The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-03-22
Woman Indian Fighter and Heroine
of Dime Novels in an Almshouse.

tCnlCaSO IlmeS.)
Calamity Jane. the woman Indian
fighter, hunter, scout. poker player and
miner. the friend OF all the oId-time
famous soldiers of the plains, and the
heroine of dozen lurid novels of the
kind that sell for a nickel, is to end
her melodramatic career in an aim
house. a dispatch from Butte, Mont,
last week said that Calamity Jane had
been admitted to the Gallatin county
poOrhouse, and that she expects to end
her days there.
Calamity Jane is not yet an old
woman as far as years go, being only
As. But she has outlived a dozen hus-
bands, and the hard and exciting life
she led in the Black Hills and in the
other mining camps of the west has
aged her long before her time.
When the doors of the Gallatin coun-
ty poorhOuse closed upon her there"wiu
disappear from the stage one of the
most picturesque characters that the
thrilling days Of the frontier states
ever produced.
Calamity Jane has no other name.
She said she never had any other. Jess
Calamity Jane" she used to say when
people questioned her about her name
Jess Calam'ty Jane, and folks gineral-
" calls me CALAMITY for short. 1 amt
got no more edication ner a buffalo.
en- L amt pretty much. I low, but
can shoot rife with the best of EN-
and I've killed as many InJuns as the
next man..
Calamity Jane, like Dr. Mary Walker.
has always Worn mems clothing. It is
doubtful if she ever had a skirt on in
Der life. for even when a small girl
her parents dressed her in clothing cut
down from the old uniforms that the
soldiers wore at the fort. She has al
ways associated with men and lived
a mans life, and about the only place
where her femininity cropped out was
IN the matter of having husbands.
She has lived all over the west. Her
home was originally near Butte and
she always drifted back there after a
few years spent in various other west
ern towns But Deadwood was the
place she loved and her name is strong
ly interviewer with the early days of
that city.
Calamity Jane was Born in Missouri.
but when she was a small child her
parents journeyed in prairie schooners
across the plains to Il small mining
town near the spot on which the city
of Butte is now built.
Calamity'S parents died when she
was years old, and she was left with
no one to take care of her. The SOL
diers at the fort, which stood there in
those days, had always been fond of
the child, and they adopted her after
a fashion, paying an old woman to
board her and sending her fantastic
q
around with the soldier men, and they
taught her to ride and shoot and also
to gamble and swear.
The old woman who was supposed
to take care of Calamity paid the child
but little attention, and Calamity
turned her attention to "rustlin' " for
her own food. She used to steal rides
on stage coaches and go out and camp
with the Indians for weeks al a time
and was especially fond of hanging
q nd hi,
the bar and asked to sing for the
rough crowd of soldiers, trappers and
miners who thronged those places AL
together Calamitys early life was sin
gularly devoid of those gentle inhu-
enceS which are generally supposed to
be quite essential to the proper train
ing of a child.
When she was % the soldiers at the
fort near Butte were ordered to pro-
coed to DeadwoOd to rescue a large
party or miners who We're besieged by
the Indians. Calamity, dressed like a
man. volunteered to act as a scout
and was taken along by Captain Egan.
the commanding officer of the expedi-
ton, who was ignorant of the fact that
Calamity was a woman.
All the Indians in the northwest were
at that time on the warpath and the
soldiers had several hard fights on the
way to LeadVilIe. In one action. when
the troop was charging the Indians and
nau engaged IN a fierce hand to hand
battle, Captain Egan was wounded
and tumbled from his horse Two IN
dians were riding fiercely down on the
PROSTATE man TO scalp him when Ca
lamity Jane killed one of them. and. be-
fore the other could close in. had picked
up the unconscious captain and
throwing his body across her saddle
bow, dashed away with him and
reached the main body of troops in
safety.
When Captain Egan recovered con-
seriousness he found out that his brave
rescuer was a woman. She was known
at this time merely as Jane. in snite
OF the fact that she viii not acknoyvl-
edge ever having an ordinary name
Wen, Jane, said the captain. look
ing up through the bandages over his
face, you're good one to have around
In times of calamity" The soldiers i'm
mediately nicknamed the girl CALAMITY,
Jane, and that title she has borne ever
since.
g o o
Calamity, after this incident. went
out with a good many different par
ties of soldiers on the trail after the
Indians and won renown for her brav-