Calamity Jane | Timeline

Martha Jane Canary or Cannary (May 1, 1852 (or 1856) – August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman and professional scout known for being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok and fighting against Native Americans. Late in her life, she appeared in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. She is said to have exhibited compassion to others, especially to the sick and needy. This facet of her character contrasted with her daredevil ways and helped to make her a noted frontier figure. She was also known for her habit of wearing men's attire. Much of what she claimed to have witnessed and participated in cannot be proven. It is known that she had no formal education and was an alcoholic. (Intro from Wikipedia)

May 1, 1852 - Princeton, Missouri - Traditional Martha Jane Canary birthday
June 14, 1855 - Polk County - Robert W. Canary and Charlotte M. Burge are married
April 28, 1856 - Princeton, Missouri - Canary family settles in Princeton, Missouri. Martha's grandfather James buys 320 acres of land from Hiram Overstreet, while Charlotte is days away from childbirth
May 1, 1856 - Princeton, Missouri - Recent evidence indicates that Martha "Calamity Jane" is born in this day
October 8, 1859 - Princeton, Missouri - Martha's grandfather James sells 180 acres of land to Robert and Charlotte Canary, her parents
January(?) 1(?), 1865 - Virginia City, Montana - Robert Wilson Canary moves with his family by wagon train to Virginia City, Montana
January(?) 1(?), 1866 - Blackfoot, Montana - Martha Jane's mother, Charlotte M. Canary, dies of pneumonia
April(?) 1(?), 1866 - Virginia City, Montana - Arrives in Virginia City in the Spring
August(?) 1(?), 1866 - Salt Lake City, Utah - Robert Wilson Canary and his daughters arrive in Salt Lake City, where he begins farming on 40 acres of land
May(?) 1(?), 1867 - Salt Lake City, Utah - Robert Wilson Canary dies, less than one year after arriving in Salt Lake City
May 1(?), 1868 - Fort Bridger, Wyoming - 14-year-old Martha Jane takes her 5 younger siblings to Fort Bridger, Wyoming
June(?) 1(?), 1868(?) - Piedmont, Wyoming - The 6 children travel on the Union Pacific railroad to Piedmont, Wyoming
September 25, 1873 - A daughter named Jean is reportedly born of a relationship between Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok
January(?) 1(?), 1874 - Fort Russell (Cheyenne, Wyoming) - Martha Jane finds work as a scout, aswell as prostitute at the Fort Laramie 'Three Mile" hog ranch =(START)
May 20, 1875 - Fort Laramie, Wyoming - Calamity Jane is the theme of conversation between Valentine T. McGillycuddy, Colonel Dodge, Henry Newton and Horace Tuttle. Not even 16-years-old, with a sombrero, spurs and chaps, Dodge says she is the regimental mascot "Calamity Jane", who nurses sick soldiers, mends their clothes and cooks for them. Although, she doesn't know the meaning of morals, and they can easily tell that she plans to join the Newton-Jenney expedition to the Black Hills
May 25, 1875 - Fort Laramie, Wyoming - Calamity Jane participates in the Newton-Jenney scientific expedition of 1875
June 14, 1875 - French Creek, Black Hills, South Dakota - The expedition reaches French Creek. Small amounts of gold are found
June 19, 1875 - (While in French Creek, Black Hills, South Dakota) - The "Chicago Tribune" publishes a story about Calamity Jane, claiming that she had been a "respectable proprietress of a millinery store in Omaha" until she became an alcoholic
October 14, 1875 - Fort Laramie, Wyoming - The Newton-Jenney expedition returns to Fort Laramie
February 22, 1876 - Fagan's road ranch (Between Fort Laramie and Cheyenne) - Calamity Jane is spotted travelling with the soldiers to Fort Russell
March 1, 1876 - Fort Fetterman, Wyoming - Departs northward with Crook's troops
March 17, 1876 - A Cheyenne and Sioux village is attacked after days of subzero temperatures and snowstorms
April 1(?), 1876 - Custer City, Black Hills, South Dakota - Calamity Jane arrives in Custer City driving on of the teams of a government mule train. Dressed in buckskin suit and with a belt with two colt pistols, she looked like the toughest women anybody had ever seen
June 10, 1876 - Cheyenne, Wyoming - Jane rents a horse an buggy for a one-mile joy ride to Fort Russell and back, but she is so drunk that she passes right by her destination without noticing it

