in an Indian fight. She was simply a notorious character, dissolute and devilish, but possessed a generous streak which made her popular."
A popular belief is that she instead acquired the nickname as a result of her warnings to men that to offend her was to "court calamity". It is possible that "Jane" was not part of her name until the nickname was coined for her.[8] It is certain, however, that she was known by that nickname by 1876, because the arrival of the Hickokwagon train was reported in Deadwood's newspaper, theBlack Hills Pioneer, on July 15, 1876, with the headline: "Calamity Jane has arrived!"[14]
Another account in her autobiographical pamphlet is that her detachment was ordered to theBig Horn River under General Crook in 1875. She swam thePlatte River and travelled 90 miles (140 km) at top speed while wet and cold in order to deliver important dispatches. She became ill afterwards and spent a few weeks recuperating. She then rode toFort Laramie in Wyoming and joined a wagon train headed north in July 1876. The second part of her story is verified. She was at Fort Laramie in July 1876, and she did join a wagon train that included Wild Bill Hickok. That was where she first met Hickok, contrary to her later claims, and that was how she happened to come to Deadwood.[15]
Calamity Jane accompanied theNewton–Jenney Party intoRapid City in 1875, along withCalifornia Joe andValentine McGillycuddy. In 1876, Calamity Jane settled in the area ofDeadwood, South Dakota, in the Black Hills. There she became friends withDora DuFran, the Black Hills' leadingmadam, and was occasionally employed by her.
On September 6, 1941, theU.S. Department of Public Welfare granted old age assistance to a Jean Hickok Burkhardt McCormick who claimed to be the legal offspring of Martha Jane Canary andJames Butler Hickok. She presented evidence that Calamity Jane and Wild Bill had married at Benson's Landing,Montana Territory (nowLivingston, Montana) on September 25, 1873. The documentation was written in a Bible and presumably signed by two ministers and numerous witnesses. However, McCormick's claim has been vigorously challenged because of a variety of discrepancies.[9][16]
McCormick later published a book with letters purported to be from Calamity Jane to her daughter. In them, Calamity Jane says she had been married to Hickok and that Hickok was the father of McCormick, who was born September 25, 1873, and was placed for adoption with a Captain Jim O'Neil and his wife.[17] During this period, Calamity Jane was allegedly working as a scout for the army,[18] and at the time of Hickok's death, he had recently married Agnes Thatcher Lake.[citation needed][19]
Calamity Jane does seem to have had two or four daughters, although the father's identity is unknown. In the late 1880s, Jane returned to Deadwood with a child who she said was her daughter. At Jane's request, a benefit was held in one of the theaters to raise money for her daughter's education in St. Martin's Academy atSturgis, South Dakota, a nearby Catholic boarding school. The benefit raised a large sum; Jane got drunk and spent a considerable portion of the money that same night and left with the child the next day.
Estelline Bennett was living in Deadwood at that time and had spoken briefly with Jane a few days before the benefit. She thought that Jane honestly wanted her daughter to have an education and that the drunken binge was just an example of her inability to curb her impulses and carry through long-range plans (which Bennett saw as typical of Jane's class). Bennett later heard that Jane's daughter did "get an education, and grew up and married well".[20]
Jane also claimed that, following Hickok's death, she went after his murdererJack McCall with ameat cleaver because she had left her guns at her residence. Following McCall's execution for the crime, Jane continued living in the Deadwood area for some time, and at one point, she helped save numerous passengers in an overlandstagecoach by diverting severalPlains Indians who were in pursuit of the vehicle. Stagecoach driver John Slaughter was killed during the pursuit, and Jane took over the reins and drove the stage on to its destination at Deadwood.[21]
In late 1876 or 1878, Jane nursed the victims of asmallpox epidemic in the Deadwood area.[22]
In 1881, Jane bought a ranch west ofMiles City, Montana, along theYellowstone River, where she kept an inn. According to one version of her life, she later married Clinton Burke from Texas and moved toBoulder, where she once again made an attempt in the inn business.
In 1893, Calamity Jane started to appear inBuffalo Bill's Wild West show as a storyteller. She also participated in the 1901Pan-American Exposition.
