Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1901-03-02
Calamity Jane in Distress.

press report from Butte. Montana,
says Calamity Jane, for years a promi-
nent figure in the Black Hills, and one
of the most picturesque characters in
the history of western border life, has
been admitted to the poor house. or
recent years she has become feeble, ex
posure during her long service as gov.
ernment scout and Indian fighter finally
telling on her constitution. With the
passing Of the Indian and arrival frail-
roads her vocation has departed. For q
numbsr of years, until infrmities and
age prevented, she also served the gov
ernment as a mail carrier, but this last
employment was denied when steam
and electricity supplanted the horse.
Calamity Jane" who has figured in
many dime novels of western adven-
ture, and has an actual career fully as
exciting as the most realistic writer's
could conjure up. In private life she
is Mrs. Martha Burk, rough in exterior,
uncouth in manner, iliterate, but pos
sessing great heart, a wonderful knowl-
edge Of the plains, and more nerve and
courage than one man in q hundred.
She was born in Princeton, Mo-. in
1852. When she was l3 years old her
father, j. Canary, started with his wife
and six children, of whom Martha was
the eldest, for the Montana gold fields.
On this overland trip the girl learned to
ride and shoot as well as any of the
plainsmen. Shortly after the family
reached Montana the mother died.
CANARY did not find gold and turned
back, poorer than when he started. At
Salt Lake City the father died, leaving
Martha to care for the brood ofchildrer.
Her resourccfulness furnished food and
shelter for her helpless brothers and sis
ters. She rode with the cowboys, cook
ed at a ranch and speedily developed
that made her the admir-
alton of the wild men by whom she was
In 1870, learning that General Custer
was at Fort Russell. Wyoming, she pro-
ceeded thlther in the hope of finding
as a scout. Knowing that
her sex would initiate against her
chances, she donned the habillments of
a cowboy. General Custer gave the
slender cowboy trial at riding and
shooting, questioned him closely as to
his knowledge of the country and en-
gagged him at once as scout. The sex
Of the new scout was soon discovered,
however, but her ability was such that
General Custer retained her on the staff,
slight reprimand for the
deception. From this time on her life
was crow ded TO the limit with adyen.
ture. She prospered on hardships, slip
ped out of Indian traps, did magnificent
work as a scout and rose high in the |
of the entire force. She par
in all the fighting with the |
Nez Perces from 1872 to 1875, during |
which year she went with General |
Crook and his command to the Black |
Hills to rescue the miners and settlers |
from the Sioux. In 1876 she was order |
ed north with important dispatch for |
General Custer. This was a fearful ride |
In the face of most inclement weather |
and rows Of hostile savages. She found |
it necessary to swim the Platte river at |
Fort Fetterman, thereby contracting |
pneumonia, which resulted in long ill
ness and an indefinite furlough. Yet
this illness saved her life, otherwise she |
" would haye perished with Custer in the |
massacre. AS soon as she was able to |
duty she was employed as mail |
carrier between Deadwood, S. D., and |
Custer. She was with tie party that !
captured Jack Mccall the desperate |
who assassinated William Hickok, |
Wild Bill She cornered him in a |
meat shop in Deadwood, and forced him |
to surrender under pain of death by q |
cleaver she had procr red.
In 1884, while visiting Ell Paso, Tex,
she met and was married to Clinton
Burk, and of this marriage daughter
was born. Her husband died in 1895
and since that time all the love and ten
derness the woman could muster have
been bestowed upon her girl. She has
labored night and day that her daugh-
te- might be educated and grow up
among cultivated and gentle people
Pioneer Times.