Calamity Jane
Calamity Jane was born Martha Jane Cannary in Princeton, Missouri. Her real birth date is not known but is thought to be 1844. She claimed her birthday was May 1, 1852. Her father was a farm boy, who married her mother, "to reform her." Evidently it didn't work.
In 1865, her family moved to Virginia City, Montana. Her mother died a year later. After that she went to Wyoming. In 1870, she met Wild Bill Hickok near Abilene, Texas. They were married later that year. The marriage vows were written on a page torn out of a Bible and two Reverends read them. She always considered the marriage as legal. In 1873 she gave birth to a daughter in Missouri. She named her Jean Hickok. She soon gave the child up for adoption and went on her merry way.
By that time she was known as a camp follower. She frequently hung around army posts or anywhere where large numbers of men hung around. In 1875, Professor Walter P. Jenny, was getting ready for an expedition to the Black Hills of South Dakota. He was a geologist who would explore the gold potential in the area. U.S. Army troops would ride along to protect the civilian expedition. While Jenny was getting ready for the trip at Fort Laramie, Jane was inspecting the troops. One Sergeant Frank Siechrist caught her eye. He decided he would like to bring her along. She already wore buckskins and leather chaps. She wore a slouch hat and chewed tobacco. She drank heavily and cursed frequently. He figured she would blend right in. He got a soldier's uniform for her to wear on the trail. The cat was out of the bag one night, when the soldiers were bathing after a dusty trail drive. Evidently no one had bothered with bathing suits. She was sent back to Fort Laramie.
That short stint with the army is, as far as is known, the closest she ever came to being an army scout. Many stories that circulated about her claimed that she had been a scout. Many of those rumors she started herself. One of them was a rumor about how she got her nickname. She made up the story herself and called herself Calamity. She claimed she got the nickname during the Indian outbreak of 1872. She was attached to a force led by Captain Egan, near the present town of Sheridan, Wyoming. They were sent out to put down an Indian disturbance. When they returned to the post they were ambushed. She turned in her saddle just in time to see Egan falling out of his. She caught him just before he fell and rode him back to the fort. Upon recovering he supposedly said to her, "I name you Calamity Jane, the heroine of the plains."
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