Calamity Jane

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Calamity Jane in a recording from 1895

Calamity Jane ( English "Disaster Jane"), actually Martha Jane Cannary Burke , (* probably 1856 in Princeton , Missouri , † August 1, 1903 in Terry near Deadwood , South Dakota ) was an American Wild West heroine .

Life

Martha Jane Cannary Burke aka Calamity Jane

Martha Jane Cannary was the oldest of six children of farmer Robert W. Cannary (1825–1867) and Charlotte M., b. Burge (1840-1866). Her parents were married on June 14, 1855 in Polk, Iowa, the then place of residence of 15-year-old Charlotte. The first secured record about Martha Jane was the US census of 1860, in which the Missouri authorities recorded her as four years old, which is why historian Richard Etulain gives 1856 as the year of birth. In 1865 her family moved to Virginia City , Montana . On the way, her mother Charlotte Cannary died in Black Foot in 1866 . Soon after arriving in Virginia City, the family moved on to Salt Lake City in the spring of 1866 , which they reached in the summer. Her father Robert Cannary died there in 1867.

Martha Jane protected her younger siblings and tried to keep the family afloat. From 1867 on, she traveled in men's clothing through the western US states and did odd jobs. She was a stagecoach driver , saloon lady , nurse , gold digger and scout for General Custer's troops.

Calamity Jane knew how to earn respect among the men of the Wild West : she smoked, drank, chewed tobacco and swore. It soon became a legend. To this day, it is unclear whether she herself created certain stories about details from her life or whether these correspond to reality. For example, it is unclear whether she was married to the gunslinger Bill Hickok and had a daughter with him. Wild Bill Hickok was born at a poker game in Saloon No. 10 Shot from behind by Jack McCall in Deadwood . It's unclear how close Jane was to Wild Bill, but in her autobiography she describes a love affair.

In 1881 she bought a farm near Yellowstone Park , where she ran an inn for a short time. After her marriage to the Texan Clinton Burke and her move to Boulder , she tried again as a landlady. In 1887 she had a daughter, Jane, who she gave to foster parents.

From 1893 on, Calamity Jane appeared on the Fred N. Cummings Wild West Show as the "Indian Slayer". In 1901 she took part in the Pan-American Exposition . At this point she was already an alcoholic. She never stayed in one job for long, and she often got into arguments with her employers.

Calamity Jane died alone in a hotel room in Terry, South Dakota , at the age of 47 . A bundle of letters for her daughter that she had never mailed was found in her estate. Their authenticity is doubted, however. She was buried next to Bill Hickok in Mount Moriah Cemetery .

In popular culture

Calamity Jane appears in several Lucky Luke comics, namely in Calamity Jane , The Hunt for the Phantom , The Daltons in the Noose and briefly in Lucky Luke against Joss Jamon .

Films that describe the life of Calamity Jane from the perspective of Hollywood :

Documentation:

  • 2013: Calamity Jane - cowgirl, whore, heroine (Original: Calamity Jane: Légende de l'Ouest) - Director: Gregory Monro , France

Music:

literature

  • Calamity Jane: Letters to my daughter (original title: Calamity Jane's letters to her daughter , translated by Elisabeth Kiderlen), Unionsverlag, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-293-20073-7 (also contains the autobiography Life and Adventure of Calamity Jane, by her told himself. )
  • Doris Faber: Calamity Jane: Her Life and Her Legend. Houghton Mifflin, 1992, ISBN 0-395-56396-8 .
  • Jennifer Coverley: Calamity Jane. Diesterweg, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 978-3-425-71906-1 (= Diesterweg Readers , English ).

Web links

Commons : Calamity Jane  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ United States Census, 1860, Ravanna Township, Mercer, Missouri
  2. ^ Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934, citing Polk Co. p.174, county courthouses, Iowa.
  3. ↑ Richard W. Etulain: The Life and Legends of Calamity Jane. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK 2014, p. 20 (e-book edition) . This year, James D. McLaird also gives: Calamity Jane: The Woman and the Legend. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK 2005, p. 7 , which mentions other rumored years of birth between 1844 and 1860. Other authors give different census data and anecdotal evidence for other years of birth; Linda Jucovy: Searching for Calamity: The Life and Times of Calamity Jane. Stampede Books, Philadelphia 2012, p. 3 gives all the years between 1852 and 1856 as possibilities and decides in favor of 1852.
personal data
SURNAME Calamity Jane
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cannary Burke, Martha Jane
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American western heroine
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Princeton , Missouri
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1903
Place of death Terry out of Deadwood , South Dakota