Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A S P R I N G | 2 0 1 5 2 3 Gal CALAMITY hAS ARRIveD IN MONTANA bY DeCeMbeR 31, 1864. A gambler, his prostitute wife, and their six children land in Nevada City after an arduous five- month journey from Iowa. When the pickings prove slim, the chil- dren, the oldest named Martha Jane, not to be confused with Mrs. Vail of Sun River Indian Farm, are forced to beg for food in Virginia City: "Three little girls, who state their names to be Canary, appeared at the door of Mr. Fergus, on Idaho street, solicit- ing charity," reports the Montana Post. The children have turned to none other than James Fergus, he of the volcanic temper tantrum in August, who serves as a caretaker of the poor in the new town. For- tunately, "Mrs. Fergus, Mrs. Castner and Mrs. Moon kindly provided them with food and some clothing." The children then return to Nevada City, "where they have existed for some time." For the parents the reporter spares little sympathy, describing them as "inhuman brutes who have deserted their poor, unfortunate children," showing a "most flagrant and wanton instance of unnatural conduct on the part of parents to their children." Just eight years old when we see her for the first time on the streets of the boom town, Calamity Jane has already established the pattern of life that will define her existence on this earth until her death in 1903. Her parents will be dead within three years, and she will need to fend for herself and her younger siblings through guile, gumption, and guts. Martha was born to a farmer of thirty-one years and his boisterous, sometimes outlandish wife of sixteen in Princeton, Missouri. Her parents made an odd couple, at least as described by those who remembered their years in the Missouri farm coun- try: Her father, Robert, seems to have been a relatively sober, unassuming man, quite ineffec- tive at the basic task of making a living, while her mother, Char- lotte, so much younger than her spouse, was fond of dressing in colorful clothing and expressing her opinions in equally vivid lan- guage. There is not much doubt which parent Martha favors. Her surname, Canary, will always seem ill-suited to the cocky, boisterous, loud-mouthed, pro- fane, sentimental, dissembling, often drunk but never to be backed-down or cowed woman, unless one credits the story told by one of her acquaintances that she earned her surname by singing like a mule, the Rocky Mountain canary. Her parents' motives for mak- ing the risky trek to Montana in '64 must remain a matter of speculation. Robert may have encountered legal difficulties in Missouri following his own father's death (the son seems to have borrowed $600 against his father's estate and was then unable to repay it). Martha will remember the journey as a chance to explore and hunt with boys and men in the wagon train. Once the Canarys arrived in Nevada City, hopes for wealth from mining plainly did not materialize, explaining how the self-righteous reporter for the Post could describe Robert as "a gambler in Nevada" and Charlotte as a "woman of the lowest grade." The parents are not granted a dignified death. Charlotte will pass away in 1866 after working as a washer Excerpt from Montana 1864 by Ken Egan Jr. Copyright 2014, published by Riverbend Publishing, Helena, MT In this book, writer and scholar Ken Egan captures the year of tre- mendous change when Montana became a Territory with a tapestry of stories about the characters— Indians, traders, trail blazers, miners, settlers, Vigilantes, and outlaws—whose lives were shaped by the gold rush and re- lentless push of white Americans into Indian lands. Ken Egan saw the Montana Centennial Train as a seven-year-old boy in 1964; this book is his Sesquicentennial Train. Montana 1864 is available from bookstores and from www. riverbendpublishing.com.

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