Her addiction to liquor was evident even in her younger years. For example, on June 10, 1876, she rented a horse and buggy inCheyenne for a one-mile joy ride to Fort Russell and back, but she was so drunk that she passed right by her destination without noticing it and finally ended up about 90 miles (140 km) away at Fort Laramie.[23]
Jane returned to the Black Hills in the spring (April/May) of 1903, where brothel owner Madame Dora DuFran was still running her business. For the next few months, Jane earned her keep by cooking and doing the laundry for Dora's girls inBelle Fourche. In late July, Jane traveled by ore train toTerry, South Dakota, a small mining village near Deadwood. It was reported that she had been drinking heavily while on board the train and had fallen ill. The conductor, S. G. Tillett, carried her off the train,[24] a bartender secured a room for her at the Calloway Hotel, and a physician was summoned. Jane's condition deteriorated quickly, and she died at the hotel on Saturday, August 1, 1903, from inflammation of the bowels andpneumonia.[9]
A bundle of unsent letters to her daughter was allegedly found among Jane's few belongings. ComposerLibby Larsen set some of these letters to music in anart song cycle calledSongs from Letters (1989). The letters were made public by Jean McCormick as part of her claim to be the daughter of Jane and Hickok, but their authenticity is not accepted by some, largely because there is ample evidence that Jane was functionally illiterate.[16]
Calamity Jane was buried atMount Moriah Cemetery, South Dakota, next to Bill Hickok.[25] Four of the men who planned her funeral[26] later stated that Hickok had "absolutely no use" for Jane while he was alive, so they decided to play a posthumous joke on him by burying her by his side.[27] Another account states: "in compliance with Jane's dying requests, the Society of Black Hills Pioneers took charge of her funeral and burial in Mount Moriah Cemetery beside Wild Bill. Not just old friends, but the morbidly curious and many who would not have acknowledged Calamity Jane when she was alive, overflowed the First Methodist Church for the funeral services on August 4 and followed the hearse up the steep winding road to Deadwood's boot hill".[9]
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Calamity Jane: Wild West Legend directed byGregory Monro in 2014
She appears as a side character in the computer RPGWorlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams (1991). In theKingsIsle Entertainment gamePirate101, Calamity Jane is one of the Magnificent 7.[28] A character named after Calamity Jane appeared as a side character in the videogameWild Arms (1996).
In the RPGFallout 3, the Lone Wanderer references Calamity Jane in a dialogue option when first talking to Megaton sheriff and mayor, Lucas Simms. A character named Calamity Janet appears in the card board gameBANG![29]Calamity: The Natural World, a line of educational games made in the 1990s for the PlayStation by Lightspan Adventures, stars Calamity Jane. In the first-person shooterHunt: Showdown, she died during a Wild West show from a mysterious accident. Also, there is a legendary rifle named after her.
She appears in the mobile gameFate/Grand Order as a limited Archer class servant during the Saber Wars 2 event.[30]
Calamity Jane (A Musical Western), an adaptation of the 1953 Doris Day film with additional songs, premiered in May 1961.
Productions:[31]Calamity Jane: The Play byCatherine Ann Jones:[32] Empire State Theatre, Albany, New York; Promenade Theatre, New York, NY, with Estelle Parsons; Santa Paula Theatre, Santa Paula, CA; Wimberley Players, Wimberley, Texas; Plaza Playhouse, Carpenteria, CA.Calamity Jane the Musical byCatherine Ann Jones: South Jersey Regional Theatre, Somers Point, New Jersey; Ojai Arts Theatre, Ojai, CA; Camino Real Theatre, San Juan Capistrano, CA; One Eyed Man Productions, a touring production (2017–18), Various Cities, Australia, with Virginia Gay.
A UK tour, starringCarrie Hope Fletcher as Calamity Jane, ran January - September 2025.
Calamity Jane was an important fictional character in theDeadwood Dick series of dime novels, beginning with the first appearance of Deadwood Dick inBeadle's Half-Dime Library issue #1 in 1877. This series, written byEdward Wheeler, established her with a reputation as a Wild West heroine and probably did more to enhance her familiarity to the public than any of her real life exploits. There is no evidence that she was consulted by Wheeler or approved the Deadwood Dick stories, so the character in the stories was entirely fictitious—as were the events described—but the fictional adventures were muddled in the public mind with the real Jane.[citation needed]
Calamity Jane was the title character in a serial published inNew York's Street & Smith's Weekly (1882) under the title,Calamity Jane: Queen of the Plains, by the author "Reckless Ralph".
