Martha Jane Burke, popularly known as Calamity Jane, standing by the grave of Wild Bill Hickok in Mt. Moriah Cemetery, Deadwood, South Dakota. Photogrpahed by Kumpf, 1903. Martha Jane Canary or Cannary (May 1, 1852 - August 1, 1903), better known as
Martha Jane Burke, popularly known as Calamity Jane, standing by the grave of Wild Bill Hickok in Mt. Moriah Cemetery, Deadwood, South Dakota. Photogrpahed by Kumpf, 1903. Martha Jane Canary or Cannary (May 1, 1852 - August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman and professional scout. Martha Jane received little to no formal education and was illiterate. She worked as a dishwasher, a cook, a waitress, a dance-hall girl, a nurse, and an ox team driver. In 1874, she found work as a scout at Fort Russell. In 1876, she settled in the area of Deadwood, South Dakota, in the Black Hills. There, she became friendly with Wild Bill Hickok and Charlie Utter. She greatly admired Hickok (much later, others alleged to the point of infatuation and claimed she was obsessed with his personality and his life). After Hickok's death she continued living in the Deadwood area for some time, and in late 1876 or 1878, she nursed the victims of a smallpox epidemic. In 1881, she bought a ranch in Montana, along the Yellowstone River, where she kept an inn. In 1893, she started to appear in Buffalo Bill's Wild West as a storyteller. She also participated in the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. She returned to the Black Hills in the early spring of 1903. For the next few months, she earned her keep by cooking and doing the laundry. In late July, she traveled by ore train to Terry, South Dakota, a small mining village near Deadwood. It was reported that she had been drinking heavily on board the train and became very sick to her stomach. She died soon afterward, on Saturday, August 1, 1903, from inflammation of the bowels and pneumonia. She was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery, South Dakota, next to Wild Bill Hickok.
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