Deserted by her husband, Charlotte Canary decided the best way she could assure a future for her children was to leave them in a St Louis convent and head west to seek her fortune. However, there had been too much of her lively, reckless spirit in her eldest daughter, Martha Jane, for the scheme to be entirely successful. Rebelling against the strict life being imposed by the nuns, the girl celebrated her sixteenth birthday by running away. Hiding in one of Cecil ‘Dobe’ Killem’s freight wagons, she traveled some twelve miles from the city before being discovered. She might have been sent back to the convent, but the cook had been too drunk to work. One of the things the girl had learned at the convent was good, plain cooking. The meal she had prepared was so good that Killem yielded to her request to be taken to Wichita, Kansas, where she claimed she had an aunt who would give her a home.
Before the outfit had reached its destination, raiding Sioux warriors who wiped out two other outfits failed to locate them. What was more, the goods they were carrying had been sold so advantageously that the whole crew received a bonus and their employer was offered a lucrative contract to deliver goods farther west. Learning that the aunt was a figment of the girl’s imagination and regarding her as a good luck charm, the drivers had prevailed upon Killem to let her stay with them. Not that he, having taken a liking to her for her spunk and cheerful nature, had taken much persuading.
At first, Martha had helped the cook and carried out other menial duties, wearing male clothing for convenience. She soon graduated to driving and, learning fast, in a short while there was little she could not do in that line of work. Not only could she harness and drive a Conestoga wagon’s six horse team, she carried out its maintenance to Killem’s exacting requirements. She was taught to use a long lashed bull whip as an inducement to activity or as a weapon, to handle firearms and generally take care of herself on the open ranges of the West. Nor did her self-reliance end there. Visiting saloons with the rest of the outfit, she had frequently been called upon to defend herself against the objections of the female denizens who resented her trespassing upon their domain. Leading a much more active and healthy life than the saloongirls, she had only once been beaten in a fight; 102 although the lady outlaw, Belle Starr, had held her to a hard fought draw when they first met. 103
Courageous, loyal to her friends, happy go-lucky and generous to such an extent that she deliberately lost a saloon she had inherited jointly with a professional gambler, Frank Derringer, 104 the girl had a penchant for becoming involved in dangerous and precarious situations. Visiting New Orleans, she had acted as a decoy to lure the Strangler, a notorious mass murderer, to his doom.105 While helping deliver supplies to an Army post, she had fought with a female professional pugilist and rescued an Army officer captured by Indians. In Texas, she had helped wipe out a wave of cattle stealing which was threatening to cause a range war.106 What started out as a peaceful journey as a passenger on the stagecoach had ended with her driving it and taking part in the capture of the criminals who robbed it. 107 Going to visit a ranch which had been left to her, accompanied by the Ysabel Kid, 108 she was nearly killed when a rival claimant had her fastened on a log which was to be sent through a circular saw. 109 She had also played a major part in averting an Indian uprising in Canada in the company of Belle ‘the Rebel Spy’, Boyd, q.v., and a British Secret Service agent, Captain Patrick ‘the Remittance Kid’ Reeder. 110 Later, while on a big game hunt with a visiting British sportsman and his sister, she was kidnapped. 111
Among her friends, she counted the members of General Jackson Baines ‘Ole Devil’ Hardin, C.S.A.’s legendary floating outfit; being on particularly intimate terms with the handsome blond giant, Mark Counter.112 She also, on one memorable occasion, posed as the wife of its leader, Captain Dustine Edward Marsden ‘Dusty’ Fog, C.S.A. and assisted him in dealing with a band of land grabbers. 113 Another close acquaintance was James Butler ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok and she captured his murderer on the day he was killed.114
Because of her penchant for finding trouble and becoming involved in brawls, the girl soon acquired the sobriquet by which she became famous throughout the West and beyond.
People called her ‘Calamity Jane’.