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A Brief Biography of Calamity Jane
It can be challenging to separate fact from fiction when it comes to Calamity Jane. Since she was illiterate, much of what we know about her has been passed down through stories she told, dime novels, a few historical records, and conjecture. Yet one thing everyone can agree on is that her story will endure for generations.
Early Life
Martha Jane Canary was born on May 1, 1852, in Princeton, Missouri. However, some scholars believe she was not born until 1856. Her father was a gambler, and little is known about her mother. Martha was the eldest of six children, and they became orphans at a young age after the deaths of their parents in the late 1860s. Her mother died after the family moved to Montana, followed by her father after relocating the family to Utah to become a farmer.
As a teenager, Martha became the head of her family, taking responsibility for her younger siblings and moving to Wyoming. Not all of her siblings stayed with her, as some were adopted by other families. However, she kept in touch with some of them throughout her life.
She would often bounce around from one town to another, finding work wherever she could. She worked as a dishwasher, cook, and on farms and ranches, and it is believed she occasionally prostituted herself to get by. To make life easier, in the west during that…
