The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-07-20
George Hoshier, the discoverer and

near Deadwood, is one of the oldest
4of the old timers, having come into
%the hills from Fort Robinson as early
gas 1874 He was one of the pail
Il bearers at Calamity James funeral in
Il the summer of 1903. and has JUS told
& the true story of Calamity's life. Ii is
II very different from that which has
Il gone the rounds of the press for the
81 last two decades, being sholn of many
I'll striking features but at the same time
having added interest, because it tells
& accurately the story of one of the
!, most famous women who ever lived in
the West.
ut was down in Cheyenne that l
first knew Calamity" said George
Hoshier, and that was in the fall of
rs. AT that time Bill Nye was re-
porter on the Laramie Chronicle, and
p. p. Poulton occupied the same po
sition on the Cheyenne Sun. They
used to change pulpits, as they en-
pressed it, frequently. Poulton was a
great humorist. If he'd lived he'd
have been a much more noted man
\ than Nye, but he died a long time
'#ago. Calamity, whose real name was
&.NIary e. Canary (and she was bird),
sSwas never a scout. That story was all
wrong. She was born in Missouri in
1850. Her mother was washerwoman
and the girl didn't have very many
advantages. They came to Montana
in the early days, and when Calamity
struck Cheyenne it was about as gay
"a town as there was going. She was
"a wild girl and considerable of
.5booze fighter
M ''The way she got that name was
this: She was always getting into
trouble. If she hired team from
livery stable she was sure to have a
@ssmash-up ard have to pay the dam
ages when she got back. Why, if
Shed got up on fence rail the burned
thing would go up and buck. Calam-
siity followed her everywhere, and so
Poulton one day dubbed her Calamity
Jane, and tbs name stuck.
Was Never a Scout.
N# "She did come into the Hills with
s5@Gen. Crook and wore mems clothes
Eat the time, but she was no more OF
"a scout than l was. They came up in
II the early spring of 76. She was with
1 the party just for a chance OF get
b ting into the Hills, and che wore
I mems clothes because it was easier
for her to ride and also made the trip
little safer for her. There was an
! other girl with that party, too. She
was Franc Adair, and she had as much
&ttle to be called a scout as Calamity,
Gas she wore mems clothes too They
Ndidn't stay in the Hills long, though,
II but came back to Cheyenne. I don't
know what became of Franc Adair,
Calamity came back to the hills in'77.
VI 1.-TWO of her special friends were
couple Of women, one known as
MADAM Mustache and the other as
Il Stem Winder. They We're both deal
Bers. Stem Winder was a little girl
( not more than twenty, blonde and
Every pretty. She was married to
man named Bill Ford Che lives in
\ Denver now, and she dealt faro up
In tent in Central, where he ran a
big gambling house. ] never heard
how she got her name, but she was
. the best woman dealer ! ever saw.
The trouble with her was she had
been taught how to deal a brace game,
4 which, you know, means crooked gam
35bling. But she could deal a square
game all right when she wanted to.
5M Madam Mustache was a woman at
that time, in IT, nearly fifty years Old.
SAShe was a French woman and came
l#by her name honestly. she was prob
aaby the best known woman then in
HALL the West. She usually dealt col ;"
you know that was a very popular
game. And she'd been in California
in the days OF the early gold excite
ment in Nevada, Montana, Colorado
and all through the West. She was
better known then than Calamity was.
She went back to California after she
left here and committed suicide. That
must have been fifteen or twenty
year sage. l guess she'd gotten too
old to deal and didn't know What else
to do, and so just cashed in.
Those were all good-hearted. kind
women. Oh of course, none OF them
would jump out like Calamity. She
was always there first. 1t didn't make
any difference what was the matter
with person, if Calamity could help
them she would. She was the girl
who went down to Elizabeth Town,
here in Deadwopd, and took care of a
man. He was a stranger to her and
had the smallpox. Nobody else would
go near him, and she went and took
care of him and brought him through
all right. She was fine nurse. There
wasn't anything she wouldn't do for
anybody, and whenever she had any
money it went just the same way,
easily and for the first fellow that
asked for it,