Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1903-08-22
.CAIAMuTY JANE"
Death or q Celebrated Frontier
Character.

CD0ruCtcf.
A famous character on the western
frontier, Calamity Jane" died at
Terry, S. D., August LIST. The real
name Of this woman was Martha
Burke. Her strange personality is
said to have inspired Bret Harte to
write his most popular story, 1.-THE
Luck Of Roaring Camp" Mrs. Burke
is said to have been the original Of
the character of Cherokee Sal. :"
The Deadwood correspondent for the
New York World, referring to ga
lamity Jane" says: 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 1885, long after she had obtained
her odd sobriequet, and it is said this
was not her only marriage. Accord
ing to her own story OF her life, she
was born in 1852 in Princetown, Mo-,
and her maiden name was Martha
Canary. When she was thirteen
years old her parents started over
land for Virginia City, New, but
never reached their destina ton. 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 resources at tif-
teen, determined to become scout.
Her only associates we're soldiers
and Indians and she speedily adopted
their ways. She soon became a dead
shot, and at the same time learned
to swear like trooper She DON
ned male attire in 1870, when she
volunteered to 60 as a scout with
Custer in one of his Indian raids, and
wore it during the greater part OF
her remaining years.
1t was in 1872 that, according to
this Deadwood correspondent, Mrs.
Burke was christened Calamity
Jane by Captain Egan, then CON-
mander Of the army post of Goose
creek, S. D. Mrs. Burke had saved
Captain Egans life. The captain
had been shot from his horse by an
Indian. The Deadwood correspond
ent says: "The woman scout killed
his slayer, and picking up the wound
led officer, she placed him across the
saddle ard rode off to the fort under
the fire OF other Indians. When Cap
tain Egan, who was unconscious at
the time, learned the circumstances
of his rescue, he said to his preserv-
err: You are good person to have
around in time of calamity, and I
christen you Calamity jane, the her.
oine Of the plains. About four years
later she met William Hickok, better
known as wild Bill, beside whose
body she asked on her deathbed to be
buried. A strong friendship sprang
up between the pair, but few
months later Wild Bill, was shot
dead in a gambling house in Dead
wood by Jack Mccall, a notorious
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 q band of In
dams had killed the driver, mounted
the box herself and drove the passen-
gers safely into Deadwood Two
years ago Calamity Jane was found
ill and deserted in cabin near Horr,
Mont, by Mrs. Josephine Winfield
Drake, the novelist. The latter took
the sufferer to her own home near
Buffalo, N. Y, but when Calamity
Jane recovered she could not resist
the longing to return to her old life
in the west"