The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-08-05
"CALAMITY JANE"
woman Who Inspired Story of "LucI<
of Roaring Camp"

woman Who Inspired story OF LUCK
of Roaring Camp"
our dispatches a day or two ago re-
ported the death at Deadwood S. D.,
of Mrs Martha Burke, who had be-
come notorious under the sobriquet of
Calamity Jane"
Calamity James" strongest claim to
fame probably rests upon the fact that
her strange personality is believed to
have inspired Bret Harte to write his
most popular story, The Luck of
Roaring Camp" She is said to have
been the original of the character of
Cherokee Sal
Though she was known for more
than thirty years as Calamity Jane,
her real name is said to have been
Mrs. Clinton Burke. She was married
to Burke in 1855. long after she had OBJ
tanned her ODD sobriquet, and it is said
this was not her only marriage.
According to her own story of her
life she was born in 1852 in Princetown,
Mo, and her maiden name was Mar
tina Canary. When she was 13 years
old her parents started overland for
Virginia City, New, but never reached
their destination. Her mother died in
Montana in 1866 and the girl went with
her father to Salt Lake City, where
the latter died the following year.
Injured to outdoor life and an expert
rider, the girl, thrown on her own re-
sources at fifteen. determined to be-
come a scout. Her only associates
were soldiers and Indians and she
speedily adopted their ways. She soon
became = dead shot, and at the same
time also learned to swear like a
trooper" She donned male attire in
1870, when she volunteered to go as a
scout with Custer in one of his Indian
raids, and wore it during the greater
part of her remaining years.
She was christened Calamity Jane"
in 1872 by Capt. Egan, then command
er of the army post at Goose Creek,
S. D., whose life she had saved.
Cap. Egan was shot from his horse
by an Indian The woman scout killed
his slayer, and picking up the wound
ed officer she placed him across her
saddle and rode oft to the fort under
the fire of other Indians. When Capt.
Egan, who was unconscious at the
time, learned the circumstances of his
rescue, he said to his preserver:
You are a good person to have
around in time of calamity and 1
christen you Calamity Jane, the hero
inc of the plains"
About four years later she met Will
liam Hickok, better known as wild
Bill" besides whose body she asked on
her deathbed to be buried. A strong
friendship sprang up between the pair,
butAa few months later wild Bill
was Shot dead in a gambling house in
Deadwood by Jack" Mccall a noto-
rious desperate. Calamity Jane" led
the party which captured and lynched
Mccall.
In her career Calamity Jane" took
part in scores of battles with Indians
and fatal ARRAYS with white men. In
1877 she met the stage from Cheyenne
just as a band of Indians had killed
the driver. mounted the box herself
and drove the passengers safely into
Deadwood.
Two years ago Calamity Jane" was
found ill and deserted in a cabin near
Horn. Mont, by Mrs. Josephine Win
field Drake, the novelist. The latter
took the sufferer to her own home,
near Buffalo, N. Y, but when "Calam-
ity Jane" recovered she could not re-
sist the longing to return to her old
life in the West