Frontier FOLK HEROES
Calamity Jane was born Martha Jane Cannary, circa May 1, 1852, in Princeton, Missouri. By age 12, her parents had died and she had to make a living by any means necessary. She traveled to South Dakota and met Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood where her legend as a hard drinking woman was born. Her reputation was advanced with stories of heroism and charity in an autobiography and western dime novels. She performed in Wild West shows immortalizing her as one of the most colorful characters of the West. Eventually, the hard life caught up with her and she died at age 51, in 1903. Few substantiated facts are known about Calamity Jane’s life, but much is known about the legend. It seems her biography is a mix of wild tales—many promoted by Jane herself—and plausibly accurate events.
from biography.com
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Wild Bill Hickok is remembered for his services in Kansas as sheriff of Hays City and marshal of Abilene, where his ironhanded rule helped to tame two of the most lawless towns on the frontier. He is also remembered for the cards he was holding when he was shot dead -- a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights -- since known as the dead man's hand.from biography.com
If you wish to know more about him, check out thisBorn near LeClaire in Scott County, Iowa, in 1846, Buffalo Bill Cody rode on the Pony Express at the age of 14, fought in the American Civil War, served as a scout for the Army, and was already an Old West legend before mounting his famous Wild West show, which traveled the United States and Europe.from biography.com
Sitting Bull joined his first war party at 14 and soon gained a reputation for bravery in battle. In 1868 the Sioux accepted peace with the U.S. government, but when gold was discovered in the Black Hills in the mid-1870s, a rush of white prospectors invaded Sioux lands. Sitting Bull responded but could only win battles, not the war. He was arrested and killed in 1890.from biography.com
Born in June 1829, in No-Doyohn Canyon, Mexico, Geronimo continued the tradition of the Apaches resisting white colonization of their homeland in the Southwest, participating in raids into Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico. After years of war Geronimo finally surrendered to U.S. troops in 1886. While he became a celebrity, he spent the last two decades of his life as a prisoner of war.from biography.com
