WWWest-Online Development Blog

In my last post I started telling the story of Calamity Jane. Rowdy, hard-drinking and rough, Calamity Jane was arguably one of the most iconic characters of the Old West, and without a doubt one of the most notable women of the time, and has secured her place firmly in Western lore. We left off Jane’s story following her alleged military service, so if you’ll lend me your ears, I’ll tell you a bit about the rest of her life.

Deadwood

As I mentioned earlier, Calamity Jane claimed to have spent the first half of the 1870s serving as an Army scout, but is believed by historians to have lied about most of her experiences. However, it is likely that she did in fact accompany an Army expedition into the Black Hills, led by General George Crook, in 1876, as one of the soldiers on that expedition mentioned she was around, though she was probably there as an ox team driver, not a scout.

After her alleged stint in the Army, Calamity Jane “settled down” for a while in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, sometime in the late 1870s. Located in the northern Black Hills, Deadwood was a small town that boomed around the time Jane arrived there, though its growth had nothing to do with her arrival; 1876 was the hight of a gold rush in the Black Hills, and Deadwood and other towns in the area flourished (albeit in a rowdy, lawless sort of way).

It was during her time in Deadwood that Calamity Jane became acquainted with Wild Bill Hickok. I say “acquainted” because exactly how well she knew him, and the nature of their relationship, are (yet more) points of dispute between historians. In her autobiography, Jane claimed that she was married to Hickok. But though some folks agree, many historians say that they were merely passing acquaintances, and others claimed that they’d never even met.

Also during her stay in the town, Deadwood was struck by a smallpox epidemic, and it was during those harsh times that Calamity Jane showed her tender side. Though as a rule Jane was a rowdy, foul-mouthed ruffian, she was at her core kind hearted, and on no occasion was her kinder aspect more apparent, than that epidemic. For once, historians are in agreement that Jane indeed volunteered to help and tend to those afflicted by the disease, as quite a few folk have named Calamity Jane as the reason they survived, and the town’s doctor also confirmed her efforts.

Another Day, Another Husband

Calamity Jane stayed in Deadwood until the turn of the century, and spent the following 15 years wandering the west. In her autobiography she claimed that in 1885 she married one Clinton Burke, a Texan carriage driver, and had his child in 1887. Once again, however, there is no historical proof of her marriage. And though the baby may well have been Burke’s, it was, likely as not, from another woman. However, Jane maintained that they were indeed married, and her tombstone bears the name M.E. Burke beneath her own name.

No Business Like Show Business

Jane continued her vagrant lifestyle, supporting herself by working at various jobs. On occasion, she even resorted to prostitution. In 1896 she took a job with a company in Minnesota, appearing in their shows dressed as an Army scout. As part of her own public relations effort, she started selling copies of her autobiography, in which she recounted the stories of her life, usually with some heavy embellishment. But Jane was an alcoholic, and because of her habit she missed many shows, until eventually she was fired from the show.

1990 saw Calamity Jane’s return to show business, as a performer in the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. But after a short time there, as the tale goes, she complained of homesickness for her homeland, and was sent back west by Buffalo Bill Cody. Whether the tale is true or not is anyone’s guess, but it wasn’t long before Jane was out west again.

Deadwood, One Last Time

Back west, Jane kept up her drinking habit, and that, along with her lifestyle and advancing years, began to take its toll. No longer a young woman, Jane continued to drift across the west until July 1903, when she took lodgings at the Calloway Hotel in Terry, Dakota Territory, near Deadwood, and spent the following month there. She was found dead in her room on August 1 (or perhaps 2; even the date of her death is not certain), and her body was sent to Deadwood.

On August 4, 1903, Calamity Jane was buried at St. Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, in a plot beside Wild Bill’s, in what some say is a confirmation of her claims of a relationship, and others say is a particularly dark jest by Wild Bill’s former companions.

Kraz