Martha Jane Cannary – “Calamity Jane” - Page 2
© Katie Anne Gustafsson
The movie "Calamity Jane" plays up a romance between "Calamity" and "Wild Bill Hickok" but Martha Jane's diary makes very little reference to "Wild Bill" except in strictly friendly terms. It does not even appear, from the journal, that she knew him for very long before his death. The only evidence I could find to back up this possible love affair is her request that she be buried next to him. Romance in her life came in the form of Clinton Burke who she married in 1885, and with whom she had a daughter. The marriage unfortunately didn't last and Clinton Burke deserted her. What happened to the child is unclear.
"Calamity Jane" was finally put to rest next to "Wild Bill" in the Mount Moriah Cemetery in South Dakota in 1903, aged 51 - a good age for a woman who had lived on the wilder side of life in the 19th Century.
So did she really save a stagecoach full of passengers from Indians single-handed? Is it possible that she made Hickok's murderer "throw up his hands" using a meat cleaver as her weapon? Could she really have scouted for the Army and ridden pony express and for it not to have been recorded anywhere? I am not sure about the first two claims, Martha Jane had a reputation for twisting facts to her own advantage as large as her reputation for drinking and fighting in bar-rooms, they may have happened, but not perhaps the way she said in her journal. As far as the Army goes, again she could have exaggerated the facts somewhat, but I think it is possible that she did scout and ride pony express, and the Army later deny it for the simple fact that it would not do anything for its credibility if it were known that a woman had undertaken these positions on behalf of the United States Government. This however is just my opinion, and I will leave you to form yours. Personally, I think that for any of this to be known today, she must have been one formidable "lady" to come up against, a legend in her own time - and legends are not made on daydreams.
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