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Welcome To Outlaw Women.com |
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Did you know? Calamity Jane insisted on being buried next to Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood, South Dakota.
TakeawaysAnnie Oakley's nickname was "Little Miss Sure Shot".Belle Starr was never convicted of anything more serious than horse stealing.Calamity Jane worked with George Armstrong Custer during the 1870's on a variety of campaigns.
Life in the old west for women was very much unlike those for their counterparts back in the East. While society dictated what could and could not be done by women, out in the West rules were being broken and new advances being made by women almost daily. Instead of being restricted by their upbringing and economic class these women broke out in the old west and made a new life for themselves away from the tight and inflexible rules back East. Here are three women who not only broke the rules but rewrote them for the rest of the country.
Phoebe Ann Oakley Moses was born in Darke County, Ohio in 1860 to Quakers Susan and Jacob Moses. Her family already had a somewhat turbulent past, with her father a veteran of the War of 1812 and her family having to move to Ohio from Pennsylvania due to a fire burning down the family business, a tavern.
Jacob Moses died in 1866 from pneumonia, but not before giving his wife six other children. Annie was the fifth in line and had to deal with her father's death at a young age, as well as her mother remarrying and having another child before losing that husband as well.
Due to financial circumstances the young Annie was placed with a local family for a time where she was abused both physically and mentally, reconciling with her family when her mother married a third time. Multiple marriages were not unheard of at this time, when a single mother had very little chance of survival or being able to care for her children.
The young Annie started hunting at the tender age of nine to try and put food on the table for her family, resulting in her becoming quite the expert shot. Her skills brought attention from the public and she began to compete in local shows. At the age of 16 she went to Cincinnati and defeated Frank Butler, a noted marksman who was working with a visiting sideshow. But in the end it was Butler who won, wooing the young Annie and marrying her the same year; adding her to his travelling sideshow. At this point she took on the stage name "Annie Oakley".
At that time travelling sideshows were big entertainment, giving the people a skewed view of the old west with wild displays and exaggerations of how life was in the old west not only for women but for natives and those seeking their fortunes.
The Buffalo Bill Wild West Show was just one example and Butler joined the show in 1885 with his expert shot wife. Annie was advertised as "Little Miss Sure Shot", supposedly a nickname bestowed on her by the famous Native American Sitting Bull.
Her fame became widespread thanks to her expert shooting skills and the showmanship of Buffalo Bill, allowing her to pull off such stunts as shooting the ashes off a cigar held by no other than Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany!
Annie Oakley's skills were known around the world, giving her fame and fortune far beyond what a simple girl from Ohio could have ever expected. When she finally passed away on November 3, 1926 she was one of the most famous women of her time, stepping outside of the barriers that restricted women in society. Indeed, the famous musical "Annie Get Your Gun" is loosely based on her experiences! Even after all these years "Miss Little Sure Shot" can still motivate and encourage young girls to look beyond society's boundaries and go further.
On the other side of the law sat Belle Starr, a women who went even further in moving into territory only previously held by males.
Born Myra Maybelle Shirley Starr on February 5, 1848 to John and Elizabeth Shirley on their farm near Carthage, Missouri this young girl was the only girl in a family of six children. Not too long later they moved into the actual town of Carthage, sending her to Carthage Female Academy as well as a private school for her education. John Shirley owned an inn as well as slaves, leading to problems after the Civil War.
In 1864 the family moved to Scyene, Texas after the burning of Carthage and began to rebuild their lives. But their fortunes took a turn for the worse in 1866 when Jessie James showed up at their home, claiming a friendship with their brother and James Quantrill, of Quantrill's Raiders during the Civil War. Other outlaws appeared to visit the house including Cole Younger, who is supposed to have been the father of Belle Shirley's daughter, Rosie Lee. Of course this was only rumored and no one ever admitted to being the father.
Belle married Jim Reed in 1866 and gave birth to Rosie Lee in 1868. They lived with a noted Cherokee outlaw, Tom Starr for a time but had to go to Los Angeles when Reed was charged with murder. There Belle gave birth to her second child, James, on February 33, 1871. The charges unsubstantiated and unproven, the family returned to Texas where Reed became more and more involved with the Younger and the James gangs, becoming notorious outlaws.
Whether Belle Reed approved of her husband's illegal doings is not noted, but she proceeded to run various businesses on the side to account for legitimate earnings. One of these was in Dallas, a livery barn where it's quite possible she sold horses that her husband stole to unknowing customers.
Belle's life changed dramatically in 1874 when she was named as a member of the gang that robbed the Austin-San Antonio stage. Jim Reed was shot and killed in Paris, Texas the same year by a sheriff that seemed to close the books on Belle's involvement.