The science fiction writerA. Bertram Chandler included a character named Calamity Jane Arlen in his far future novels set on the frontier Rim Worlds, a space analogue of theOld West.[33]
A fictitious fight between Calamity Jane and an impostor is depicted inThomas Berger's novelLittle Big Man (1964).
Jane is the central character inLarry McMurtry's bookBuffalo Girls: A Novel (1990).
Jane is a central character inPete Dexter's novelDeadwood (1986).
J. T. Edson features Calamity Jane as a character in a number of his books.
In Calamity's Wake (2013), a novel of historical fiction written byNatalee Caple, Martha, or Calamity Jane, is one of two main narrators; the other is Jane's daughter Miette.[34]
Calamity Jane, légende de l'Ouest, written byGregory Monro (2010), is the only French biography to this day.
Calamity Jane appears inMichael Crichton's novelDragon Teeth (2017).
Calamity Jane figures as a main character in analbum of the same name of the Franco-Belgian comics seriesLucky Luke, created byMorris andRené Goscinny. She also features in the albumGhosthunt, created by Morris andLo Hartog van Banda.
Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok are featured in the song "Deadwood Mountain" by the country duoBig & Rich. Some of her purported letters were set to music in an art-song cycle by 20th-century composerLibby Larsen, titled "Songs from Letters". Soprano Dora Ohrenstein commissioned five pieces compiled under the titleUrban Diva, the second piece,Ben Johnston'sCalamity Jane to Her Daughter is a theatrical setting of selected letters. "Calamity Jane" is a song byGrant-Lee Phillips on "Virginia Creeper" (2004). "Calamity Jane" is a song by Kiya Heartwood onWishing Chair'sUnderdog CD (2005).
Alain Bashung, Chloé Mons, Rodolphe Burger released the albumLa Ballade de Calamity Jane (2006) based on Jane's letters to her daughter. "Kalamity Jane" is a song by Czech rock bandKabát. "Calamity Jane" is a song by Chris Anderson on his album "The Crown" (2004). The 1953 movieCalamity Jane with Doris Day and Howard Keel features the song "My Secret Love", which won the 1954 Academy Award for "Best Music Original Song". Calamity Jane is mentioned in the 2016 song "The Lighter" by the French pop-rock bandSuperbus from the album "Sixtape". Calamity Jane is mentioned in the song "Two Characters in Search of a Country Song" byThe Magnetic Fields.
In 1989, an all-female American grunge/punk band namedCalamity Jane (band) formed in Portland, Oregon. The only album they released before breaking up in 1992 is called Martha Jane Cannary.
Frontier Gentleman is a short-lived radio Western series originally broadcast on the CBS radio network. In the episode "Aces & Eights" broadcast October 12, 1958, the main character encounters Calamity Jane while seeking information for a story on Wild Bill Hickok, and subsequently witnesses Hickok's murder.[35]
The long-running seriesBiography featured Calamity Jane. The episode is available on the Biography website.
The name "Calamity" is given to the children's character played by Nancy Gilbert in the 1955–1956 television seriesBuffalo Bill, Jr., withDick Jones as the fictitious Buffalo Bill, Jr. andHarry Cheshire as Judge Ben "Fair and Square" Wiley.
In the episode "Calamity" (December 13, 1959) of the seriesColt .45,Dody Heath is cast as Calamity Jane andJoan Taylor as Dr. Ellen McGraw. In the story, series character Christopher Colt, played byWayde Preston, hires Calamity Jane to drive the stagecoach containing Dr. McGraw and the vaccine needed for the smallpox outbreak in Deadwood. Colt is unsure if Calamity can handle the job because miners and Indians seek to steal the valuable medication.
In an episode ofHave Gun – Will Travel, "The Cure" (1961), she is portrayed byNorma Crane. Among the liberties taken with the truth was changing her surname to Conroy.
