Martha Jane Canary, a k a Calamity Jane, was born in 1852 and became a skilled horsewoman and rifle shot. Calamity was a scout during the Sioux campaign of 1876 and was known for getting into fights, heavy drinking and prostitution. She and James Butler ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok apparently worked together as outriders for a wagon train of prostitutes on its way to the gold-mining town of Deadwood, South Dakota. But Calamity also became known as somewhat of a benevolent heroine–she served as a devoted nurse to several ailing Deadwood residents during the smallpox epidemic of 1878. Calamity Jane died of alcoholism and was buried in Deadwood’s Mount Moriah Cemetery, next to the grave of Wild Bill, in August 1903.
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