June 11(?), 1876 - Fort Laramie, Wyoming - Calamity Jane ends up about 90 miles (140km) away at Fort Laramie
July 1(?), 1876 - Fort Laramie - Calamity Jane (officially) meets Wild Bill Hickok. They join a wagon train headed north
July 15, 1876 - Deadwood, Dakota territory - Hickok and Calamity Jane's wagon train arrives in Deadwood, Dakota
August 3, 1876 - Deadwood, Dakota - Calamity Jane attends "Wild Bill" Hickok's funeral
January 1(?), 1877 - Custer City, Black Hills, South Dakota - According to the "Cheyenne Daily Leader", in January, Calamity Jane was "married and settled down at Custer City"
September 1(?), 1878 - Sturgis, South Dakota - Trip to Sturgis
October 1(?), 1878 - Sturgis, South Dakota - The "St.Paul Pioneer Press" reposts that Calamity Jane "is now a respected resident of Sturgis City, and the proprietress of a successful laundry"
February 1(?), 1879 - Sturgis, South Dakota - Calamity Jane wallops two women
March 8, 1879 - Rapid City, South Dakota - Arrives in Rapid City from the north
May(?) 1(?), 1879 - Omaha, Nebraska - Calamity Jane boards the luxury steamboat "Dacotah" on her maiden-voyage northward up the Missouri River
May 23, 1879 - Yankton, South Dakota - The "Dacotah" passes through Yankton
June(?) 1(?), 1879 - Fort Pierre, South Dakota - The "Dacotah" reaches Fort Pierre. Calamity Janes continues to the Black Hills
July 1(?), 1879 - Deadwood, Dakota territory - Returns to Deadwood, finding work as a dancing-hall girl at Swearingen's Gem Variety Theatre
July 15, 1879 - Deadwood, Dakota territory - Calamity Jane falls seriously ill (congestion of the bowels)
November 1(?), 1879 - Fort Pierre, South Dakota - Calamity Jane recovers and makes a brief trip back to Fort Pierre
December 1(?), 1879 - Sturgis, South Dakota - "The queen of the dance house" returns to Sturgis
April 20, 1880 - Rapid City, South Dakota - Back in Rapid City
January(?) 1(?), 1881 - near Miles City, Montana - Jane buys a ranch west of Miles City, Montana
July 4, 1882 - Miles City, Montana - Spends the 4th of July in Miles City
September 1(?), 1882 - Billings, Montana - Calamity Jane moves to Billings as Miles City was "virtually dead"
November 30(?), 1882 - near Miles City, Montana - First verified child is born, when Jane is living with rancher Frank King
January 30, 1883 - Muir City, Bozeman Pass, Montana - Calamity Jane is reported "on one of her jamborees"
August(?) 1(?), 1884 - Buffalo, Wyoming - Calamity Jane leaves Montana and spends Summer in Buffalo, Wyoming
December 1(?), 1884 - Rawlins, Wyoming - The "Carbon County Journal" reports Calamity Jane's presence in Rawlins
July 1(?), 1885 - Rawlins, Wyoming - Visit to Rawlins. Calamity Jane participates in a bar brawl
January(?) 1(?), 1886 - Crawford, Nebraska - Calamity Jane arrives in Crawford, Nebraska, a city springing near the military post after the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad is built
June 1(?), 1887 - Cheyenne, Wyoming - Calamity Jane is arrested for drunkenness. In court she presents the judge with a doctor's certificate of pregnancy
October 28, 1887 - Cheyenne, Wyoming - Daughter Jessie is born (who is adopted by foster parents)
January(?) 1(?), 1893 - Castle City, Montana - Managing a restaurant (probably with her daughter Jessie)
December 1(?), 1893 - Billings, Montana - Visit to Billings, Montana, with her daughter Jessie
January(?) 1(?), 1894 - Gilt Edge | Ekalaka, Montana - Calamity Jane is arrested for drunkenness again. Seen with her daughter in Ekalaka, Montana
January(?) 1(?), 1895 - Deadwood, South Dakota - Calamity Jane returns to Deadwood and tells others she needs money to enrol Jessie in a convent school at Sturgis
January 1(?), 1896 - Sturgis, South Dakota - Calamity Jane manages to take Jessie to St.Martin's Academy in Sturgis
January(?) 1(?), 1898 - Billings | Bridger, Montana - Calamity Jane and Jessie arrive in Billings. Doing laundry in Bridger
April 1(?), 1899 - Billings, Montana - Calamity Jane arrives from Bridger, looking for her husband, Robert Dorsett, who had skipped "for parts unknown with a younger and handsomer girl"
May 1(?), 1899 - Lewistown, Montana - Calamity Jane and Robert Dorsett travel north to Lewistown looking for a job
July 1(?), 1899 - Utica, Montana - After not finding job in Lewistown, Calamity Jane informs the local newspaper editor that she is living in Utica, working as a cook at the Judith Hotel Cafe
October(?) 1(?), 1899 - Horr (Aldridge, Montana - a ghost town since 1910) - Calamity Jane and Rober Dorsett separate. Dorsett takes Jessie to Livinston, while Calamity Jane spends the Fall and Winter in Horr, selling her photographs and life story
April(?) 1(?), 1903 - Belle Fourche, South Dakota - Calamity Jane returns to Belle Fourche, where she earns her keep by cooking and doing the laundry for Dora DuFran's brotherl girls
July 1(?), 1903 - Terry, South Dakota - Calamity Jane arrives by train to Terry, South Dakota

August 1, 1903 - Terry, South Dakota - Calamity Jane dies of pnemonia and inflammation of the bowels, aged 51 (or 47) =(END)


Bibliography
McLAIRD, James D. - "Calamity Jane: The Woman and the Legend" - University of Oklahoma Press
MITCHELL, Steven T. - "Nuggets to Neutrinos: The Homestake Story" - Xlibris