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Martha Jane Canary (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontier, and professional scout best known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok, but also for having gained fame fighting Indians. She is said to have also exhibited kindness and compassion, especially to the sick and needy. This contrast helped to make her a famous frontier figure.

Much of the information about this period of Calamity Jane's life comes from the autobiographical booklet she dictated many years later, in 1896. The booklet was written for publicity purposes--she was about to begin a tour in which she would appear in dime museums around the country, and the pamphlet was intended to help attract audiences. Thus, some of the information in the pamphlet is exaggerated or even completely inaccurate. Calamity Jane was born May 1, 1852, as Martha Jane Cannary (or Canary) in Princeton, within Mercer County, Missouri. Her parents, Robert W. and Charlotte Cannary, were listed in the 1860 census as living about further northeast of Princeton in Ravanna. Martha Jane was the eldest of six children, having two brothers and three sisters. In 1865, Robert packed his family and moved by wagon train from Missouri to Virginia City, Montana. Charlotte died along the way in Black Foot, Montana, in 1866 of "washtub pneumonia." After arriving in Virginia City in the spring of 1866, Robert took his six children on to Salt Lake City, Utah. They arrived in the summer, and Robert supposedly started farming on of land. They were there only a year before he died in 1867. Martha Jane took over as head of the family, loaded up the wagon once more, and took her siblings to Fort Bridger, Wyoming Territory. They arrived in May 1868. From there they traveled on the Union Pacific Railroad to Piedmont, Wyoming.

In Piedmont, Martha Jane took whatever jobs she could to provide for her large family. She worked as a dishwasher, a cook, a waitress, a dance-hall girl, a nurse, and an ox team driver. Finally, in 1874, she found work as a scout at Fort Russell. During this time period, Jane also began her on-and-off employment as a prostitute at the Fort Laramie Three-Mile Hog Ranch.

From her autobiography of 1896, Martha Jane writes of this time

Calamity Jane has not been a contender in any CBUB matches.