But she didn't stay single for long. In 1878 the enterprising woman married Bruce Younger and then left him two years later, marrying Sam Starr in June of 1880. The two began a short career as horse thieves, resulting in arrests and Belle being given two six-month sentences to be served in Detroit. At this point Belle Starr began to be known as the "Bandit Queen", through more rumor than actual fact. Given her interactions with outlaws and now horse thieves it was easy for newspaper editors to exaggerate her part and create their own female Jessie James.
In 1886 Belle Starr was once again brought up on charges of stealing horses, but acted as her own lawyer and found herself acquitted of the crime. However during this time her husband had gone and got himself shot by an Indian policeman, leaving her a widow. But that wasn't going to keep Belle Starr down. The "Bandit Queen" went through a number of lovers, mostly outlaws or men on the fringes of society.
Belle Starr was shot to death in February, 1889 by an unknown man while she was living in the Choctaw Nation. No one was ever accused or convicted of the crime and her death went unsolved.
But her death caused her name to become a household word. When newspapers picked up reports of her passing a legend began to build up around the adventures of the "Bandit Queen", be they real or exaggerated. The most famous example of this was a small twenty-five cent pulp novel released by Richard K. Fox, the publisher of the National Police Gazette. "Belle Starr, the Bandit Queen or the Female Jessie James" started the ball rolling on creating the myth around this small-time horse thief.
Belle was buried at Younger's Bend on the Canadian River with her daughter erecting a headstone to commemorate her mother's short but exciting life.
Belle Starr became one of the first famous women criminals, but not necessarily because she deserved it. The media jumped on the story of a female horse thief who had as many husbands as she had fingers on her hand and made it into a major story. This was only one example of how the newspapers of that time in the old west could create reputations and destroy them just as easily.
Calamity Jane is probably better known than Belle Starr and was also another woman in the old west whose life was radically different than those of her peers.
Born Martha Jane Canary on May 1, 1852 in Princeton, Missouri, this young woman's life started off much like the rest of the women of the times. But her life took a radical turn when her mother passes away in 1866 and her father died a year later, leaving the 15 year old girl to fend for herself.
It's recorded that in 1870 at the age of 18 she signed on to work as a scout with the U.S. Army, although it's uncertain as if she actually enlisted or was hired on as a civilian worker. Either way she worked with such famous personalities as George Armstrong Custer and Buffalo Bill Cody, participating in a number of military campaigns against the Native Americans during the 1870's.
Her nickname of "Calamity Jane" came about in 1872 when she ended up in a dangerous situation at Goose Creek Camp in South Dakota. Hostile Native Americans were attacking his small troop of men surrounded Captain Egan, her superior at the time, and it seemed that all was lost. The Captain was wounded and lay by his horse, waiting for the final blow to fall.
But at the last minute a woman rode through the chaos and fighting, grabbed Captain Egan and tossed him onto her saddle. Riding back out through the same wild fighting that she had ridden through before she saved the Captain's life, although the rest of the company was killed by the hostile troops.
While recovering from his wounds Captain Egan called the young scout "Calamity Jane" as he recounted her brave deeds and the nickname stuck to her like glue. Indeed, over time many never knew her real name, preferring to use her nickname instead.
In 1876 Calamity Jane left the military and settled down near the famous (or infamous) town of Deadwood in South Dakota. Jane cultivated a reputation in Deadwood very different from that of anyone else, stepping in to nurse the sick during a horrible smallpox epidemic. For this heroic duty she was loved by the local people, since at that time smallpox was often deadly and few would want to even be near a sick person, much less offer aid.
She cultivated a close friendship with Wild Bill Hickok. Rumor has it that he fathered a child with her that she bore in 1873, but this has never been proven or disproven. The child was put up for adoption.
But she didn't pine away for Wild Bill all of her life. In 1884 she moved to El Paso, Texas where she met and married Clinton Burke a year later, bearing him a daughter. But this didn't last and in 1895 they both went their separate ways.
A year later Calamity Jane began to tour with Wild West shows, the entertainment rage of the times with wild depictions of the old west for the public's fun. The often exaggerated depictions of Native American life and the wild shooting exhibitions gave the people back East a distorted view of what life was in the old west for women and men.
Calamity Jane died at the age of 51 from pneumonia, one of the most famous show women of her time. To the end Jane claimed to be close to Wild Bill, to the point that when she died her body was interred next to his in the Mt. Moriah Cemetary in Deadwood, South Dakota. Even now her legend lives on in various television shows set in the old west and a musical that continues to be popular as time goes on.
These three women are good examples of how life in the old west for women was radically different from those who remained in the East. Instead of being restricted in their career choices and remaining subservient to their husbands and men in general, these women reached out and took their freedom to the extreme, going places and doing things that even their mothers would have probably thought to be disgraceful. Whether they were show women like Annie Oakley, notorious criminals like Belle Starr or explorers and scouts like Calamity Jane the women in the old west began to explore freedom for women long before it became fashionable.
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