In an episode ofBonanza, "Calamity Over the Comstock" (1963),Stefanie Powers plays Calamity Jane, who visits Virginia City along withDoc Holliday. In this primarily comedic episode, she is rescued byLittle Joe, who at first thinks she is a male. She becomes infatuated with him, and he receives threats from Doc, who covets Jane for himself. At her urging (and threat), Doc demurs from facing down Joe, and Jane and Doc exit town. No official or unofficial documentation exists suggesting that Doc Holliday and Jane ever met during their lifetimes. It is highly unlikely that they met considering the geographical distances between them during their lives.
In an episode of the television showDeath Valley Days, "A Calamity Named Jane",Fay Spain plays Calamity Jane as she joins Wild Bill Hickok's (Rhodes Reasons) show. Her uncouth behavior causes Bill to think he made a mistake, and when Bill tells her she should "act like a lady", he soon realizes he made a bigger mistake.
In the 1966Batman series, one of the villains in season three was named "Calamity Jan" (played byDina Merrill).
The television movieCalamity Jane (1984) featured her life story, including her alleged marriage to Wild Bill Hickok and the daughter she purportedly gave for adoption. ActressJane Alexander portrayed Calamity and was nominated for anEmmy in 1985 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Special. The show featured an early performance ofSara Gilbert as Calamity's daughter Jean at age 7.
Jane is the central character inLarry McMurtry's bookBuffalo Girls: A Novel (1990), and in the 1995TV adaptation of the same name, Jane is played byAnjelica Huston, withSam Elliott as Wild Bill Hickok.
In 1997, the cartoon seriesThe Legend of Calamity Jane depicted a young Jane (voiced by Barbara Weber Scaff).
Robin Weigert played Calamity Jane in the seriesDeadwood (2004–2006) and in the HBO sequelDeadwood: The Movie (2019).
In a season two episode ofBosch: Legacy (2022–2023) a boat pivotal to a case bears the name "Calamity Jane".
The Plainsman is a 1936 film starringGary Cooper as Bill Hickok andJean Arthur as Jane. InYoung Bill Hickok withRoy Rogers (1940), she was played bySally Payne. She was played byMarin Sais in the 1940 serialDeadwood Dick, byFrances Farmer in the 1941 WesternThe Badlands of Dakota, and byJane Russell in the 1948Bob Hope comedyThe Paleface. In 1949'sCalamity Jane and Sam Bass, Jane was played byYvonne De Carlo and Sam Bass byHoward Duff; both characters were heavily fictionalized.
Calamity Jane is a 1953 musical-Western film from Warner Bros. starringDoris Day andHoward Keel as Wild Bill Hickok. The plot of the film is almost entirely fictional and bears little resemblance to the actual lives of the protagonists. It won the Best Song Oscar for "Secret Love", bySammy Fain andPaul Francis Webster.
In the 1984 TV filmCalamity Jane, she was played byJane Alexander.
In the 1995 Disney movieTall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventures of Pecos Bill, she was portrayed byCatherine O'Hara as a mythic figure, acquainted withPaul Bunyan andJohn Henry, and asPecos Bill's jilted sweetheart and as a sheriff or deputy of some sort.
In the 1995 filmWild Bill, Calamity Jane was portrayed byEllen Barkin.
In 1995 inBuffalo Girls, she was played byAnjelica Huston. In the 2009 French movieLucky Luke, Jane was portrayed bySylvie Testud.
Calamity Jane: Wild West Legend, a docu-fiction directed byGregory Monro and released in 2014, inspired French writer and editor Rémi Chayé to create the feature-length animated movie,Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary. The film was released in France in 2020 and won theAnnecy International Animated Film Festival's Cristal Award for Best Feature in June 2020.[36] Its American premiere took place on the opening night of the 2021 virtual Animation First Festival presented byFrench Institute Alliance Française.
In the movieOur Brand Is Crisis (2015), the leading character is named "Calamity" Jane Bodine.
Robin Weigert played Jane for three seasons in the seriesDeadwood and in the HBO movieDeadwood: The Movie, released in May 2019.
A 2020 French-Danish animated family feature film titledCalamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary depicts young Jane's migration across the Oregon Trail.
Jane in the 2024 filmCalamity Jane was played byEmily Bett Rickards.
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Media related toCalamity Jane at Wikimedia Commons
